I hate vegetables

sarahness

So I am looking for those people out there who hate fruits and vegetables. The problem I am having is I HATEEEEE them. The only way I can get them in my diet is if they are in a smoothie and it has to be blended until there are no chunks. I hate a smoothie that has chunks in it. I have a texture problem. I dont eat red meat or pork. I eat chicken on occasion but I dont like to eat it every day. Loosing weight with all these food problems is the hardest thing ever. Does any one have any suggestions out there for food ideas for someone who hates fruits and veggies and meat?

stronglikebull

So what do you eat? Honest question, no snark.

brknllama

bump

sarahness

Well the main reason why I am large. Carbs. I love pasta, potatoes, and bread.. I eat alot of pizza. I love cheese. For breakfast I will usually have coffee and a bagel. Snacks I eat crackers usually or chips. Lunch I usually have some form of potato or pasta, and then again the same for dinner. I occasionally throw in a piece of chicken in there, sometimes a salad with just cheese and dressing. I seriously do not know what to do to diet. I am the pickiest eater on the planet.

azlady7

not sure how to help.....i know a carb diet isnt the way to go.....starches turn into sugar in the blood stream. i love all fruits and veggies and all meat except pork. maybe look up stuff online.

Kadunker

I got a juicer because I don't eat enough veggies either. They have some pretty good recipes online.

stormchaser3

Get a juicer. Sometimes a little grainy a good way to get you veggies and fruit.

KeepOnMoving

Do what Mom's do to get their kids to eat: sneak some in soups, casseroles, any thing that would be disguised in big flavor. Drown it in low fat cheese?

Shoechick5

Ok, I don't mean to go all Dr Phil on you, but how's not eating fruits and vegetables working for you? I get texture issues, but not all fruit and veg has the same texture. There has to be something out there that you will eat.

PrincessLou71186

The only veg I like is broccoli, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, peppers and onions.

Eating enough is a huge problem for me.

I simply get a great big pan, chop up loads of different types of veg, ranging from butternut squash to aubergines, add stock, salt and pepper to season and then blend into a very fine soup (I do other things to it as well but to give you jut a general idea).

I have never found one yet that I don't like and all the flavours together mixed don't taste bad at all. I try to use veg that will complement each other as well, like red peppers, sweet potato and carrot - delicious.

Like you I can't stand bits in my food, soup, smoothies and juice have all pass through a chinois before I will touch it.

Soup is the only thing I can suggest to get veg in your system, sorry.

As for fruit, I love most fruits. However, again, I would suggest purchasing a juicer. I have also heard carrot juice is quite nice but never tried it.

sarabig2fit

eating healthy is hard for a lot of us.. because it isn't what we normally eat. but the desire to lose weight, for me, is so strong, that i'm willing to step out of my comfort zone. I LOVE fruit.

you seriously don't like fruit? that is just so hard for me to believe.. strawberries? grapes? pineapple? blueberries? apples? bananas?

stronglikebull

Well to start with you have to cut out the snacks you're eating, if you aren't ready to switch to nuts, vegetables, fruit, or other dairy, stop eating them to reduce your calories and your carbohydrate intake.

Switch to the Laughing Cow cheese wedges, they have a LOT fewer calories than real cheese.

Start pushing yourself and force yourself to try new things. Find vegetables, fruit, nuts, dairy that are similar in texture to things you do like to eat. Work from there if texture is your issue moreso than flavor. Blend greens into pasta sauce to get some nutrients in. Try adding small amounts of broccoli to your potato with other toppings. Use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream - it is seriously almost the same thing, my picky-*kitten* 20 year old brother doesn't know I feed it to him on top of potatoes. Are you ok with beans? They're good sources of fiber and other nutrients you can get from veggies.

You have to decide how far you are going to go to get healthy. You're young, be brave and do it girl!

Also:
Protein powder. Find a chocolate or vanilla flavor you like and have a protein shake.
Benefiber. You need fiber. Mix it in with your pasta to start. It honestly does dissolve.
If you like white potatoes, sweet potatoes/yams are a good way to branch out. Try squashes like butternut, spaghetti, acorn. They have similar textures to potatoes and you can do a lot with them.

Is the no red meat or pork for a specific reason or is it a texture thing too?

cathdrew2

I have a 3 year old that hates fruits and veggies, too AND I'm a vegetarian so I don't cook meat. He loves waffles with applesauce and pumpkin, though. Mac and cheese can have any yellow, orange or white veggie puree blended in the cheese sauce and he'll eat it. Baked goods with prunes (if they are chocolate or dark) or applesauce (if they are light) instead of oil and half the white flour with wheat. There are several cookbooks out right now (like Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious) that sneak fruits and veggies into lots of different foods. Hummus (bean spread) can be made from lots of different beans and he likes that on bread or crackers. He likes Dave Butternut Squash Pasta sauce (amazingly). Puree your veggie soups and put wheat pasta or barley in there. He eats Boca Burgers and veggie sausage. Is any of this helpful? I can go on all day

lostsanity137

Sometimes you just have to work it in in little ways. Try adding something new and healthy into your diet once a week or something. Starting this week, just try to eat 1 piece of fruit instead of an unhealthy snack. Try different fruit, but get that 1 piece in everyday. You might find that after a while you wont dread eating that piece of fruit everyday, you might even begin to like it. Then maybe next week, start integrating something else and replacing something bad.
I did it with soda to water. I HATED water. Wouldn't drink it at all. But I know how important it is to drink it so I slowly started cutting it out and replacing it with gatorade then I started replacing the gatorade with water, and now that is all I drink besides the occasional glass of milk or fruit juice. And I actually crave water now which still seems weird to me. I started the transition 3 months ago and I honestly thought it would take longer to stop craving soda.
Moral of the story. Do a little at a time, as a human you are highly adaptable. Adapt for your health.
And making juices and smoothies and sneaking veggies and fruit in to things you normally eat is also a good way to start making some headway.

sarahness

@shoechick5 I have had this issue since I was a kid. My parents tried all kind of things with me since I was little. Cooking it different ways, hiding it in food, trying TONS of fruits and vegetables. I cant even put them in my mouth. I start chewing and I immediately start gagging. I dont know if its a mental thing or what but its that nasty texture of fruits and vegetables that I dont like. Some are slimey, chewy, rubbery, crunchy with skin. Just all gross. Even when I blend up the fruit, I cant stand strawberries because of the seeds. Its that bad. Ive considered seeing a hypnotist. I WANT to like vegetables. Trust me I do, it would be alot easier to loose weight.

JerseyGirlHeart

If you want to loose the weight you want, you can't make excuses. You really need to cut a lot of you diet, and eat more of the fruits and veggies, and make yourself like at least some of it. There are some foods I cannot stand, but sometimes I eat it over the junk because I know it is good for my body. I don't even buy the junk or keep it in my house, but you do have to treat yourself some of the time or you will binge. I am not trying to be offensive at all, but at your weight you are going to have to change a lot to lose the weight you say you want to lose. A long time ago, I said I would never consume raw veggies, but here I am, eating veggies with no dressing, and I actually like the taste of it now. It takes time, persistence, and hard work. You can do it, I promise, but you have to tell yourself you can do it.

JerseyGirlHeart

If you want to loose the weight you want, you can't make excuses. You really need to cut a lot of you diet, and eat more of the fruits and veggies, and make yourself like at least some of it. There are some foods I cannot stand, but sometimes I eat it over the junk because I know it is good for my body. I don't even buy the junk or keep it in my house, but you do have to treat yourself some of the time or you will binge. I am not trying to be offensive at all, but at your weight you are going to have to change a lot to lose the weight you say you want to lose. A long time ago, I said I would never consume raw veggies, but here I am, eating veggies with no dressing, and I actually like the taste of it now. It takes time, persistence, and hard work. You can do it, I promise, but you have to tell yourself you can do it.

sarahness

@ cathdrew2. yes that is helpful. I think I am going to go out and buy a cookbook for kids on how to hide fruits and vegetables. My brother is vegan but he loves eating fruits and veggies so he has no problem. I would love to become vegetarian (I cant give up cheese to be vegan I love it too much) but I have to eat the occasional piece of chicken for some protein because I dont eat any other kind of protein.

cathdrew2

Keep in mind, too, that while you won't be your healthiest or leanest eating what you currently do, you absolutely can lose weight by eating LESS of it. Weigh, measure, and log everything BEFORE you eat it and STOP when you are out of calories on your plan. Make a plan to move every day. Get a pedometer and log your steps every day, adding steps as your health allows. Consider working with a speech pathologist; some specialize in desensitization therapy for people with food/texture aversions.

sarahness

@ sarackr The only fruit I can eat whole is an apple...without the skin. I cant eat anything else whole. Bananas are too mushy, strawberries have seeds and hair on them. Blueberries are rubbery. I wish I didnt have this problem. You dont know how many times I have sat at the table WANTING to eat these things and gagging on my plate.

zclark13

I don't like cooked vegies all that much. I like them crunchy and raw so I eat a lot of salad. It's easy to chop up raw spinach real small and put it into spaghetti sauce or soups, though, and you never notice it's there. If you've had the problem forever it might be a sensory thing in your brain somewhere. I'm not sure what you could do about that.

cathdrew2

Grains and beans have protein, dairy has protein, gosh, read the labels, lots of things have protein so don't feel like you have to eat chicken for protein. Ask for 1/2 the cheese on your pizza. Switch to low fat and fat-free dairy. Greek yogurt (watch the labels) has 0 fat and twice the protein as regular yogurt. Do you like eggs? EggBeaters are great to replace eggs in almost everything. Yogurt? You eat sauce on your pasta, right? Baby food purees are so easy to sneak into pasta/pizza sauce. Don't waste the money on the cookbooks; you need easy to stick with it and the Seinfeld cookbook is not. Allrecipes.com is awesome and free.

Feel free to friend me if you want more ideas or want to share your part of the country; I have several speech pathologist friends I can hook you up with.

Shoechick5

Sarah, can you eat things like fried rice that has small amounts of veg in it?

christibear

You could try some recipes where you can replace pastas with veggies, like some fried acorn squash with spaghetti sauce, you can even add a little bit of spaghetti noodles, and you can make lasagna with eggplant instead of noodles

kybrandyb

nuts eggs cheese n crackers cottage cheese yogurt beef jerky dif ways of chicken tuna good fat/protien helps me . wheat bread or whole grain pasta

kaydensmom12

I am the same way! I can't eat a smoothie though. I only like the apple without the skin, and I like bananas in pb sandwich. Sometimes I will eat strawberries though. I only like del monte corn, no corn on the cob or any other brand. I do not eat any meat besides chicken. I eat white turkey breast from holidays. I do not eat hotdogs, hamburgers, steak or any other red meat. I will eat raw baby carrots every 2-3 months. I have recently tried celery and broccoli but just can not do it. I do not eat salads. I don't eat spinach, zucchini, cabbage or anything along those lines. I am trying to change my diet and try new things because I have such a difficult time finding anything to eat, let alone something healthy. I can not imagine hiding foods in foods that I like because I think that I will start to dislike that food as well. Its hard just to suck it up and eat it!

deltagreen

This sounds so bad, but I have to hide veggies in my food. You know how you give meds to a dog by hiding it in cheese? That's me. When I make a sandwich, I hide a few pieces of spinach in between pieces of meat. I HAVE to eat beans/peas/basically anything with a bite of meat or just something else. It's how I've always been. I only eat a few fruits (green apples, green grapes, pineapple). It's hard. I really do hate it. I can usually force myself to slam a low sodium V8 once, sometimes even twice a day. I'm just not a fruit or veggie person.

So my suggestion is to hide it. It's sounds horrible but it's better than forcing it down straight.

kybrandyb

If you want to loose the weight you want, you can't make excuses. You really need to cut a lot of you diet, and eat more of the fruits and veggies, and make yourself like at least some of it. There are some foods I cannot stand, but sometimes I eat it over the junk because I know it is good for my body. I don't even buy the junk or keep it in my house, but you do have to treat yourself some of the time or you will binge. I am not trying to be offensive at all, but at your weight you are going to have to change a lot to lose the weight you say you want to lose. A long time ago, I said I would never consume raw veggies, but here I am, eating veggies with no dressing, and I actually like the taste of it now. It takes time, persistence, and hard work. You can do it, I promise, but you have to tell yourself you can do it.

i actually prefer healthier choices now and get to eat more and stay full as all...... i was 332 pounds less than a year ago. it takes timw but ur preference WILL change if you put effort into trying new things

psmd

@ sarackr The only fruit I can eat whole is an apple...without the skin. I cant eat anything else whole. Bananas are too mushy, strawberries have seeds and hair on them. Blueberries are rubbery. I wish I didnt have this problem. You dont know how many times I have sat at the table WANTING to eat these things and gagging on my plate.

Yay! you like apples! Eat at least one apple a day! It's a start!

amarneu

@shoechick5 I have had this issue since I was a kid. My parents tried all kind of things with me since I was little. Cooking it different ways, hiding it in food, trying TONS of fruits and vegetables. I cant even put them in my mouth. I start chewing and I immediately start gagging. I dont know if its a mental thing or what but its that nasty texture of fruits and vegetables that I dont like. Some are slimey, chewy, rubbery, crunchy with skin. Just all gross. Even when I blend up the fruit, I cant stand strawberries because of the seeds. Its that bad. Ive considered seeing a hypnotist. I WANT to like vegetables. Trust me I do, it would be alot easier to loose weight.

It is mental, you're gagging at the thought of the texture, try small amounts at a time and force yourself not to spit it out, keep doing this until you have retrained your brain so that you don't have the same reaction of gagging at the thought of fruit or veg

DrNicoleRed

@shoechick5 I have had this issue since I was a kid. My parents tried all kind of things with me since I was little. Cooking it different ways, hiding it in food, trying TONS of fruits and vegetables. I cant even put them in my mouth. I start chewing and I immediately start gagging. I dont know if its a mental thing or what but its that nasty texture of fruits and vegetables that I dont like. Some are slimey, chewy, rubbery, crunchy with skin. Just all gross. Even when I blend up the fruit, I cant stand strawberries because of the seeds. Its that bad. Ive considered seeing a hypnotist. I WANT to like vegetables. Trust me I do, it would be alot easier to loose weight.

I was just thinking that you may need hypnosis or a health behaviorist to figure out this taste/texture thing. So may be worth a shot. If it works to help folks quit smoking, it may work for you to eat more veggies. It may be worth a shot since you really want to make a lifestyle change, actually get some vitamins in your body, and poop on a regular basis ( you wouldn't believe the problems irregular bowels can cause and how frequently "chronic constipation" is solved with proper water and fiber intake, but I digress). I was also thinking of a desensitization protocol…start with a single food in a microsized amount and keep increasing it until you can eat the whole thing. For example, blueberry juice, then a frozen blueberry hidden in a popsicle, then a smooshed blueberry cooked in oatmeal or muffins, then a real fresh blueberry. Then repeat for the next fruit/veggie of interest.

Sometimes the way the food is prepared makes a difference…like I'm not a fan of cooked carrots but I prefer them raw…but the opposite for tomatoes.

For many folks (myself included), satiety depends a large part on volume of food. Eating high volume/low calorie foods like fruits/veggies and tons of water activates our stretch receptors to tell our brain to stop eating…where as low volume/calorie dense foods like your favorite carbs will demand we eat more until we are "full"…unfortunately we are full of extra calories!


Agree with the suggestions to juice/puree. Was gonna suggest a V8, but too much salt, much better to make your own fresh. Could try those pre-mixed drinks to get an idea of the flavors you would like, then replicate them.