How to Eat Healthy Even If You Hate Vegetables
“Eat your greens. Otherwise, you won’t grow up to be big and strong!”
How many times did you hear that growing up? For me — too many.
Yes, you know vegetables are important. Yes, they have lots of vitamins and minerals that our bodies need, not just to grow big and strong but to improve and maintain our health too. But you just can’t get over how yuck they taste.
Fortunately, there are ways to eat healthily and to get the nutrients we need without eating our veggies, or at least not being able to taste them as much.
Here are a few ideas you can try:
Reprogram Your Taste-buds
There are many reasons why people don’t like vegetables, the most common being taste, texture, and trauma.
Some of us were forced to eat certain vegetables as kids and this has stopped us from eating them as adults (I still can’t look at a minted pea — sorry mum!).
Some of us never developed the taste for them — especially the more bitter vegetables like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, arugula/rocket, kale, cabbage. Whereas sweeter options like carrot, corn, capsicum, snow peas, beetroot are almost tolerable.
This vegetable aversion may actually be caused by your genes — the taste gene TAS2R38 to be exact. People that inherit two variants of this gene called AVI and PAV are especially sensitive to bitter vegetables. Whereas people with two copies of the AVI variant are not.
Some of us have a sweet tooth preferring fruit, bread, or chocolate. Or salty foods like potato chips. This is where we’ve managed to program our taste buds, and our body, to only want sweet or salty foods and drinks.
The good news is, taste buds regenerate every 1–2 weeks.
Experiment by not eating sweets or salty (processed foods) for 2 weeks, then introduce vegetables that you haven’t liked before. You might be surprised by your new taste perception.
Remember, eating is a learned behavior. We need to see, feel, smell, hear, and/or taste a new food 10 to 15 times before we eat and enjoy the food.
Apply Camouflage
Pick a meal that you already like, and add small amounts of vegetables to it. For example:
- Lasagne/Pasta sauce — add diced mushroom and celery, grated zucchini, and carrot.
- Smoothies — add spinach or kale to a banana smoothie.
- Soups — can hide all sorts of veggies. Pick one and give it a go.
- Frittatas/Omelettes — add mushrooms, asparagus, tomatoes.
Swap them around
Use vegetables in place of more traditionally used foods like:
‘Zucchini noodles’ instead of pasta or noodles. Use a spiralizer or vegetable peeler to make ribbons. ‘
‘Cauliflower rice’ replaces white or brown rice. Simply grate, dice or pulse in a food processor until the cauliflower resembles rice.
‘Fries’ can now be made from almost anything now too — carrots, parsnips, sweet potato.
Dunk and cover
The idea is to make the veggies taste better. Nothing does that better than dipping them in tomato or BBQ sauce — ask any kid! This extends out to any dip, sauce, or dressing — Hummus, Guacamole, Aioli, Ranch… Cheese sauce was the only way I would eat cauliflower as a kid!
Olive oil and lemon juice, Avocado oil, flaxseed oil, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar are great choices for salad dressings and cooked veggies.
Secret herbs and spices
Herbs and spices are another great way to change the taste of veggies. There are so many choices — Basil, Thyme, Rosemary, Coriander/cilantro, Parsley, Garlic, Ginger, Cumin, Salt, and Pepper…
There’s more than one way to slice and cook it
You’ve tried boiled <insert offending vegetable name here> once and they were sloppy and tasteless. Ever tried it sautéed with butter, or roasted with olive oil? I promise it would be a totally different experience.
You need to experiment until you find a texture and a taste that you like.
Cutting options:
- Slice — thin or thick.
- Dice — small, medium, or large. Small is good when mixing up with other veggies or protein to help hide the taste.
- Spiralize — invest in a spiraliser. So much fun to eat veggies and fruit when they look like a slinky! Zucchini, carrots, cucumber, parsnips…
- Grate — useful when trying to hide veggies.
- Julienne/Match-stick — thin or thick.
Cooking variations:
- Steam — best way to retain the nutrients in the veg.
- Bake, Roast, Grill — easy and tasty. The veggies caramelize so they become sweet and crisp.
- Stir-fry, Sauté— use a little olive or coconut oil for some extra goodness. Stir-fry is usually at a higher heat than Sauté.
- Braise, Stew — one-pot stews are a great way to introduce new veggies.
- Boil — cook veggies for a few minutes in boiling water until they become bright in color. Otherwise, they become mushy and waterlogged.
- Raw — the non-cook variation.
Cooking in olive oil, coconut oil, ghee or butter also are healthy options and adds extra flavor.
It’s not the bean all and end-all
Vitamins and minerals are found in all different foods, in varying quantities. Fruit, meats, legumes, nuts, and seeds are all healthy options if vegetables really aren’t your thing. For example:
- Vitamin A is found in spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes but also in egg yolk, whole milk, rockmelon/cantaloupe, apricots, and mango.
- Iron is found in spinach, kale, swiss chard, and also eggs, basil, tempeh, oysters, mussels, coriander, almonds, and cashews.
- Potassium found in cabbage, parsnips, snow peas, pumpkin, broccoli, and bok choy is also found in apples, apricots, grapes, nectarines, passionfruit, and pears.
Last resort
If you are concerned that you not getting enough nutrients from your diet, please seek professional help from a nutritionist, dietitian, or GP.
They will be able to assess if it is in fact an issue, and perhaps suggest supplementation or a personalized plan for you.
Vegetables aren’t that scary
Vegetables are a good source of vitamins and minerals and they do indeed help us to stay healthy.
There are so many types to choose from, ways to prepare them, to hide them and disguise them, or simply healthy ways to replace them.
Vegetables may never be your favorite food, but you appreciate their importance in a balanced diet and know your body will love you for eating them.
So pick an idea from the list above, and give vegetables another try.
You just might surprise yourself!