Healthy without veggies + fruits??

Up until recently, I did not bother to include fruits or vegetables in my diet unless I wanted something sweet.

It was just too much of a pain in the *kitten* to prepare vegetables I liked.

You can lose weight without them, but the issue is whether you can get all of your vitamins and minerals without them. A lot of people have decided they don't like veggies without really giving them a try. Often, they didn't like a particular mean of preparing them. I used to be a "no veggies" person, but when I decided to stop eating meat, I was forced to reconsider that position. There are still some I can't stand (beets and brussel sprouts spring to mind), but overall, I am surprised at the things I eat now that I would never have considered before.

I think alot of people just don't think they count so they don't log them.

I think alot of people just don't think they count so they don't log them.

I think this may be true for some people...it's partially true for me. I log my fruit but not veggies. For one thing it's just too hard as I rarely eat veggies as a side; they're almost always integrated into whatever dish I cook so it's too tedious to figure out precisely how much is in each serving. Also, you'd have to eat a fairly hefty portion of veggies to rack up significant calories so for me, I see no point in the extra headache of logging yet another thing.

I do not eat a lot of fruits or veggies and never have. I have recently been trying to force myself to try new things...but it's hard after a lifetime of not eating certain things. With that being said, I have zero health issues and haven't had a cold in well over a year. Basically, I'm healthier than most people I know. I could just be lucky though!

I guess I'm curious. If you don't eat fruit and vegetables what do you eat? Is it just meat, bread, and pasta? Pasta and cheese? Meat and cheese?

My husband RARELY eats fruits or vegetables. Green beans, carrots, and corn are the only 3 veggies he will touch, no matter how I prepare them - and even those he probably only gets one serving a week.

As far as fruit, he will eat bananas and grapes. That is it. Also only once or twice a week.

Yes, it drives me crazy. Yes, he does take a multi-vitamin. At 51 he is in awesome shape, lifts weights and does cardio on alternate days, and helps build Habitat Houses where he puts the "kids" half his age to shame with his physical ability.

What does he eat? Lean beef, chicken, cheese, eggs, wheat bread, protein shakes, skim milk, cereal. That's the bulk of his diet.

Annoying? You bet, but his physicals always come out in fine shape.

Maybe it does go back to what you grew up eating and are used to? What we know is what we default to?

I grew up in a family where three vegetables were considered to be a meal. (Meat was desired but optional)

My paternal grandfather was a farmer and my maternal grandfather had a 2 acre vegetable garden. My mother was (and still is for that matter) convinced that meals should have at least one green thing, one yellow/orange/red/etc. thing, and there should never more than one white thing (pasta, bread, rice, white potatoes fall under the heading of 'white'). Having grown up with that concept, I find that all these years later this still seems to be my default thought process when doing any "proper" meal planning.

I went on Atkins once many years ago. Giving up the bread and pasta wasn't difficult. But, boy, did I miss the vegetables! (I know now that I wasn't doing Atkins properly, but I didn't realize that at the time. I lost weight but could not sustain that diet. It seemed relentlessly meat-oriented to me and I wanted variety back).

Basically, I guess it does perhaps relate to our personal histories for most of us.

So I guess I may be doomed to color coordinate meals for life.

I love them.. i dont' eat a lot of grains.. that's something i have to think about. I just dont' want bread or pasta or rice.. but put an apple in front of me and my mouth starts watering.

I suppose it's possible to eat healhty without them.. but it's much easier with them. You get a lot of minerals and nutrients from them, they are low in calories, have almost no fat, no cholestrol, high fiber etc.. so many good reasons to eat fruits adn veggies.

Ha.. I just ate a huge salad!! (and logged every bit of it!)

people who don't think they count.. are wrong.. there are calories in them.. adn they do add up!

I don't eat fruit, expect for something like raisins or craisins. I have a texture aversion to most fruit and a lot of veggies, and have been this way since I was a toddler. I do like some veggies, and even tried asparagus for the first time last month. My parents had a garden when I was young, so I was involved with what to plant, picking some for dinner, etc. But, I stuck with the basics of peas, beans, corn and raw carrots.

Now, I would much rather eat raw veggies than cooked ones by themselves. If they're part of a dish, then its often okay but it depends. For me, onions are never okay in any form other than powder. Cooked carrots are gross unless they're part of a stew or pot pie. Peas in almost any form, especially farm fresh right out of the combine hopper (except for snap pea pods - odd texture and weird sweetness).

I've never had a medical issue that was due to a lack of fruit or veggies, and none of my doctors have really expressed concern over it.

Veggies - I only post one or two I have with each meal/snack unless it is something I know has a lot of salt/fat/calories like avocados or olives. Most veggies are 15 calories or less. If I have eaten 1800 calories logged that day, I am not going to beat myself up for not posting ALL my veggies.

Fruit - I am diabetic and can only allow myself a certain amount of sugar a day. I do prefer this to be natural sugars that are found in fruit, however, a single banana is 19 grams a sugar. Though, I find the nutrition value of a banana worth adding it to my daily intake, other fruits, I have to pick and choose if I want to have the added sugar or no.
P.S. In the summer, I DO eat a lot of crenshaw fruit. It has protein