Getting Family To Eat Whole Wheat

Tell him to make his own meals then, since that is what you will be cooking with

Tell him to make his own meals then, since that is what you will be cooking with

This ^^^ If your cooking then he eats what you make or goes to bed hungry... just like my 3 year old LOL

Around here, she who does the cooking gets to decide what to cook! If the SO doesn't like brown rice or whole wheat pasta or other healthier alternatives then I'd hand him the apron and spoon and tell him to go for it! Just make sure you eat whatever he cooks I promise it won't take long until he's happily gone back to letting you plan and execute meals!

This works for me, anyway. The men in the house cooked hotdogs and mac & cheese tonight. I ate it without complaint (since i knew dinner would be something unreasonable, I planned ahead and limited calories earlier in the day) but I also won't tolerate complaints about the meals I prepare. They can either eat them, or go hungry or fix dinners for themselves!

Mix the whole wheat with regular pasta, gradually increasing the whole wheat ratio. Also, use a red sauce with the whole wheat. Sometimes, if they can't see that it looks different, they don't notice the taste difference. At least, that works with my brother-in-law.

I am a severely gluten intolerant. My mom broke down and bought some GF noodles for a family get together so I wouldn't have to bring my own food. She told me first thing, "I am never going back to regular pasta again. These noodles taste so much better and are lower in calories." They are made with brown rice. Super yummy.

Blind fold him, or tell him he doesn't get to watch TV if he doesn't finish his whole grain's.

I found that if I treat Mr Shiny and the teenagers like very small children (ok, I'll say it - like cranky babies) and hide the nutrition I can get in a lot of healthy stuff. Once they have had something a few times, I'll let them know and I get alot of "wow I never thought I would like (whatever)".

For whole grains - if they can't SEE that it looks different, they haven't been able to taste a difference. I started by mixing regular penne or rigatoni with whole grain, gradually increasing the percentage of whole grain, and didn't let them see the whole grain packaging. I also add stuff to sauces - shredded carrots, zuchini, really anything will work in a nice red pasta sauce. My kids now like brown rice and think white rice is "too soft and bland", but it's still a work in progress with Mr Shiny. He'll eat brown rice in stir fries, etc but his preference is still white rice, but he knows that if we're having rice I make brown rice and if he wants white rice he'll have to make it himself.

I mix grains - like oatmeal, brown rice, bulgur - into anything using ground turkey, chicken, or beef. I try to avoid any non- organic meat, so it also helps keep the cost down by streching the number of servings.

White rice is so bland.. I can't imagine anyone being passionate enough about their white rice that they would insist on it for long.

My husband eats what I cook, but I'd never force him to eat something he really didn't like. Hes an adult, he can make his own choices. If I liked whole wheat bread, and he liked white, I would buy both. Not a huge deal honestly. My husband has to make his own health choices, I can't force him to do anything he doesn't want to do.

Yeah, I have one of those. It's a pleasant little power fantasy to think you can just say "eat it or go hungry" or "eat it, or do your own cooking" -- unfortunately, yeah, happy little fantasy world doesn't work in the real world. Not unless I wanted to divorce over white vs. wheat bread. I liked the way the other poster put it: this is not a hill I want to die on.

So. I will try new things, and sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. The white bread with whole grains? No-go. Whole grain pasta? Even *I* think that stuff is gross. I have had success using whole wheat flour for breading, for example, on pork chops or chicken tenders -- nobody notices or cares -- and I put wheat germ in their hamburgers and salmon patties.

I've had the best success with things they don't see. I switched to healthier oil for cooking; nobody noticed or cared. I switched to organic spaghetti sauce; they liked it better. I switched to organic ketchup; they insisted that the only real ketchup is Heinz. Well, fortunately, Heinz makes a variety without HFCS, so we compromised. I switched to wild-caught salmon, organic eggs, organic beef and chicken; nobody noticed.

So, not really winning on the whole grains, but I've got plenty of other areas to focus on for now. I've decided whole grains can wait until I've got everything else sorted out. To paraphrase the Proverb: Better to eat white bread in a quiet house than whole wheat bread with continual fighting.