Vegetables taste absolutely horrible

[Fulwin]

It is my dream to eat and live a healthy lifestyle. I want to do it more than anything. I believe I have the knowledge to eat healthy after reading several books on the subject, Protein Power being one of them. I understand the carbohydrate-insulin connection and all that. My problem is that I find it extremely difficult to eat vegetables. I have already tried switching to healthy eating habits a few times. I believe that resisting high carbohydrate foods is the easy part when starting out. When I bite into a vegetable (that is, ANY vegetable besides the starchy corn and potatoes), I gag and it's an epic battle to keep the food in my mouth and the stomach acid in my stomach. This is the sole reason I have failed a healthy transition a few times already. However, I really want to change so I am not prepared to give up, but how do I eat my vegetables when they're so awful? I have always ate tons and tons of carbohydrates and absolutely no low carb vegetables. They just taste so bad. After eating so much, I just end up giving up after one day. How do I work through this? Has anyone else had this problem? This is the only thing that hasn't been addressed in any health books that I've read.

[laughingW]

I have a horrible problem hating the taste of vegetables.

Have you heard of "supertasters" ? If this is you, they all taste either bitter or slimy. You can google to learn more.

Here are the tricks I use:

"don't even know they are there" approach

Put them in meat loaf and salmon loaf by chopping really small. Like spinach and parsley.

"make them sort of invisible" approach

put them in stews so the meat and spices are the major players and the veggies kind of get lost in the saucy goo

"roast them"

roast them with veggies you can stand like onions.

"buy immature versions"

baby or gourmet versions are less bitter.
They also have fewer antioxidants. Those are the things we can taste, and hate!

"offset the bitter with salt, fat, and sweet"

This is the most complicated but helps get the raw ones down.
The tastes that counteract that horrible bitterness are salt, fat, and sweet. So, if you make a make-ahead salad and include those three things, then the veggies go down easier.

For instance: shredded nappa cabbage with nuts, mint, salt, vinegar and oil, and tiny pieces of mandarin orange, provide enough cover to get over the cabbage bitterness.

Or the classic broccoli salad with bacon or sunflower seeds (fat), berries (sweet), vinegar and oil or mayo, and salt.

Or, in a stir-fry, I make sure to include onions (sweet) and a topping of butter and almonds, ginger, sea salt. (fat, salt)

[maxlharris]

I am, a picky eater. I do not get my vegetables every day. Or any day really. On some really rare days, I will get a full set of fruit and veg, 4-5 serves, but that's rare.

I frequently gag when I try new foods. almost always, until recently.

I had, prior to this month, tried about one new food every six months, such was the trauma, shame, etc, involved in trying.

This last month, I went to Italy. I tried 10 new foods. I am still eating several of them.

The difference is complicated. But the first part is commitment. Make a commitment to try new things (you cannot control if you're gonna like things, but you can control trial) in a set time period. Try things when you are having a good time. When your energy is up. If you want, have an aperitif before you try something new. Even a nice flute of champagne will help open the palate and drop your reservations.

I am close to a super taster. But there are super tasters who eat everything and those who eat nothing. I think the difference is mostly mental.

I have some really crappy childhood memories of being picky and consequences. I'm 34 and stuff that happened when I was 10 still bothers me.

I could go on and on. I have one last piece of advice. Ask fellow recovering picky eaters what they eat, veg wise. I always ate green beans. Asparagus was a surprising, but in retrospect easy, add on a couple years back. Tomatoes are like fruit. Mushrooms are more texture than flavor. Sautee with butter, and they taste like butter. Uhm. I just started eating zucchini. And pumpkin (very nice in pasta... not LC though). And peas. Sugar snap peas are good on the grill. Like a green bean only more texture, and sweeter. Those other asian peas (the flat ones) are okay. Regular english peas are very new to me and pretty good too. add nice color and a little flavor to the dreamfields. Eggplant, sliced thin, salted, and pan sauteed is pretty mild and blah, but edible if you are committed.

With my new stuff, I have vowed to never order plain old al fredo again.


Good luck.

[Zuleika]

How do I work through this? Has anyone else had this problem? This is the only thing that hasn't been addressed in any health books that I've read.

I'm sorry you're going through this. My goddaughter who is four won't eat fruit. She'll eat babyfood fruit and she'll eat lots of veggies (though sometimes she's not into things like corn). The docs suggested it was part of a sensory integration disorder and sent her to an eating therapist.

Now, I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. And I'm not suggesting you have a disorder. But, I thought I'd pass along a few of the tricks that they've been using with her, to try to learn to eat fruit.

First, she picked out a fruit that she thought she might like to try. They took cut up pieces of apple, dipped them in applesauce, and she just licked off the applesauce. No actual fruit eating in this stage. Then she worked up to licking the fruit plain. I think then they move on to eating the two mixed together or something.

You might try to ease yourself into eating a vegetable or two this way. Pick something like peanut butter or cream cheese and eat it off of some celery. Then maybe you can lick or suck the celery stick -- no swallowing, just getting used to the flavor. Just ease yourself into it.

It is in many ways, a mind over matter thing, but as we experienced dieters know, controlling what we eat via willpower or our minds isn't easy.

Anyway, remember that the Eades pointed out that if you don't eat veggies, you won't die. Take some good multi-vitamins and focus on the positive. Eat nuts like almonds or walnuts if you feel in the need for fiber.

[Relief]

who's the guy who claims he eats no veg at all and is all the healthier? The Bear? you might want to check him out. He declares humans don't need veg at all, just animal products. I'll see if I can google him up.

[Relief]

I found this blog http://zerocarbpath.blogspot.com/ It has links to the essays of Owsley "bear" Stanley warning: this guy is a real character!!!!

everyone Please note: I do not advocate this guy's woe. I LOVE veggies and think they are important, however, some people seem to do very well without any at all, and if you gag everytime you try to eat a veggie--an all animal product diet is certainly better than the standard american diet full of starch and sugar. IMHO

[Anniesnan]

When I bite into a vegetable (that is, ANY vegetable besides the starchy corn and potatoes), I gag and it's an epic battle to keep the food in my mouth and the stomach acid in my stomach. This is the sole reason I have failed a healthy transition a few times already. However, I really want to change so I am not prepared to give up, but how do I eat my vegetables when they're so awful? I have always ate tons and tons of carbohydrates and absolutely no low carb vegetables. They just taste so bad. After eating so much, I just end up giving up after one day. How do I work through this? Has anyone else had this problem? This is the only thing that hasn't been addressed in any health books that I've read.

Before I read PPLP 7 years ago, I probably ate very similarly to you. Loved potatoes and corn (tolerated peas - but wouldn't eat peas and corn together). Lived on toast and cereals with an occasional egg for breakfast, usually a carby sandwich for lunch, and would eat maybe a bite or two of a protein for dinner with potatoes or pasta.
The only protein I could even eat was pork, ham, turkey breast, tuna fish, and fast food hamburgers.
I joke that I am the heaviest picky eater anyone has ever known.


So, when I read the book, I thought, what in the world will I be able to eat?
I started out with bacon and eggs for breakfast. LUnch would be either hot dogs or tuna salad. Dinner was the big problem. I still didn't like veggies, but would eat very small bites (say one stalk of broccoli, cut up small) with a very small portion of some protein (unless it was one I ate) and round out my meal with nuts and cheeses.

I'm still not a fan of most vegetables. Can eat "creamed" cauliflower, maybe 4 small pieces of broccoli, 10 green (string) beans is pushing it. Do love asparagus - and that means maybe 5 thin stalks. And, I discovered I actually love spinach. Sometimes I even crave it:cool: . I don't like it raw, but sauteed with butter and garlic or in a quiche or in a meatloaf.

I have discovered, though, not from hunger, but from the desire to "chew" that I enjoy many more proteins. I now really enjoy beef, either high quality burgers, or steak. I eat larger portions of pork, larger portions of white meat chicken or turkey, etc. I enjoy more cheeses than I ever thought I would (I used to only eat "yellow" American - and even then, it had to be freshly sliced, not on a sandwich, with no condiments on it, and look perfect).

So, long story short, instead of worrying over what you think you should eat, but really feel you can't, pick out of your list of foods that you will eat the ones that are lc and, make sure you are getting your minimum protein in. Do that for a couple of weeks, and then try adding a miniscule bite of something new every so often.

Maybe like me, you'll find your taste buds have "broadened". BTW, I still can't tolerate mushrooms - the texture makes me gag - unless they are diced to the size of a poppy seed.

[Omlette]

One thing that you could try is spaghetti squash. I cut mine in half, bake half side down, at 350 (I think) for 30-45 min. I will then put a very meaty spaghetti sauce over it. you can always grind up mushrooms in the sauce. My husband does not like anything but corn and pototoes. He deals with the mushrooms being in the spaghetti. If he see them, then he picks them out.

The spaghetti squash, when it is done, will scrape out with a fork to look like noodles.