What do you do if someone HATES vegetables?!

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GreenLifeGirl
GreenLifeGirl Posts: 381 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Our family friends have a daughter in her senior year in high school who needs to lose about 80 pounds (and is insulin resistant). They have asked me to put together a healthy food and exercise plan and she really want to make it work. She is already active and is up for anything in exercise.

However, she hates almost all vegetables - there are extremely few on her "approved" list and she is pretty close minded about what she likes to eat. She is not a junk food eater, rarely eats fast food and even limits her sweets, but is more into meat and potatoes/pasta (high starch).

I've always LOVED veggies and am very adventurous with trying foods, so it is hard for me to even fathom how I need to approach this with her. Part of me is tempted just to tell her to buck it up and decide how serious she is about being healthy and make a choice to branch out...and start gradually working in more veggies. Or should I just work with what she likes (which is high in starchy carbs) and only focus on overal calorie intake and exercise?

What do you guys think?
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Replies

  • Marcieb21
    Marcieb21 Posts: 127 Member
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    this reminds me of Jessica Seinfelds book Deceptively Delicious... maybe you could look into that :D
  • sexygenius
    sexygenius Posts: 1,078 Member
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    i would ry introducing vegetables into her diet, but do it in ways that are familier, like bulk up pasta with zuchini or put califlower in her potatos...ease her into it
  • MandyMarie01
    MandyMarie01 Posts: 448 Member
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    V8Vfusion is really good. has veggies masked by fruit taste yum :)
  • bunny876
    bunny876 Posts: 40 Member
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    this reminds me of Jessica Seinfelds book Deceptively Delicious... maybe you could look into that :D

    I agree, great book! I love it, it shows you ways to include foods people hate without them knowing.
  • ♥_Ellybean_♥
    ♥_Ellybean_♥ Posts: 1,646 Member
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    is it just cooked vegetables or what about raw? cuz I HATE cooked veggies but love them raw? what about raw veggie dipped in low fat ranch or something? ...
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    I hate veggies so I understand where she's coming from. Work with the few you gave her because telling her to suck it up won't work. With that much weight to lose her overall calories are important and nutrients are slightly less important.

    Edit: Deceptively delicious might work but trying to sneak them in might piss her off.
  • ♥_Ellybean_♥
    ♥_Ellybean_♥ Posts: 1,646 Member
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    V8Vfusion is really good. has veggies masked by fruit taste yum :)

    way to high in sugar/carbs for someone who is insulin resistant
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
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    I don't think you can make anyone eat what they don't like, they would never stick with it. That given, she could have smaller portions of the things she likes, but then she will feel hungry, and that makes it harder to stick with too.
    I have a formula of having a fruit and protein for breakfast, a vegetable and a protein for lunch, fruit and a protein for snack, and a dinner of a protein, vegetable and whole grain carb. So make a list of all the things that she will eat in these categories and you can come up with some good meals.
  • poustotah
    poustotah Posts: 1,121 Member
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    My husband was like this!!! He needed to lose weight and asked me to start cooking healthy so the first things to go were the corn, the rice, and the mashed potatoes. I started serving him brussel sprouts, baked sweet potatoes, squashes, and red potatoes. Oh my Lord, you would have thought I was poisoning him!!! I told him to suck it up and start eating his veggies!!!

    I'm mean like that and generally go for the tough love approach when it comes to weight loss.

    He's now lost 50 lbs and still dropping!
  • Whitneylol
    Whitneylol Posts: 244
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    Our family friends have a daughter in her senior year in high school who needs to lose about 80 pounds (and is insulin resistant). They have asked me to put together a healthy food and exercise plan and she really want to make it work. She is already active and is up for anything in exercise.

    However, she hates almost all vegetables - there are extremely few on her "approved" list and she is pretty close minded about what she likes to eat. She is not a junk food eater, rarely eats fast food and even limits her sweets, but is more into meat and potatoes/pasta (high starch).

    I've always LOVED veggies and am very adventurous with trying foods, so it is hard for me to even fathom how I need to approach this with her. Part of me is tempted just to tell her to buck it up and decide how serious she is about being healthy and make a choice to branch out...and start gradually working in more veggies. Or should I just work with what she likes (which is high in starchy carbs) and only focus on overal calorie intake and exercise?

    What do you guys think?

    I feel for her because I HATE, HATE, HATE veggies.. it's embarrassing.I wish I did. I just force myself to eat the ones that don't make me want to vom (a lot of them do) and I try and hide the flavors in food.
  • harleigh67
    harleigh67 Posts: 131
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    I as a child liked corn, potatoes, onions, and every now and then lettuce, so I understand her not like vegetables....I liked fruit a lot more. I learned to eat other vegetables when it came chopped smaller in Chinese with sauce on them they tasted better, but GNC carries a suppliment for those who don't eat a lot of veggies...its called Megagreens its easier to take in pill over powder....They also have Megafruits... You can find online if there is not a store near you. But its definately better to try to get her to eat the real thing, try different ones raw, steamed in a light suace....if she likes hot I use szechwzan sauce to give them a better taste! Good Luck.
  • SarabellPlus3
    SarabellPlus3 Posts: 496 Member
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    Hmmm. For starters, move to whole wheat on pastas/starches? A lot of times when people hate veggies, they still love tomato sauce, so in those pastas-- maybe focus on less pasta, more sauce, and bulk up sauce with more veggies? I was also going to suggest raw veggies-- a lot of people won't touch cooked carrots, but love raw ones for a snack. Another strange one is that my kids clammor for frozen peas-- they'll eat way less cooked peas, but the three of them chow down if I let them eat peas frozen. So maybe just look at some vegetables in a different light?

    Best of luck to her! (& you!)
  • Artemis_Acorn
    Artemis_Acorn Posts: 836 Member
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    There are so many ways to add veggies to the diet without having to eat them straight out. I add spinach to my chocolate protein shakes - can't even taste it. Mushrooms, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke - there are lots of things that you can add to dishes that don't seem so vegetabley.

    As a side-note, if she is insulin resistant, I would severely restrict anything that is high carb/starchy. White breads, mashed potatoes etc. should be OUT. Make sure the carbs she does eat are high in fiber and have some protein and fat with them to help temper the insulin response.
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
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    I usually tell them to grow up and suck it up, or I show them how veggies can be tastey and healthy.
  • lawkat
    lawkat Posts: 538 Member
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    I bet she hasn't even tried most of the vegetables that are on her list. Maybe she might like the different types of squash. This is the time of the year for butternut squash and pumpkin. Plus they are really great for you.

    It is sad she doesn't want to try vegetables. There are so many that are tasty. My belief is that if you mentally tell yourself you hate something, you will hate it and not even give it a chance. Maybe you can try to hide the vegetables for her.
  • GreenLifeGirl
    GreenLifeGirl Posts: 381 Member
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    OOH! These are great ideas, please keep them coming...I am actually bullet pointing these tips into a Word doc as we speak...very helpful!
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    Is she at least open to trying new things? My husband thought he hated veggies too but he just hated the way his mother prepared them. (Out of a can, with a crapload of butter, salt and pepper dumped in. Gross!) Once he had fresh veggies prepared in different ways, he added some new likes to his list.
  • auntdeedee87
    auntdeedee87 Posts: 706 Member
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    I think you should give up.

    Okay, not really.

    Someone mentioned the cookbook Deceptively Delicious-- Look into it! My sister has it because she has a very picky 6 year old who refuses to eat anything vegetable-wise.

    You can puree pretty much any veggies-- spinach is a popular one-- and add it to dishes like lasagna, spaghetti, even sweets like brownies.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
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    I think her parents should be consulting her doctor and a dietician.
  • Pocket_Pixi
    Pocket_Pixi Posts: 1,167 Member
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    Will she do smoothies?? I add veggies into my smoothies all the time, and you can't taste them. My brother will drink them and thinks they are awesome and he is anti-veggie (I haven't told him whats in it lol)


    I have a slight insulan resistant issue (at least thats what the Dr is trying to determin) so I have been doing lower carb to see if it works, I just use Almond milk (less carbs) some frozen berries or ice and then spinach, lettuce, kale, carrots, cucumbers... pretty much anything you can think of has gone into my smoothie.

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