Many of us are all too familiar with the claim, "I don't like vegetables." But for optimal health including the recommended five serving of fruits and vegetables a day means both fruits and vegetables! By the way the CDC has changed the "5 A Day" slogan to a "More Matters" slogan.
Fruits and Vegetables Can Protect Your Health
Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that may help protect you from chronic diseases. Compared with people who consume a diet with only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, those who eat more generous amounts as part of a healthful diet are likely to have reduced risk of chronic diseases, including stroke and perhaps other cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers.Because fruit is so easy to like. It's sweet, it's easy to grab, it requires no kitchen, let alone cooking. Fruits are the candy of the plant world. It's vegetables we need to really concentrate on.
Take the Veggie Challenge. Why don’t we start with how we verbalize this, let's replace "I don't like vegetables" with "I don't like canned peas" and substitute "I don't like creamed vegetables" with "I don't care for creamed carrots." That way, the language itself leaves open the possibility of liking vegetables -- versus excluding the entire family of vegetables, versus nixing a particular vegetable, versus forgoing all vegetables prepared a certain way. Can you name five vegetables you have cooked in the last month. Can you? Most of us eat the same couple of vegetables, I am sure most of you, (including myself) said broccoli, cooked in the same way again and again. To eat more vegetables, first get out of the rut of your own version of same-old same-old broccoli. Start by identifying new vegetables to try. How about a vegetable in a new way every single week for a month? Think about it as a veggie challenge. Change the proportions of protein and vegetables. When I crakc open my favorite cookbooks, I'm often struck by how little meat is called for, how often meals are built around the vegetable. To follow this idea, change up a favorite recipe that today includes both meat and vegetables: use less meat, use more vegetables. Or keep the same amount of meat, add more vegetables and keep the portion volume the same. Instantly, each portion includes more vegetables.
Move vegetables to the center of the plate. I mean this both figuratively and literally. First, the figurative. When planning the week's menus, start with the vegetable, then plan the meal around it, as in, "Tonight we're having roasted asparagus. Let's see, that would taste great with roasted salmon." Now the literal. Place the asparagus in the center of the plate, letting it star. Then place the salmon to the side. Doing this visually modifies what stands out, what's more important. The most nutritious vegetables are bright- and deep-colored. Think the orange of sweet potatoes, the crimson of tomatoes. Vegetables add verve and color to a plate, especially compared to cooked meat. Use the color to please the eye and inspire the appetite.
Keep an easy backup handy. Some nights, getting a vegetable onto the table is just too much. For $1 a pound, you can buy frozen vegetables that are flash-frozen and quite good. Pick the bags that are just vegetables, no butter sauces, no spices. Best picks are frozen green beans, frozen peas, frozen broccoli (though watch for bags that are mostly stalk), frozen cauliflower and frozen corn.
Whenever possible, choose fresh. I also learned, over time, that for flavor and texture, there's really no comparison between fresh and frozen. If you want to fall in love with vegetables, pick fresh vegetables, the fresher the better. For maximum flavor and nutrition, eat summer vegetables during summer, eat fall vegetables in the fall, eat greens and root vegetables during the winter and then ... come back to summer vegetables! To every vegetable, there is a season. Keep an easy backup handy. Some nights, getting a vegetable onto the table is just too much. For $1 a pound, you can buy frozen vegetables that are flash-frozen and quite good. Pick the bags that are just vegetables, no butter sauces, no spices. Best picks are frozen green beans, frozen peas, frozen broccoli (though watch for bags that are mostly stalk), frozen cauliflower and frozen corn.
Eat salad first. I love the French practice of ending a meal with a salad. But for once, the American practice of beginning the meal with a salad is preferable. Starting off with leafy greens and vegetables satiates hunger, can't be gulped in a single swallow. It helps us slow down, relax, start a conversation, before moving onto the main course.
Experiment with vegetarian meals. We needn't give up meat in order to eat more vegetables. But what about planning one vegetarian meal a week? Be careful about replacing the meat with starches (read: pasta and rice), instead focus on vegetables with beans and whole grains.
Try vegetable versions of family favorites. We all love lasagna, right? What about a spinach lasagne or a butternut squash lasagna or a lasagna that replaces the pasta noodles with strips of eggplant? Oh, and avoid the bacon and cheese trap. Sure, vegetables taste extra good layered with cheese and topped with bacon. But these ingredients add calories, expense and honestly -- the taste that's being developed is not for vegetables, per se but for more bacon and more cheese, both of which are best eaten in extemely limited quantities.