all this talk about "hiding" veggies...

I find it interesting, too. Especially the trend with hiding them for their kids.... I really think if you feed your kids a variety from when they are young, they will eat a variety of foods. They may have a picky stage or two, but overall, they will eat it.

Now, I don't have kids, but I am basing that on me and my brother... my mom made all sorts of veggies - broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach, carrots, peas, lima beans, squash, sweet potatoes... you get the point. As a kid I refused peas and lima beans, and that was ok - as long as I tried them a couple of times. On the days those were part of dinner, there would be another veggie as well (we normally had at least 2 at dinner). I ate everything else... but from the time we were babies we ate these things. We also ate what our parents ate as soon as we were old enough for semi-solid foods.... my mom just didn't season the veggies when she cooked them, any salt was added at the table.
I am glad that hating veggies is one nutrition obstacle I don't have.... I love them!

My only picky veggie kid has autism....and that's more a texture thing. I don't hide veggies....my kids eat them because we ALL eat them...

I freaking love vegetables. I was fed veggies as a small child, though. I don't remember any mention of "Eat your veggies or...." and then some no-dessert type of threat because veggies, along with meat, fruit, chocolate, tacos, etc... were all regarded as food. It didn't really help me to NOT become overweight but hey, at least I get plenty of fiber and vitamins.

That's why I didn't like peas and lima beans, it was the squishy texture. Now I will eat baby lima beans, only the frozen ones, lightly cooked.

I will eat fresh or frozen peas IF they are mixed in something else (like soup or pot pie).

Canned lima beans and peas are still gross to me... but I literally cannot think of another veggie I don't like. (Thanks, Mom!)

WebMD actually had a slideshow about picky eaters. It suggested that you are better off if you offer the vegetable multiple times to the picky eater rather than hiding them. If you hide the vegetables, the kid never develops the habit of eating them. But it can take upward of a dozen times of introducing a new food before a child will actually eat it.

I LOVE all foods, including veggies and fruits
IMO the biggest culinary sin is putting whipped cream and sugar on strawberries
why would you like to spoil the taste of fresh delicious strawberries??
Tomorrow peas, carrots and baked cauliflower with chicken for lunch... can't wait

I was always a veggie eater. But an interesting caveat on this subject is genetic "bitter tasters". There is an identified gene for bitter tasting, and there is a particular chemical in certain vegetables that "bitter tasters" taste, that the rest of the population, the non bitter-tasters, simply can't taste at all. Most kids that are violently opposed to vegetables have the bitter tasting gene. Interestingly enough, its not an excuse to never eat vegetables, as people with the gene can develop a tolerance for the bitter taste, and as they get older get less sensitive to it- but I just think its really interesting that most of the people that really hate veggies have a physiological reason for it!

My family is from the Midwest and there it is very common not to think of veggies as actual food, because "you can't make the main dish of a meal out of them." Of course, from a Midwestern perspective, a real meal means meat and potatoes. And corn, when in season.

I do both, serve up regular veggies and mix some into foods sometimes. I am not really trying to hide them as much as I am adding a vege boost to stuff like mac and cheese which can be a little on the naughty side.

The only thing I would do differently with my kids would be to go back in time and never let them have a chicken nugget. Even though we only eat them occasionally they stay in my kids minds and it's all they can request. I don;t know if it is marketing or MSG that makes them so damn attractive to kids.

I find it interesting, too. Especially the trend with hiding them for their kids.... I really think if you feed your kids a variety from when they are young, they will eat a variety of foods. They may have a picky stage or two, but overall, they will eat it.

Now, I don't have kids, but I am basing that on me and my brother... my mom made all sorts of veggies - broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach, carrots, peas, lima beans, squash, sweet potatoes... you get the point. As a kid I refused peas and lima beans, and that was ok - as long as I tried them a couple of times. On the days those were part of dinner, there would be another veggie as well (we normally had at least 2 at dinner). I ate everything else... but from the time we were babies we ate these things. We also ate what our parents ate as soon as we were old enough for semi-solid foods.... my mom just didn't season the veggies when she cooked them, any salt was added at the table.
I am glad that hating veggies is one nutrition obstacle I don't have.... I love them!

Same here. Growing up in NE Ohio we always had a garden. Very rarely did we not have at least a garden salad with dinner, often times a cooked veg dish as well. In the fall we would often go to a u-pick orchard and pick our own apples, bushels of them. The only thing I remember truly hating as a kid were cooked lima beans (but I will snarf edamame now) and hot cooked beets (cold pickled beets are great on salads now). Tastes do evolve as we age and branch out on our own. I like spicy and bitter flavor components that offset sweet and savory in many of my meals, but that was never part of what I grew up eating because my mom and dad did not like spicy and bitter foods.

When one of us kids (3 of us) got picky, my parents instituted the "no thank you helping" which was about 1/2 a normal helping. You could say I don't want it, but you still got some and had to eat it. Continued complaining at the dinner table was not tolerated (do you want a spanking with your side of lima beans?) so you quickly learned to just eat it.

Except the one time mom tried to make liver and onions. Even the dog wouldn't touch it. ughh...... :sick:

Who else here see's vegetable sand fruits as actual food?! It's just so weird that many people can't imagine vegetables outside the context of a side dish or appetizer.

They are the ONLY thing that i see as food. Seeds, nuts, whole grains and beans, too, but i eat them rarely.

I find it interesting, too. Especially the trend with hiding them for their kids.... I really think if you feed your kids a variety from when they are young, they will eat a variety of foods. They may have a picky stage or two, but overall, they will eat it.

Now, I don't have kids, but I am basing that on me and my brother... my mom made all sorts of veggies - broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach, carrots, peas, lima beans, squash, sweet potatoes... you get the point. As a kid I refused peas and lima beans, and that was ok - as long as I tried them a couple of times. On the days those were part of dinner, there would be another veggie as well (we normally had at least 2 at dinner). I ate everything else... but from the time we were babies we ate these things. We also ate what our parents ate as soon as we were old enough for semi-solid foods.... my mom just didn't season the veggies when she cooked them, any salt was added at the table.
I am glad that hating veggies is one nutrition obstacle I don't have.... I love them!

When and if you have kids you might feel differently. I have 3 kids. 2 will eat most veggies. One won't even look at them. We fed them the same way, we offered veggies at a young age, nothing worked. I do hide veggies on her when I can (in muffins, sauces etc) just so she gets them. We also put them on her plate at every meal with the hopes that she will try them. Never happens. She does eat a lot of fruit. It's not always black and white. They will not always eat it, no matter what you do.