to not understand people who say they don't like vegetables?

[NormalityBites]

I know several people like this and it drives me bonkers. They are so hard to cook for. It makes my mind boggle. I hear people moaning about what to cook, you suggest something and then you get 'oh I don't like veg' Dig a little and you usually get a list of exceptions such as tomato pasta sauce, or they might eat carrots.

I just flat out do not understand how it is possible to not like every single vegetable on the planet cooked in every single way you can think of? Because that's pretty much an infinite number of tastes. I'm probably being unreasonable with the sneaky thoughts I have about the 'veg' that must have been served up in their house when they were kids to make them feel this way. I'm probably not being unreasonable to worry a little about their health.

But AIBU to want to strap everyone who claims this down and forcefeed them a hundred varieties of scrummy vegetables cooked in a myriad of delicious ways?

Vegetables are very easy to disguise! My DCs never knew they were getting the ones they didn't like. I did lots of soups and I made sure that it was mainly something they did like e.g. very tomato looking and called it tomato soup, but it could contain sprouts, cabbage, celery etc-the trick being not to put too much of the disliked one. Equally things like Bolognese sauce can contain lots of things if liquidised.

Don't know really, and I don't think it is purely upbringing. I mean, I don't like 90% of veg for some reason, depsite having liked them as a child. I was brought up purely on home cooked food with veg, all sorts of exotic foods etc and still have gone off most veg as an adult. My sister loves them all, so there is nothing 'sneery' about it...not all adults who dislike veg were brought up by parents feeding them junk food. In fact, I don't eat processed foods, microwave meals etc either...they weren't allowed in the house. I will eat pretty much anything put in front of me when at someone else's house, but I won't necessarily choose to cook veg for myself. I do for the husband, and will do for my future children.

I don't think I am 'hung up', FickleFairy: rather that I find it curious, and don't really understand it. I certainly don't lay awake at night wondering why people who don't like veg don't like veg. It just seems odd to me, and therefore becomes a subject for discussion.

It can be upbringing-in that things my FIL doesn´t like he has passed on to my husband iyswim.

I once suggested lamb chops & my husband was "oh they´re all fiddly with little bones"-maybe-do you like the meat-"never had them-his dad couldn´t be bothered with them!

And anything his dad didn´t like/coudn´t be bothered with wasn´t cooked in the house

ficklefairy I'm afraid they say 5 fruit and veg but really they mean 10! also it's veg we should all eat more of, fruit is of course very high in sugar (good sugar but still sugar).

It would take a long time to get overweight eating spinach and broccoli. Not that I am saying you are overweight!

Er..think YAB a little bit U to insist on ALL vegetables & the strapping down thing seems slightly excessive ! I mean I love veggies but not all of them. Well actually the only one I can't do is Aubergine but if someone served it to me I would probably eat it anyway as that is how I was brought up!!

YANBU re people who really won't eat them, any of them - they are missing out! I think it is how you are brought up though; a friend of mine is super health conscious, feeds her dcs all kinds of veg & lovely recipes but her DH will only eat baked beans as veg (no stews/sauces either) - I blame his mother for allowing the formation of these bad habits at a young age

I like all vegetables/fruit that I can think of, except tomatoes. Disliking tomatoes is a bloody socially disabling but I hate them. I have had to sit and eat nothing at friends homes sometimes, when I have been starving, because I cannot eat them. I will usually lie and say I am not feeling up to food if this happens, but I hate it. I hate the flavour, texture, smell of 'em.

I can just about manage a tomato sauce on a pizza (having trained myself to at about 20, as it was so socially awful not to eat pizza) and I don't mind foods where tomatoes are an ingredient but don't overcome other flavours e.g. curries/stews.

I wish to God I wasn't finicky about tomatoes. It really irks me.

stuff that makes me retch/really uncomfortable/ruins the meal:
peas, sweetcorn, massive lumps of onion

i will eat any veg thats chopped so small it constitutes as sauce! so im not too bad.

also, coleslaw has made me throw up. never had it, never will, as just the smell is enough to make me retch. i could never get past taht initial reaction. watching people eat it makes me sick too.

i never understand people who arent veggie choosing a veggie-full meal, such as a stir fry, over one with meat and delicious carbs!
i cant eat veg without meat. thats my big thing. at people's houses, i eat the bits i can eat, but if there's massive lumps of onion [happens a lot, dont know why, get more flavour from chopping it finely i find?]
i leave it. i apologise for being rude after the meal, but it would ruin the meal being forced to eat it.

mine is a very texture-based hatred though!

I disagree that it's rude not to eat whatever is put on your plate,no matter if you hate it.

I won't eat raw tomatoes,parmesan,mayonnaise or coleslaw for anyone. Unless you want me to throw up I'd suggest I leave them aside and neither of us comment on it.

I'd hate it if a guest felt obliged to consume an item they hated. I'd much rather they felt they could leave the item and have them enjoy the parts of the meal that they do like than have a horrid time because they felt obliged to force down something they hate.

I'd eat foods that I don't hate but don't particuarly care for but certainly not anything that I truly detest and which would result in me becoming physically ill.

fartblossom- it can take 10-15 exposures to a new food before you like it! try it, try it again, and again, and again...

it works.

i will eat anything.

Some people just genuinely don't like the taste of some vegetables. I'm sure they are not doing it to specifically irritate you, so you are being unreasonable!

I dislike quite a lot of vegetables - I make myself eat them because they are allegedly good for me, but I have to heavily disguise them, because the unadulterated taste of, say, cauliflower, makes me retch. If I put in a curry and drench it with other flavours, it's bearable.

Things I just can't eat include raw tomatoes, also agree with big lumps of onion, (just the thought makes me heave) and bizarrely, rhubarb or white sauces of any description

I don't think it's upbringing, but taste buds! My mother was a good cook and made me eat vegetables, as did my school. Disliked the taste, then; dislike the taste, now.

I can vouch for destructogirls vegetable dislikes. She literally wont eat any vegetable at all. There is definitely some sort of phobia there.

I keep telling her she needs to get help with a nutritionist.
I grew up in the same household as destructo and up until my early twenties I didnt eat veggies either but now I love em!

I will still eat all salad type stuffs, onions, potatoes, fruit etc...and selected vegetables to accompany. Not too bad I guess.

I don't get it either OP. I love veg, all types.

Struggling to think of any I don't like!

Have we had the tomato is really a fruit bunfight yet?

I may well be slightly freakish though, as I actually like celery.

the thing is, we who hate veggies know that they can be cooked in variety of ways etc, but we might just not like the taste/texture.

im sure there's food you dont like, its not really any different. i've tried every cooking method under the sun, but when im faced with a big plate of veg and very little else, i struggle, because i just dont like it! i really have tried.

LetThereBeRock, coleslaw is the devil. i retch, i retch. never had it because i cant get it close enough to my mouth to try because of the look/smell.

I'm totally with MrsBean on the tomatoes. Can't stand them and agree on how socially disabling it is. Bloody things are everywhere!
Can't even have the tomato sauce on pizzas. After many years of being jealous seeing everyone else tuck into delicious looking pizzas, I have now learned that you can ask Pizza Hut to make you one up without the sauce. Yum!

See, if you don't like some vegetables, thats one thing, nobody likes everything. But ALL vegetables? I don't believe it, because I think if you insist you don't like vegetables there must be hundreds of them you have never bothered to try.
I simply do not believe that you don't like the taste or texture of every single vegetable in the world, in every preperation.

I don't understand how you get your DCs to eat vegetables if you don't like them-or do you just never give them the chance?

I will eat nearly all vegetables - just not cooked. At home mum would just put a bowl of raw veg on the table. I'm getting used to having some cooked, but if I see a big lump of carrot in my food I will feel ill!

I know it is polite to eat what's put in front of you, but it's difficult to eat if it's going to make you vomit!!

How do you deal with serving your DC carrot? Just interested-I eat anything and so I don't have a problem worrying about passing my food hates on to DCs. I don't see how if someone doesn't like onion they make a casserole for the rest of the family with onion-or do you make 2 lots?

I think such people are very unreasonable, toddler-like in their attitude to food and very, very spoiled. There are few things guaranteed to irritate the hell more out of me than fussy, childlike adults. It's a luxury of an incredibly privileged nation to be able to eat mostly meat. Give it a couple of decades and none of us on the planet will be able to eat meat more than a couple of times a week. Unless these people are existing completely on carbohyrdrates they will starve to death in 20 years if they refuse vegetables.

I have this problem with my mum. She hates all fruit and veg with a vengence, so I have finally given up.

When I was a kid all veg (yes, she might not eat the stuff, but made sure us kids did) was cooked to death, so any nutrients would have boiled away in any case. I'm not sure why she didn't just puree them, it would have been easier.

Meanwhile, dad and us kids all like normal, even crunchy veg, so now that's all I cook, even if the parents come around for dinner especially as mum won't be touching the veg at all.

In fact, mum was so prejudiced about various foods she put us off all sorts of things I'm only now getting to taste and like 9olives for one, yummmmm).

I had a phobia of vegetables growing up. Still do now. Only ate sweetcorn until I was 16, now eat a small variety of veg but am terrified of tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, aubergines, etc. I'm 21 now.

Honestly, it's bloody difficult to feed myself and I feel sorry for people who I visit sometimes! (But they're usually fantastic with conferring with me before I turn up!) I tend to make soups often as I can handle the texture of soups with veg I'm not keen on then. I also have a list of veg that I want to try but haven't had the guts too yet.

You may think it's difficult for you to cater for people like me and the others on this thread, but really, it's worse to be like this! Because of my utterly pathetic phobia I'm severely anemic (I'm vegetarian too btw), very weak most of the time and genuinely cannot eat most veg. I miss out on so much good food because of the restrictions I've managed to put on myself and it's not a case of "Just eat it then". Though I did try that once, funny in hindsight! Took a great big bite into a tomato and nearly threw up over the counter.

I can eat: cauliflower, carrots, peas, beans, sweetcorn, parsnips, squash, potatoes obvs, asparagus and a few others. Though tbh, after the sweetcorn it was carrots and peas and I tried everything else within the past 18 months. I'm very proud of myself for adding so many new veggies to my diet in such a short time span!

I'm also a picker of food but will 'hide' veg in my own food to up my intake of vegetables. It's the texture that screws me over more than anything. I'm okay with root vegetables and squashes, which makes autumn a fantastic time of year for me!