Ask you to help me eat vegetables? Fussy eater

[BlueCrystalM]

I’m a terrible eater ... my favourite meal would be chicken nuggets and chips.

I don’t know if it’s anxiety but my throat seems to close up at the thought of eating vegetables ... I can’t undetstsbd how people find them tasty.

I’d love to be able to eat a salad

The secret to salad is salad dressing. Took me many years to really find that, my mum never ever used it.
Get a preprepared salad that has dressing and things in it you know you like - olives? Feta? and have some of the new stuff, broken up with the things you already like.

Thank you for all the suggestions ... it’s strange when I’ve had lettuce in the past it honestly tastes like I’m eating wet leaves from a tree and it sometimes makes my tongue feel like it’s swelling

Fussy eater here too.

My advice is pick the one thing that is most important to you at the moment.

So for me, it was tomatoes - i realised years ago that not liking tomatoes was massively limiting my food options from oven bakes to salads even pizza was out of bounds for me. So... I decided to eat one small tomato (raw) with every meal until I got over it.

Took about a week and I really had to force myself for the first couple of days (retching and all) but by the end of the week I could tolerate them and now I really like them in (most) of their forms.

Op not to be presumptuous but is there any chance you have a food phobia?
www.anxietycare.org.uk/docs/eating.asp
I only ask as a friend had a similar issue, she felt sick at the thought of veg and fruit texture and it made her gag. She did some CBT and exposure therapy and has a much more varied diet now.

Try putting things in water first to get used to the taste, cucumber & mint or watermelon or lemon water is nice.

They say you kids have to taste something 20 times before they accept a new taste as nice.

Just keep persevering in small quantities.

There is stuff I love now that I hated when I was younger. Your taste buds are continually changing or perhaps you just get used to stuff as per the 20 tastes.

I'm guessing that you probably don't do a lot of cooking from scratch and it is a lot easier to get veg down yourself if you do. Sleephead's suggestion of adding veg into other things is an excellent idea. I'm a really fussy eater and there's loads of veg I don't like but I can eat a savoury mince with LOADS of different veg in it, chopped up really fine so I don't even notice it. The trick is to ensure it is well flavoured with meat stock (Bovril is a good instant flavouring) and (for me) garlic. Bolognese sauce contains as a minimum tomatoes and onions, and lots of people put in celery, carrots and mushrooms as well, and I love a good stew with lots of carrots and onion, swede, celery and a some parsnip in it with beef. Parsnip chips or sweet potato chips are great with sausages. Just a thought - have you tried vegetable crisps? Not an ideal way to eat vegetables but perhaps a good way to introduce yourself to the taste? (I could NEVER eat kale crisps though.....)

Hell I'm a vegan and I don't like tomatoes! For me the best way of putting lots of fruit and veg into your diet is smoothies and soups. Soups are very easy to makee that's a good way to start... you can start off blitzing it so it's smooth and then maybe move onto chunkier soups like potato and leek xxx

It's also ok to NOT like a few things. I personally don't like raw tomato or bananas so I don't force myself to try and eat them. If lettuce makes you feel odd, try something else, cucumber, broccoli, sweet bell peppers, carrots, peas?

What fruit and vegetables DO you like?

There are so many different types of vegetable and so many different ways to cook them.

So many dressings, sauces and spices you can add.

You can learn to love veg. I went from eating very few vegetables to eating most types, not I have a roast dinner with 5-6 vegetables. I eat veg in pasta sauces, in stir fries, in curries, chillies, fajitas, on pizzas and more. I learnt to cook them to my tastes.

It's difficult to suggest where to start without knowing a bit more about the types of foods you like.

use to be like you but you need to season veg with garlic

Do you like mash potato? If so go halves with sweet potato - you won’t really notice the difference.

Ooh I come into my own here. I grew up convinced I didn't like vegetables, but it turns out they just need to be cooked/prepared properly.

Cruncy lettuce gives me reflux, but I love rocket and baby spinach. There are so many different leaves. You need to try lots. Remember you often need to try something at least three times before you get over the novelty and know whether you really dislike it. Salad dressings are your friend. Find one you like (recipe or bottle) and add it to your leaves. I love a balsamic reduction.

Roasted root vegetables are often the most palatable. Start with those. Use herbs/spices/seasonings you know you like, or try different ones. Honey roasted carrots.

'Hide' veg in things. Add grated carrot or courgette to mince and make burgers. Make a tomato sauce with blended up veg.

Add bacon (if you like it) to green veg. Or garlic, or ginger or any other seasonings.

There are so many different vegetables. It's okay not to like all of them! Just keep trying until you find things you like.

Vegetables I like

Carrots, sweet potato, peas, green beans, courgette.

I like tomato sauces on pasta

And I absolutely hate onions ... and most salads seem to have them in.

My grandma used to make huge bowls of potato salad and just the sight of it and smell made me heave

I hate wet lettuce too.

It has very little nutrition so it’s not an important thing to eat.

Onions don’t have much in them either.

What is important to eat is leafy green veg and things like broccoli cauliflower and colourful veg like peppers, red cabbage etc.

Try to think of it as a rainbow and eat a variety of colours.

Until I was 19 I hated mushrooms, like really hated and could detect the smallest bit in a meal, it would make me gag and heave
Then I got together with DH and he and his housemates had mushrooms in lots of cooking so I used to just pick them out but slowly somewhere along the line I started eating them and now I will happily eat a bowl of mushrooms by themselves!!

I like tomato sauces on pasta

Hide vegetables in the tomato sauce! I blitz carrot, leek, onion, celery, pepper (and whatever else is hanging about in the fridge) in the food processor. Add tinned tomatoes, passata and herbs, bring to the boil and simmer for about twenty minutes. Whizz with a stick blender if you want it really smooth. I make a huge batch of this, portion it up and freeze it.

Given your list I would suggest roasted butternut squash, edamame beans, cucumbers (cut them into the same shape as you would normally a carrot/try eating with dip) and, veg grated into tomatoes sauce for pasta like aubergine or five diced peppers.

You like more vegetables than I thought!

Do you like curry? The only way I can eat carrot is in curry sauce so I don’t taste them.

Try mange tout, they are basically flat peas that you eat the pod of as well.

I add cauliflower to cheese sauce in macaroni cheese and mashed potato all the time to get extra veg in my dc.

Kale isn’t as bitter as other leafy green veg, and lovely as crisps, as someone mentioned above.

My go to veg for most meals are : peas, sweet corn, carrots and broccoli.

I would try coleslaw,lettuce /salad leavesin sandwiches(cheese and rocket is my favourite).Make your own salads,try shredding your lettuce,try different ones.I like little gem because is not too bitter and keeps for ages in the fridge.Honestly if you like courgettes you're well ahead of a lot of people.
Growing your own rocket and lettuce is east and needs little space.

If you make your own salad you can leave out onion and lettuce - I'm not very keen on lettuce myself and I'm veggie! I prefer rocket BUT you can do what I call a "chunky" salad with no leaves - cucumber, peppers, sweetcorn, carrots, mushrooms... Just diced in a little dressing

I make my own passata based sauces for pasta, stir fries, curries,
casseroles and stews - dead easy and easy to "disguise" veggies in - doesn't have to be onions - celery, broccoli, spinach, courgette, aubergine, squash... Lots of mums do this with children that don't like veg. Once mixed in and flavoured you probably won't even notice.

And don't be too hard on yourself most of us stick to favourites. In my house that tends to be:

baked beans, peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn (inc baby corn), broccoli, spinach (frozen - I sneak into soups and sauces - dd would swear she doesn't like it and never has it 😂) carrots and butternut squash.

Remember too there are things made from veggies like houmous or salsa and they can even be used in cakes - carrot cake or using beetroot in choc fudge cake (makes it lovely and moist).

Dd is quite weird in that she's really not keen on potatoes especially chips/fries. She'll very occasionally have them as mash or roasted but carbs tend to be pasta, noodles or cous cous.

Also I like courgettes and aubergine but they don't freeze very well and as dd doesn't like I don't get them often.

Meant to say - I'm not keen on "creamy salads" either like coleslaw and potato salad but I do like sauerkraut and pickled red cabbage.

Almost any veg is lovely roasted with garlic, olive oil and chilli.

Pumpkin, cauliflower, tomatoes, red pepper...

If you feel it is like a phobia around trying new foods please have a look at www.felixeconomakis.com - he is a psychologist specialising in food phobias, and will do online or face to face sessions, or there are videos available to buy.