Bound to get a roasting... vegetable-related AIBU?

[Valan]

On Facebook last night, I stumbled upon a post I cannot really understand. I mean, I obviously DO understand it. But I'm sad that people live like this.

A middle aged lady in the USA posted the following:

"So, I have never really tried very many vegetables. I just was never offered them when I was little, and so I assumed I didn't like them. Yesterday I tried asparagus for the first time...it's amazing. What other vegetable deliciousness have I been missing out on? I don't like cooked broccoli, but I will eat it raw. I like carrots, cooked and raw.
Tl;dr: what are your favorite vegetables?"

In the UK I'd like to kids don't grow up never having tastes vegetables. AIBU to think this? Or am I incredibly naive? If I AIBU, what can we do to fix this?

[MrsNextDoor]

Long try that when your child won't eat "Wet food" like my DD! She won't eat mashed anything either. Luckily as she#'s grown...she's got a bit better and will eat raw carrots, cucumber and green beans.

[MidniteScribbler]

I have to consciously include salad and fruit items in meals for DS. My parents didn't eat salad and I've never really liked many salad items, and I don't like much fruit either. I don't want DS to be the same so I make sure he gets plenty. I'll happily eat a plate of veges though, so I eat plenty of those to make up for not eating salad and fruit.

[lljkk]

I know a woman (native Londoner) in her late 60s who never eats veg or fruit & can't remember ever eating them.

I grew up eating plenty of raw veg but almost none cooked.

DC4 barely eats any veg, argh.

[longlistofexlovers]

If I had a kid that didn't like veg I'd grate them and hide them in other stuff. Sauces, mash etc.

[EmmaWoodlouse]

I know an 11 year old boy and a 40ish woman (not related) who don't like any vegetables. In both cases nobody seems to have put any pressure on them to keep trying, and now the boy claims to eat no vegetables at all, unless you count tomato sauce, and only one or two types of fruit, and the woman eats about 2 vegetables, neither of them green, but loads of fruit. I also used to know an old lady who only liked runner beans - she ate them with every meal, but never ate any other vegetables at all.

If I had a child who didn't like any vegetables (fortunately this didn't happen), I don't think I would make a battle of it, but I would keep trying introducing different ones and never say something like "I don't think you'll like this". Even if they only ended up liking quite unusual vegetables, that's better than nothing. I'd probably also make quite a lot of use of veggieburgers (not the ones that are just imitation meat, the ones that contain bits of carrot, beans, peppers etc), and if they liked them, hope that as they got older they would recognise that they liked those vegetables in that form so they might like them in other forms.

[Canyouforgiveher]

When I grew up, you just wouldn't see asparagus in the shops. We had cauliflower, turnip, peas, cabbage, brussel sprouts, potatoes, onions - basically stuff that was locally grown. Maybe the woman in the OP was the same. The range of veg available to buy now is radically different from even 20 or 30 years ago. Raises other questions of transporting food in etc.

[ifgrandmahadawilly]

YABU.

I think that in the last few years there has been a huge explosion in the array of foods available. Things that used to be thought of as specialities are now widely available.

There are loads of vegetables I never tried when I was a kid and I grew up in the UK. In my family we grew up on a mixture of traditional British fayre and american style junk food. I think of veg in terms of 'normal vegetables' like carrots, peas, cauliflower, cabbage, root vet, sweetcorn, salad etc and 'posh vegetables' (i.e. stuff we never had at home) eg. spinach, asparagus, butternut squash, sweet potato, kale.

The posh stuff I never got the opportunity to try until my 20's. Thinking about it, school dinners in the 90's only served things like carrots and peas, nothing special.

I don't think school cookery was very good back then either. I realised this after my first experiment with butternut squash the other day when I suddenly realised I had no idea how to prepare it.

[UnspecialSnowflake]

I was brought up eating a pretty good range of fruit and veg for the era (1970s), my grandparents grew a lot of their own veg and tomatoes and cucumber in the greenhouse, and we had friends with allotments so most of it was seasonal, plentiful and free.

In comparison DH grew up with parents who ran a pub, and he was mostly fed on pub grub, lots of jumbo sausages and scampi and very little veg. When I first met him he claimed to hate all veg and would simply push it to the side of his plate. It turned out he didn't really hate veg, he just thought he did because he'd never tried most of it. He now eats almost everything except cabbage and sprouts, although he still makes a point of telling me that he's eaten all his veg.

[Imustgodowntotheseaagain]

I don't think I had asparagus or aubergine as a kid. We had cabbage, peas, potatoes, carrots and iceberg lettuce. That's about it. Occasional cauliflower. I try and eat new veg but I really struggle with fruit. Apples, bananas and pears. Can't manage anything else, the texture makes me gag.

[OldBloodCallsToOldBlood]

I do think it's a privilege/class thing but I also think attitudes are slowly changing and children are getting more exposure to fruit and veg. I grew up eating 'children's meals' like french bread pizza and cheesy mashed potato with spaghetti hoops instead of a smaller portion of whatever my parents were eating, because my mum assumed I wouldn't like 'adult' food. Adult food like vegetables. It took me a long time to realise I liked vegetables!

My DS has SED as part of his autism, so there is no way I can get him to eat anything green because he has a genuine aversion to it. However, he is not allowed to say he doesn't like something if he hasn't tried it. I always, always counter his 'I don't like that' with 'Have you tried it? You have to try it before you can decide if you like it or not'. I expose him to fruits and vegetables all the time but he's firmly of the opinion that only beige food is ok.

[Notso]

SIL and her DH and BIL and his DW don't eat much veg between them.
SIL's husband is the worst he eats no veg at all. Not even anything tomato based, he has pizza with no sauce on. He eats cooked or blended fruit but not a piece of fruit.
BIL's wife eats vegetable soup but not whole veg. She eats fruit though.
BIL eats carrots but only if they are mashed.
SIL has started eating peppers and mushrooms and eats parsnips.

I do think part of the problem is over cooking of veg. MIL always said she thought asparagus was horrible until I cooked her some. It turned out she had always boiled it for 20 mins like she does everything else all her greens are that awful dark colour.

[LaLyra]

When I was younger the only vegetables I would eat were mushrooms and potatoes. My grandparents grew peas so for one week I'd eat peas (wouldn't eat them from a tin or even bought) and I ate blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries from the garden. Other than that I'd eat apples and pears.

They had to go with it because they simply couldn't afford to buy things that I might not eat. They were landed with 4 children unexpectedly and often one one of them ate an evening meal.

Even now I've never tried broccoli or cauliflower because I hate the texture of it when I pick it up so I can't bear to put it near my mouth. Don't know what it is. Luckily my husband is a hoover when it comes to veg so I can afford to put a few dishes on the table, let the kids help themselves (which seems to work better for mine that putting set amounts on their plate) and if anything's left he'll scoff it.

[BlackeyedSusan]

I suspect the no veggies, token veggies is not uncommon. people claim that school dinners are healthier than packed lunches, while the dinners are not that healthy if the wrong options are chosen by the kids. people comment on the amount of fruit and veggies my children eat, so I am assuming that less veggies and fruit is the norm.

[toomuchtooold]

My mum used to run a school kitchen in Glasgow. They have done a LOT of stuff to get the kids to eat fruit and veg, especially to simply try it and recognise it, which I think is really important. With two toddlers in the house I have massive sympathy though for anyone trying to get their kids to eat well on a tight budget. We can afford to waste a bit, so we give them a variety of stuff, but the only things I can guarantee they will eat are fish fingers, tomato ketchup, popcorn, that sort of thing. Fruit and veg are a bit of a crapshoot, so a lot gets wasted. I have an incredibly healthy bin

[WorldsBiggestGrotbag]

Inanimate she's bound to be thin if she lives on vitamin pills!

[InanimateCarbonRod]

Colleague in work told me that she would rather take a few vitamin pills a day rather than eat. She's never tasted most vegetables and nuts have never passed her lips (oi naughty I mean nuts nuts )

70% of my plate is vegetables with protein and some starch in the form of rice or potatoes. I eat really well, no processed food, no soft drinks, no chocolate, no wheat in any form.

Now for the kick in the teeth. She's a size 8 and I'm a size 20. WTF am I doing wrong? Should I give up my veg and nuts and start living on mars bars, coke and vitamin pills like her?

Unfair.

Sorry to derail. Needed to vent obviously.

[WorldsBiggestGrotbag]

Exactly Clutter, I don't know! He refused them as a child as he said he wouldn't like them and they've never made him try them.

[MrsNextDoor]

Oh yes Clutter my Mum does that! I can't understand it! I tell her but to no avail....and she hates them too....no wonder!

[CaptainSwan]

My best friend doesn't eat any fruit at all, she didn't used to eat veg either but has got better at that recently. Pretty wealthy and educated upbringing but I think they stopped bothering trying to give her any of them and now she can't abide the texture.

Sadly I think it's more common than you'd (like to) think. The phrase 'you won't like it' is one of the things I hate most being said to a child. Let them make their own minds up ffs. And offer things again and again and again, usually it just takes time.

[Clutterbugsmum]

apparently they have never made him try them as he has never liked them?! How does he/they know whether he likes them if he hasn't tasted them.

[Clutterbugsmum]

My dh didn't eat/like vegetables when we met, because his mum cooked/cooks them to death. Now the only veg he won't eat is white cabbage.

The funny thing is MIL moans that our DC won't eat veg, they do at home they/we just hate hers. For example she puts her veg on when she put the potatoes into roast. No vegetable with taste good that have been cooked for 45 min plus.

[WorldsBiggestGrotbag]

A friend of mine (a 30 year old lawyer!) only eats plain burgers, chips, dry chicken and cheese and tomato pizza. He will occasionally eat something else but it has to be completely plain. He has NEVER tried salad, doesn't eat a single vegetable or any fruit. He is from a household of educated people but apparently they have never made him try them as he has never liked them?!

[PinkPearlClutcher]

Honestly, that post could have been written by me.

My parents stopped giving me vegetables from about the age of 5 because I'd have huge tantrums and make myself sick if they were even on my plate.

I went to boarding school at 11 so nobody paid attention to what I ate.

I didn't eat a single vegetable between the age of 5 and 23. I am now slowly trying them. I can eat iceberg lettuce, broccoli and cucumber. I have tried carrot and hated it, and not tried anything else yet. It's almost like a phobia and is very hard for me to try new veg!

[specialsubject]

the trouble with year-round everything is that people think that stuff is tasteless, as well as looking perfect. Just because you can get imported tomatoes in January doesn't mean that you should buy or eat them.

the expectation that veg will last ten days (unless it is something like potatoes or onions) is also wrong.

you can have taste and nutrition, but you can't necessarily have convenience and perfect appearance. We need to learn what to prioritise - until we do, the supermarkets will keep feeding us tasteless pap.

although even that is better than junk.

turning down freshly grown veg? Unspeakable?

[SonceyD0g]

When I met my partner he ate iceburg lettuce, carrots, mushrooms, onions, tinned tomatoes, apples, pears and bananas. That's it!
He never had home cooked meals as a child.
I've managed to reprogramme him!