Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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( First post on here guys :) ) Im 20 and i still dont like vegetables..

Most of what i eat is paleo, clean and natural foods. Lots of meats and good fats, nuts and fruit from time to time. But i still have problem eating vegetables? I thought id have grown up by now and started likeing them but i literally cant eat more than afew bits of vege before i have to stop. Wonder if anyone else experienced the same growing up? I feel like it might be my childhood ego still saying no and that maybe if i start incorporating more vege into my diet, i will take a liking to them? I love reading and studying about paleo and this is my only problem. I have vegetable juice and multi vitamins, would this be beneficial atleast? Any Tips or methods would be great!!

flag	asked Sep 25 at 17:36 Matthew 11●1

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Vegetables are very important in your diet. You might want to take the advice from many of the author's of the paleo books and "get over it". You need to experiment with cooking techniques and herbs/spices/sauces until you find something you like. Palates change over time, but not on their own. If you are truly concerned with health, you can do it. – NewEra Sep 25 at 18:50

i make quiches or pseudo quiches, egg/coconut flour, butter, and grated zuchinni, or spinach, or whatever. And I think it taste awesome like this, I too hate vegetables that is why I eat kale and collard greens to get the most bang for my buck. but collard greens fried with crumbled bacon and lard/ cow tallow yum... bacon makes everything better, wrap a shoe in bacon I just may eat it... – Robert Sep 25 at 19:20

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@NewEra - what evidence is there that vegetables are very important in your diet? I seriously doubt our paleolithic ancestors ate very much green stuff at all, and the majority of plant matter they ate would have been the more calorie-dense stuff like tubers, fruits, and nuts. – Domer88 Sep 25 at 20:42

@Domer88, do you honestly think they had an endless supply of meat? Hunting was hard work and not always fruitful. – MathGirl72 Sep 25 at 21:11

Agreed, but they weren't foraging for broccoli and asparagus. Non-meat calories would have come from dense sources. Vegetables are mostly fiber. – Domer88 Sep 26 at 0:41

PhysiqueRescue · Answer 1 · 2012-09-25 18:41:46Z UTC

Your taste will change dramatically in the next few years and on. I was in a similar boat when I was in my early twenties, I wasn't a huge veg fan either. You couldn't pay me to eat a plate of spinach or broccoli. Have you tried blending your vegetables? There are some great sites out there for green smoothies that incorporate some fruits for taste. I typically consume a spinach salad and some form of steamed vegetables with some melted ghee over them. There are some really good "meat salads" that could be made to help you incorporate spinach. I actually LOVE roasted asparagus (roasted ghee or coconut oil).

Matt
PhysiqueRescue.com

psychopompous · Answer 2 · 2012-09-25 18:45:27Z UTC

try cooking them in different ways. slow roasting them in the oven makes them soft and sweetens them a bit. drizzle a little olive oil and some balsamic vinegar on them... or try steaming and adding butter or coconut oil and spices (curry powder is amazing). sometimes it just takes a while to get the right blend of flavor and cooking methods to agree to your palate.

Spears · Answer 3 · 2012-09-25 18:36:49Z UTC

Vegetables are not absolutely essential. They're primarily consumed for their antioxidants which you can find in fruits, cherry juice and tea, etc. I don't like vegetables that much myself and to be honest I incorporate them into my diet as I'm trying to be healthy and have sort of come to like them. The only reason I have chopped frozen spinach in my freezer is for health not pleasure.

If I could eat whatever I wanted and magically get away with it I'd just consume french fries, curry, beer and chocolate and never go to the gym either. My brother hilariously bragged at 16 years of age that he'd never eaten a vegetable in his life. We all laughed and said it might be more compelling health advice if he was saying it at 96.

But don't you like mushrooms and onions fried in butter and/or the juices of your favorite meat. What's not to like? Hash browns made by frying up diced sweet potato are fantastic too, you should be able to squeeze a few portions of tasty fried veg into your day.

Happy Now · Answer 4 · 2012-09-25 22:00:19Z UTC

If you can't bring yourself to eat them there are other options.

If you are supplementing with a green powder drink you are probably doing okay.

You can get a substantial amount of green vegetable nutrition from herbs. Finely chopped parsley, cilantro, basil, oregano, sage, thyme, dill, etc. disappear beautifully into food.

Have you tried lacto-fermented veggies like kim chi, sauerkraut, carrots, and dill pickles?

Herbal teas are also a good source of minerals from green leafy things, try things like peppermint, red raspberry leaf, and nettle.

EvaFolsom · Answer 5 · 2012-09-26 05:45:50Z UTC

It's great that you're taking your health so seriously and working so hard to care for your body! As to the question of whether vegetables are important/necessary for health, I found this video <http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxIowaCity-Dr-Terry-Wahls-Min> by Dr. Terry Wahls really informative and motivating. She describes how she cured herself of MS by basically eating a paleo diet that included a whole bunch of veggies. She talks about the research on different types of vegetables, why she started eating so many veggies, and how it helped her health. She's very research-based.

About how to get yourself enjoying veggies--my hubby totally wouldn't touch veggies when we first started living together and I made it sort of my personal challenge to see if I could get him to enjoy them. Nowadays (15 years later) he enjoys tons of them. In less than a year, he was enjoying zucchini and spinach.

I started with the zucchini. Initially, I peeled them (gets rid of most of the nutrients, but it was a baby step), chopped them into tiny pieces (like, half-centimeter cubes) and sauteed them with in lots of butter with garlic salt. I picked garlic salt because the flavor is very simple and was something he liked already. This was way before Paleo, so I tossed the little flavored zucchini bits into pasta with parmesan and more butter. You might be able to accomplish the same thing by putting the little bits of veggie into something else that you already like, say cut up bacon or other meat.

I did the same thing with spinach: I cut it really small and put it into sundried tomato pesto, which he already liked, then stirred it into pasta which he was totally into. You might put it on a potato? I knew that all my effort was making a difference when we found ourselves fighting over the last leaves of spinach in the pasta bowl!

I don't know if it will work for you, but it worked for him. Good luck with it!

Still dont like vege

5 Answers