Salad. Can't eat it. Anyone else?

[Jenthefredo]

As above, really ^
I was born in the 70s into a poor family. Salad wasn't really a "thing" to eat even at school.
Obviously, I know that salad is good for me. And not many calories (I'm trying to lose weight...) but...I just hate it.
I don't enjoy eating it and - as I've aged - I don't seem to be able to digest it properly 🤮
It makes me feel quite sick.
I've tried to make salads more interesting - flavoured oils, herbs, radishes, peppers, homemade coleslaw etc
Even sliced skillet cooked nectarines!
Nothing makes it more palatable to me.
Am I the only one? :(

So what do you like eating? What deficiencies do you perceive in your diet which eating salad would remedy? Why is it a problem that you don’t like salad?! I don’t understand.

Ha! I love salad, all veg and fruit. I loved 70's school dinner salads with a twist of orange as garnish. DP is a proper veg and salad dodger . He's got better over the years with cooked veg. But he does not know what to do with salad leaves when he is chewing them. It's a texture thing for him. And he hates celery/cucumber. Not keen on tomatoes that are 'too tomatoey'. Interestingly, he does have IBS and other bowel issues But still, he's reasonably hail and hearty at 51. Still annoying us all .

I don't like salad leaves. I hate anything peppery. Can't stand raw onion, radish, celery, sweetcorn, mushrooms... or anything sweet like raisins. I don't like egg.
So my salads are quite select.
Spinach, cucumber, tomato, olives, pickled cabbage, feta, pine nuts, avocado, mange tour, houmous. Doesn't fill me up though. I prefer cooked veg.

Nobody has to eat salad

Just eat cooked veg instead, or veg soup, and/or fruit

Easy

No?

I love salads!!

But I wouldn't eat limp iceberg and plain cucumber. I add lots of seasoning, nice quality tomatoes and mozzarella or spices... It needs to be prepped nicely!

I can eat it, I just don't see the point of it a lot of the time. I like some raw veg - carrot, celery, cucumber - and tolerate some leaves, but some e.g. rocket are just too peppery or bitter for my taste, so it's all just a bit bland. Not a big fan of dressings. Hate raw tomato and olives. Not an avocado fan. This makes me sound a lot more fussy than I really am, I just don't enjoy salad!

Potato salad and pasta salad don't count.

I love salad

I love salad.

Baby cos, beetroot, carrot, broccoli, cucumber and feta with oven baked lemon salmon for dinner last night. Delicious!

I'm not a dressing fan; only sometimes will have a splash of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon if having a vegetarian salad.

Have you tried hot salad ?

I make a stir fry with spring greens/spinach/kale with mange tout, baby corn, strips of carrot and courgette and sometimes have that in place of a salad.
Tbh, any cookable veg that I have in the fridge goes in it.

I don’t believe anyone wouldn’t like or couldn’t eat any salad. That’s about three dozen vegetables that ‘disagree’ with you. Really?

Do you really not like any of the following?
Lettuce in any guise
Any sort of cabbage
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Radish
Carrot
Onions
Peppers
Beetroot
Sweet potatoes
Cauliflower
Mushrooms
Peaches
Apples
Nuts
Cress
Watercress
Potatoes
Courgette
Corn
Beans
Lentils
Mange tout
Green beans
Olives
Watermelon
Oranges
Chicory
Bean sprouts
Kale
Pineapple
Apple
Avocado
Asparagus

You really can’t eat any of them?

Every single time I have a salad I get sudden, explosive diarrhoea.

I cannot abide iceberg lettuce. It tastes so bitter to me, but I'm okay with baby leaf salad if the leaves aren't stalky. Not keen on celery, but other salad stuff is fine.

I have had to talk myself into being "grown up" about salad, and now would eat it daily if someone else prepped it for me - it's a faff, chopping, slicing, tossing blah blah blah. But... I guess if you're getting veg and fruit in your diet regularly then salad isn't an essential!

I like salad more than cooked veg, but I basically make it as a side to suffer through before I get to my ‘proper’ food

I don’t mind the components of a salad but there’s no denying it’s nicer when you add cheese, carbs and a fatty dressing, which defeats the purpose when trying to lose weight

You’re not alone, I too hate salad, the only thing that makes it palatable is the dressing. Unfortunately today I’ve been fasting (5:2, 500 cals) so earlier I had a tuna fish salad - yuck.

It's the leaves I don't like, but agree with you OP, I try and eat it as I know it's healthy (don't like dressings either) but feel like I've failed as an adult somehow because I do everything else that's (meant) to be good for me.

I am also trying to lose weight and I don't like most salad ingredients apart from cucumber so I just have chopped carrot and cucumber with a bit of quinoa. Boring but at least I can eat it.

I quite like a salad, but it's the mix 'n' match family preferences that drive me mad.
DS1 has senisory issues. I can understand why the umpteen textures of a tomato offend him.
DH thinks cucumbers are bitter (apparently this is a thing?)
DS2 hates olives
None like leaves except one child liles watercress.
And so on and so forth.

They are the same with vegetables.
We all like carrots.

I was so much better at eating healthily before the DCs had opinions and whem DH worked away more frequently!

OP If you don't like salad then don't eat it!

I am not a fruit and veg lover so just eat the things I do like to tick that 5 a day box (well, more like 3) and none of the things I'd be forcing down when I'm not keen.

Now a salad I do like is one from the salad bar at Pizza Hut but considering that consists of potatoes, mayo, pasta, fried onion bits... it's not like a salad described on here!

The idea of a hot salad makes me feel a bit funny 🥴
I don't have to eat salad of course but its just when you are trying to lose weight most meals are salad based/have a salad component.
I get it...they are mostly water!
I'm glad I'm not alone in my salad hatred :) I sometimes feel like the only adult I know who feels this way!
Thank you for the solidarity :)

@CallMeCleo

Every single time I have a salad I get sudden, explosive diarrhoea.

You see, salad does make you lose weight.

70's salad loving child here ! My grandad grew his own vegetables and there really is nothing like home grown salad veg. Tomatoes from a garden greenhouse are so sweet and juicy.

The only leaf I cannot abide is rocket, what is the point of it, horrible texture and bitter taste, pretentious 'Soho weed'. Apparently its been around for hundreds of years but it's not something my grandad would have entertained growing in his garden

I also hate salad (yes, even the Mumsnet "HUGE salad", to be "wolfed down" by the "strapping teens" - I fail as an adult). The texture of leaves is just horrid. I also hate cucumber and the way it taints anything it touches with its nasty cucumber flavour, celery is also evil.
I also don't do uncooked fruit, again it's a texture thing.
I don't have a restricted diet, I enjoy lots of foods from a variety of cuisines. Some would be traditionally classed as healthy, some not so (though I hate the concept of 'good' and 'bad' foods, all things in moderation as part of a balanced diet).
I really wouldn't worry about it.

I don't enjoy eating it, I can handle it as a garnish to something more interesting but I would never eat a salad on its own because it's so boring. I like onions, spring onions, tomatoes and cucumber but I usually eat them separately instead of mixed together. I would take a side of vegetables over a salad any day.

I only like lettuce and tomato. Cucumbers give me raging heartburn and peppers / radishes/celery make me heave, I can’t even eat anything that a pepper has touched. Mushrooms and onions make me ill so there’s not a lot left.
A ‘salad’ for me is lettuce and tomato with sweetcorn and croutons, ham/chicken and boiled egg with LOTS of salad cream.

If you don't like it, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with eating veg in another way. A big bowl of steamed/roasted veg for lunch. A nice home-made soup....