Help! I'm an adult and hate veggies!

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Halp! Veggies basically taste like dirt to me. I've always hated veg and my parents never really pushed it after I started getting sick when they did (gagging, etc). I can force myself to eat veggies that are cooked down to a mostly tasteless mush, but most fresh veggies make me gag or worse. I know half of it is mental, but the other half is I just don't like the taste or often the texture (even a tinnnnny bite of a raw onion when I'm not expecting it sends me running for the toilet)!

I'd rather eat something I do want, then make eating a chore as I have a past of disordered eating and if eating becomes "work" then my response is to not eat at all. How do I teach myself to like it or EASY ways to hide/cook veggies that doesn't make them bland boring mush and also doesn't take that much time?

Veggies I will eat (that I can think of right now there are some others that I'll pick my brain about):
iceburg lettuce (favorite :| )
romaine lettuce
uncooked spinach
asparagus
corn (does this even count?)

veggies I can force myself to deal with occasionally:
raw radishes (very thinly sliced)
carrots
tomato (cut super super tiny and in a salad or salsa, but even then I pick around it a lot)
peas

veggies I can eat as mush if I have to:
onions
carrots
celery

Replies

  • Niivsmom
    Niivsmom Posts: 145
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    You can try to get your veggies in by blending them (food processor or blender) into a sauce and use it in your cooking.... Just a thought. If you blend it and add it to a bunch of other ingredients you'll still have the benefits but not the texture and the taste will maybe enhance the flavor of your food.

    I used to blend onions, garlic and tomato for turkey ground beef... you can add other veggies to this also.
  • Esther50
    Esther50 Posts: 252
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    Put them in blender. Stick some veggies in your favorite smoothie. Like they show on tv.
    I have never done it, I love veggies. But have seen it on tv. No taste of veggies in the smoothie.
  • Princess_Lee2013
    Princess_Lee2013 Posts: 48 Member
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    You've listed a lot there that you can eat so it's definitely a good starting point! Based on what you've got there - spinach salad with a good and healthy dressing is great for you - i use olive oil, lemon, and a bit of garlic and maple syrup the spinach tastes awesome! Also roasting veggies with a bit of kosher salt and tossed in olive oil or sprayed with pam works for me and definitely makes the veggies taste like anything but. I do this with kale, cabbage, carrots, zucchini (call these chips) as well as with cauliflower which I toss with grapeseed oil, bit of salt and pepper and call popcorn. You can dress up broccoli as a salad with greek yogurt based dressing (YUM). Beets are really yummy when roasted, you can cut them up and put them in a salad with goat cheese. What else...cabbage slaw with tahini, garlic, lemon is AWESOME, healthy, low fat and very flavourful. There are TONS of ideas of how to dress up your veg on PINTEREST if you use, or you can msg me and I can give you some recipes. What veggies are you trying to eat more of; the ones you have there sound good if you can manage a couple portions per day.
  • alittlemopo
    alittlemopo Posts: 91 Member
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    Have you tried:

    Zucchini
    Yellow Squash
    Broccoli
    Cauliflower
    Kale
    Green Beans
    Collard Greens
    Acorn Squash
    Speaghetti Squash

    Maybe there are some you haven't tasted that you might like better?

    Also great idea on the smoothie!!!
  • Codefox
    Codefox Posts: 308 Member
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    Vegetables are so varied in taste and texture that this doesn't really make much sense to me. A tomato is as different from a carrot as broccoli is from an apple. I think, since you acknowledge its mostly mental, you should try conditioning yourself to eat them. Once you acquire the taste for something your brain will learn to enjoy it.
  • ilikepandasyay
    ilikepandasyay Posts: 96 Member
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    Have you tried:

    Zucchini
    Yellow Squash - can stand if mush
    Broccoli- if covered in sezchuan sauce, lol
    Cauliflower- yuck
    Kale- I've had one really good kale salad and every other time I've tried kale I haaaated it
    Green Beans- yuck
    Collard Greens- triple yuck
    Acorn Squash- I don't think I've tried so I will give this a go
    Speaghetti Squash- I tried it once and can't remember so I'm gonna go with probably neutral

    Maybe there are some you haven't tasted that you might like better?

    Also great idea on the smoothie!!!

    thanks for the list/thoughts!
  • ilikepandasyay
    ilikepandasyay Posts: 96 Member
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    Vegetables are so varied in taste and texture that this doesn't really make much sense to me. A tomato is as different from a carrot as broccoli is from an apple. I think, since you acknowledge its mostly mental, you should try conditioning yourself to eat them. Once you acquire the taste for something your brain will learn to enjoy it.

    It mostly has to do with their texture in relation to other foods it's with. When they're on their own it's a taste thing purely.
  • Richie2shoes
    Richie2shoes Posts: 412 Member
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    I would do what others said and puree the vegetables and hide them in things you like. Mix them with ground turkey for burgers, meat loaf or meatballs. Add them to a crockpot with chicken or beef and stock to make a gravy/sauce.

    Try sugar snap peas, they are really sweet although the texture might throw you.
  • peggy822
    peggy822 Posts: 23 Member
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    I never liked veggies either, I started adding garlic salt to them, can't now due to blood pressure, but I like them now so it is easier. It really helped me get them in. I must say my tastes have changed the older I get, now they are yummy before I couldn't barely eat any of them. Just keep trying them and maybe yours will change too. Good luck
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
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    You don't necessarily have to like the vege on it's own. There are plenty of veges that I don't like to eat 'straight', but will happily eat in say a spaghetti sauce. Mushrooms for example (yeah, not a vege, but same point).

    I couldn't stand mushrooms, and have the same issues with them that you do, but I'm introducing them into my diet a little less 'masked' each time. I started with really finely chopped in a meatloaf, or burgers, so I didn't even see them - but it got me over the first psychological hurdle. Then moved on to spaghetti sauce since it's so strongly flavored. Then finely chopped in a stir fry with a lot of different flavors. I just finished a lunch which included very recognizable slices of mushrooms, along with onion, zucchini, yellow squash, and chicken, tossed in just a little balsamic vinegar. I'll probably never snack on raw fresh mushrooms, but at least I now have them as an ingredient option to my cooking and as a non-meat source of protein.
  • BamBam125
    BamBam125 Posts: 229 Member
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    It's all in your head.

    Try this: Eat 3 bits of a veggie (steamed, cooked, raw, whatever). As you eat it and prepare to eat each bite, think " Good" or "Fine" or "Neutral". Don't think of your fear and don't think it will taste bad. Don't make a bad face or a gagging noise. You'll only psych yourself out.

    (As a child this was my parents' rule. One must eat 3 bites of everything on the plate with no complaining, no nasty faces, and no icky noises. Screw up and I'd have to start all over. I hated it but it worked. Eventually, you get used to them and learn to like many of them. It's a good life skill too. Go out for dinner with friend, family member or coworker and don't like the food? At least you can appear to like it enough to try a bit without rudely spitting it back out.)
  • gramacanada
    gramacanada Posts: 557 Member
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    Jessica Seinfeld has a cook book. Deceptively Delicious. She shows lots of ways
    to 'hide' vegetables in food so you don't even know they're there.
    She developed these to get her kids eating vegetables.
    I use her book all the time. I'm eating a lot more veggies this way.:smile:
  • saltedcaramel86
    saltedcaramel86 Posts: 238 Member
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    Perhaps start off small -- each week, try a new veggie. Try different ways of cooking them (boiled, steamed, roasted, etc). Try different flavourings for it -- garlic, herbs, spices, little salt.
    Now, I LOVE most veggies but have to find ways to mix it up so it doesn't get boring. My fave is roasted veggies with a little olive oil, chilli and different herbs.

    Maybe try in a smoothie, curry, soup, etc? Since giving up meat, I've grown to LOVE vegetable curries (spinach works great is these, such as chickpea and spinach -- super simple but tasty, it's one of my staples). I also make home made veg based soups, right now a firm favourite is Thai butternut squash/butternut squash and chilli.

    Make tomato based sauces with hidden veggies -- works great with pasta.
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
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    Vegetables are so varied in taste and texture that this doesn't really make much sense to me. A tomato is as different from a carrot as broccoli is from an apple. I think, since you acknowledge its mostly mental, you should try conditioning yourself to eat them. Once you acquire the taste for something your brain will learn to enjoy it.

    This. Introduce yourself to new ones like people do with toddlers- little bits at a time, try it multiple times. Also, cooking method makes a huge difference. I have convinced the most avid Brussels sprout haters of their deliciousness simply by roasting them. Veggies don't have to be raw or boiled/steamed to death. Put as much effort into the veg as you would meat. Don't make them an afterthought.
  • punkrockgoth
    punkrockgoth Posts: 534 Member
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    I've been very fortunate in my weight loss journey that I love veggies, so that wasn't an obstacle I had to overcome.

    Seriously, I love vegetables.

    My best friend however, does not. He is a meat and chocolate bar kind of guy. Actually, no, just salmon and chocolate bars. He doesn't like much else.

    I've known him for a bit over a year now. Shortly after I started losing weight, he decided to join me. So for the past year, I've been sneaking more and more veggies into his diet.

    But this is a tactic I learned from my mom. When my brother was a baby, he hated a lot of fruits and veggies. So my mom would hide them in things he did like.

    I did the same kind of thing with my best friend. Discovered that he likes ceasar salad, so I added some spinach and swiss chard to it when I'd make it for him.

    Or I'd take things he loved and build on them. He loves garlic and likes chicken. So I made him spaghetti squash with pesto and ground turkey. He loved it. He had never tried pesto before, now it's one of his favorite things.

    Soon, he started to do this on his own. Sometimes he forgets to take the tomato off his burger. He eats salad now. He calls me with healthy food questions. "Uhhh, I'm standing in front of the yogurt section and I'm lost. What do I buy?"

    Hopefully this helps a little bit.
  • ilikepandasyay
    ilikepandasyay Posts: 96 Member
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    Thanks for the responses so far everyone!!