To not understand how a fully grown adult..

[LifesLittleDeciders]

Doesn’t like any vegetables at all?
I was just watching a video about a man who wanted to find recipes he could eat that don’t contain vegetables as he doesn’t like any veg.

I mean come on.. there’s as many flavours in different vegetables as there are colours in the world.. yet he would proclaim to ‘hate all colours’

I just don’t get it. Kids I sort of understand; especially when they descend from fussy parents. But I just think ‘grow up’ when I read about adults not touching vegetables. I’m not talking about “I don’t like broccoli or carrots” - won’t eat vegetables at all.

And the “salad? Do I look like a rabbit?” Slur that comes from people

Who won’t eat anything remotely green or healthy, that saying really boils my piss. Just say no thank you?!

I know IABU as it’s none of my business but it just made me roll my eyes and would be interested to hear others opinions on it.

PattyPan I'm not surprised . The thing is why make a beef bourguignon, which contains things I don't eat, when I can buy shin of beef and ox kidney and make stew and pies? If I leave out from beef bourguignon the things I don't like, eg garlic and mushrooms, why would I bother?

YANBU. However, I think for people who weren’t exposed to much in the way of new flavors or textures as children, it can be difficult to force yourself to broaden your horizons as an adult.

@CounsellorTroi

And it’s really fucking rude to express disgust, make faces or say yuck when people are enjoying food you don’t like. I’ve known some people like that.

I quite agree - my step sister used to do it....so utterly rude but also embarrassingly childish. She would pretend she was going to be sick etc etc yawn. She also revelled in making a complaint every time we were eating out - more often than not for some ridiculous reason (“the tomatoes in my salad have been sliced the wrong way!”) and in a rude, haughty way to the waiting staff. I think she thought she was showing her food “knowledge”.

I was brought up on terrible cubed frozen veg and sorry limp yellowing apples in the fruit bowl, so for years growing up had quite an aversion to fruit & veg.

Thankfully as an adult I've now realised I prefer fruit and veg to anything and eat an almost vegan diet and now grow tons of the food we eat too, to avoid packaging waste and because they just taste so much better.

The only things I don't like are banana or peppers.

It's a very childish way to behave. I don't have a lot of tolerance for fussy adults at all.

I remember visiting a friend, must have been about 16, and being really embarrassed that there was nothing that I would eat. I decided then that I would make myself eat some basic fruit and veg. But I think that I really began learning more when I moved out and began cooking more and experimenting more on my own. When I moved abroad it was another learning experience having to adapt and fit in.

For me it was an adult choice. I appreciate however that not everyone can do that.

@Butchyrestingface

I don't understand how anyone can dislike WATER, but I've known a few. ¯\(ツ)/¯

My MIL claims she can’t drink still water because she feels like she’s drowning 🤔 So she drinks sparkling water instead but she also drinks other still drinks like fruit juice. I find it a bit odd but she’s a lovely woman so who am I to judge?

I love vegetables and salad. As many PPs have said: there is such a wide variety of flavour, colour and texture, not to mention methods of cooking/seasoning. ‘Not liking’ any vegetables at all seems like a choice rather than anything else.

Having said that, I don’t eat much fruit. I can eat it and wouldn’t do performative gagging or whatever, I’m just not very keen on fruit generally (which is weird because I have a sweet tooth). Strictly speaking though, peppers and tomatoes are fruits and I eat a lot of those so hopefully that counts!

When people dismiss salad as ‘rabbit food’, I tend to assume they think that a salad is lettuce + tomato + cucumber, which of course it can be, but that is probably the world’s most boring salad, and wouldn’t be many people’s first choice of meal. How about using some leaves as a base and then adding almost anything you fancy. Avocado/peppers/pea shoots/watercress/nuts/seeds/chickpeas/
bacon/feta/prawns/smoked chicken/coriander/basil.....etc etc. Plus of course some dressing. There are myriad ways to make a really delicious salad!

Not suggesting all of those ingredients in the one salad, btw, that might be a bit hectic.

Sound good to me. I like a hectic salad

You could just say 'eating fruit' but by adding the words gorging and sugary you are making a judgment on the choice that people make to eat fruit

God @StanfordPines are you always this hard work?
MNetters often use the word "gorge" to describe how much fruit their DC eat i.e. lots! And most fruit is full of sugar which is fine in moderation but not if you gorge on it. That's factual not being superior.

Oh, the fruit. THE SUGAR BOMBS
faints

Crankley problem there is your seeing and maybe have tried anglicised Chinese food which is smothered in very often over sweetened sauce and too much of it. It’s like curry, my housemate at uni taught me to cook a curry like his Mum did at home. Not like the curry you would have at a restaurant, I taught him some Chinese dishes.

@CateTown

You could just say 'eating fruit' but by adding the words gorging and sugary you are making a judgment on the choice that people make to eat fruit

God @StanfordPines are you always this hard work?
MNetters often use the word "gorge" to describe how much fruit their DC eat i.e. lots! And most fruit is full of sugar which is fine in moderation but not if you gorge on it. That's factual not being superior.

No. On MN people use the word gorge when they are talking about people over eating. See also slurping.

And farting on about fruit being full of sugar is frankly dull. Especially on a thread when it’s been deemed inappropriate to tell grown adults who won’t eat vegetables that they need to get a grip.

MNetters often use the word "gorge" to describe how much fruit their DC eat i.e. lots! And most fruit is full of sugar which is fine in moderation but not if you gorge on it. That's factual not being superior.

Unlike refined sugar, fruits are full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre. Now that's factual.

@RampantIvy

Sound good to me. I like a hectic salad

😂 Me too!

I have a complicated relationship with food which involves a lot of anxiety. I therefore eat my 'safe' foods, which are limited, but I can't try new things without a massive struggle.

I hate doing things where the focus is food and eating.

Unless there’s some sort of ASD issue I find it weird if adults refuse to eat vegetables. You can dislike the taste of one ( DH hates fennel, but would eat it if someone served it up to him) but surely adults with any sense know they have to eat vegetables for health?
And yes they can be a bit dull but that’s why sauces, pepper and cheese were invented!

It strikes me that a lot of food issues are psychological, and not just down to geniune dislike.

I was a very picky child, but I think it was because my father was. He would only eat beige food and force down the occasional tinned marrowfat pea! As I grew up I didn’t want to be constrained socially by it so I made myself try things and keep trying them and now there are only a few things I genuinely don’t like (aubergine, courgette, mushroom, banana—anything with that kind of texture—offal, oily, ‘fishy’ tasting fish and strong cheese).

As others have said, we have to eat nutritious foods for our health, we all have to do things we don’t necessarily like! I don’t particularly enjoy a standard salad of iceberg and cucumber because it tastes like nothing but crunchy green water to me, but if it’s rocket, spinach, beetroot, grated carrot, some nuts etc.—delicious!

Ok analyse this. My father, both grandfathers and 4 uncles were greengroucers.
Until my 20s I ate only potatoes. No other veg. No diary.
Now peas, sweetcorn, Swede parsnips sprouts. Cooked cheeses only. Hate milk. Like yoghurt.
Plenty of choice as a kid. Just fussy.

I love salads too, almost every vegetable/salad leaves.

DH never had salad growing up and only really likes iceberg lettuce, tomato and cucumber. This was because his mother was told not have salad because FIL needs proper dinner

His attitude to salad changed when we lived in Latin America. He will now try more things. The only vegetable I don’t eat is peppers. They give me sever indigestion and they taste foul to me, however they are cooked. Chillies on the other hand, I like and can eat them🤷‍♀️

I agree that you don't have to like vegetables to eat them. I regularly eat boiled carrots and broccoli with my meal, neither of which I particularly like, just to reach my 5 a day.

We have a "two mouthful" policy in our house with our 3yo. You don't have to like something but you do have to eat two mouthfuls of it (though they can be very tiny). He's a bit of a picky eater and will regularly take a food in dislike that he previously ate happily (like scrambled eggs). This helps to separate out real dislikes from just being picky. Though he's fairly good-natured about it and, aside from a loud "asparagus is yucky!" or "I don't like that", he'll dutifully eat his two mouthfuls and then have his preferred foods. Clearly we wouldn't force it if he really didn't want to eat it or was actually distressed. I think it's important not to get into a rut of just offering children what they like eating and avoiding new foods, as that reinforces the cycle of new is bad.

I was abused as a child emotionally & violently; part of this was force feeding veg / salad items and causing me to be very sick. Strangely enough it's messed up my entire life, and certain textures of food I can't eat - particularly veg & salad. You can't judge when you don't know.

It's no wonder that bowel cancer is the second most common prevalent cancer by death rates.

All the people who say 'leave kids alone if they don't like fruit/veg' are really not doing them a favour. My late DH was a veg avoider (though he'd eat frozen peas). He died aged 55 of a very avoidable cancer.

A lack of vitamin C is the least of fruit/veg avoiders' problems. And bowel cancer deaths are becoming much more prevalent in younger people than they used to be,

So at least keep encouraging your family members to try vegetables. And if they only eat one or two varieties, at least ensure they get them every day.