Fruit and Vegetable Suggestions

[SomeRandomGuy]

I am on a mission to improve my health, and change the way I eat. One of my main problems is that there is a very limited variety of fruits and vegetables that I like. I am hoping to get some suggestions on things to try that I may like (rather than just doing random trial and error). I am also looking for tips on ways of eating the veggies, as I really have little concept of what goes together well.

Fruits that I do like:

• apples
  kiwi
  strawberries
  blackberries
  raspberries

Veggies that I do like:

• potatoes
  corn
  peas
  rhubarb

One of the big attributes of foods that makes me dislike them is texture. For example, I like the taste of bananas, but can't stand the texture. The only way I eat bananas is in a smoothie for breakfast along with strawberries, milk and chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast Mix. I would actually like to add more variety to the fruits I use in my smoothies, but am not sure which fruits would go well (I do want to keep the Carnation Instant Breakfast as a base for now). I have a similar issue with oranges. I like fresh squeezed orange juice, and love the taste of whole oranges, but dislike the texture of them (they are too tough or chewy I guess ).

On the veggie side, I dislike tomatoes very much. I will not even eat spaghetti sauce. I tolerate pizza sauce, but really like pizza much better when it does not have tomato based sauce on it. I have tried carrots and celery both, and did not care for them (although I was trying them with beer cheese, which may have been part of the issue. I liked the cheese, but the carrots and celery did not seem to go well with it. I am wondering if I could try them with something else that I would be able to handle). I can handle lettuce I think. I have not had very much, but the little I've had didn't seem too bad.

I would really like to start eating salads. Aside from not knowing which veggies I would eat, the other issue with salads is choosing a dressing. I don't like ranch, and do not think I would like other "creamy' dressings. Without knowing what the alternatives taste like, or which veggies they go well with I don't know where to start.

Any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read my post.

[axelg]

*Squeeze a lime or half a lemon (see what you like best)
*Add a table spoon or two of olive oil
*Add a little salt and pepper

That's it!

Eat various beans, nuts, seeds and tofu to meet your protein needs.

Read up on amino acids (essential proteins), calcium, vitamin B12 and enzymes ( found in raw foods). Search for these words in google and you'll pick it up in no time...

Best of luck!

Guided Meditation

[SomeRandomGuy]

Originally Posted by axelg

*Squeeze a lime or half a lemon (see what you like best)
*Add a table spoon or two of olive oil
*Add a little salt and pepper

That's it!

Thanks, that actually sounds delicious. I knew I could get some good ideas from the members of this forum.

[Fullcrum]

Try green smoothies. You can find some in my thread "Vitamix has arrived - smoothies of glory".

They hide the taste of greens well.

A dressing I love is soy sauce, sesame or olive oil, lime juice, and maple syrup if you think you need it. Adds a salty, creamy touch to any vegetable mix.

Make lots of smoothies. It chugs more awesome enzymes and nutrients down than simple chewing. And they tend to taste awesome.

Do you want to be the healthiest? Then start moving towards a raw food diet, or at least make a lot of your foods raw. That means no tofu (can't stand it anyway) and few beans. I eat relatively simple raw food dishes but that's NO reason you cannot chef out on more complex and awesome raw things like raw pizza, raw spagetti (spiralizer on zuchini), raw bread, raw burgers, and what not.

Anyway eating healthy does not entail deprivation in any form, so please do not limit sugar intake or anything. I bet your acne will go away when you gravitate towards more raw foods.

BTW I also still love steaks and stuff, so you don't have to give it up. But the majority of your meals will be raw for the BEST health.

[Stu]

For fruits, think about adding blueberries, mangoes, or melons.
For veggies, what about broccolli, cauliflower, bell peppers, onions, garlic, squash, or cucumber?

It sounds like you haven't had a lot of experience with fruits and veggies either. You might consider going to the grocery store and just buying anything and everything, taking it home and tasting all of it. It would be a quick and easy way to find out what you like and what you dislike.

[Holistic Star]

Sometimes vegetables taste different if you grate them! I know its sounds weird but try grating carrots into a salad and they taste really sweet and are nicer to eat than a big chunk. Especially if you add a little olive oil and lemon juice as dressing.

Most days I just take a load of veg from the fridge and chop it into tiny chunks or grate it e.g. today I had courgette (zuchini), celery, carrot, red bell pepper, spring onion (scallion) on a bed of green leaves with a tahini and orange juice dressing and a few hemp seeds. Took just over 5 mins to make with a sharp knife!

It can take 10 - 20 tastes of something before our tastebuds adjust to a new flavour. So don't give up on something just because you didn't like it the first time. When I first tried avocado I thought it was horrible. I eat one most days now and often just on its own as a treat because I love them!

[SomeRandomGuy]

Originally Posted by Fullcrum

Do you want to be the healthiest? Then start moving towards a raw food diet, or at least make a lot of your foods raw.

I don't think I am ready to tackle that sort of change yet. I am trying to make sure that I am able to maintain the changes that I make, as I want this to be a lifelong pursuit of a healthier lifestyle. Unfortunately my past experience is that I have a hard time maintaining changes when they are too great.

Originally Posted by Stu

It sounds like you haven't had a lot of experience with fruits and veggies either. You might consider going to the grocery store and just buying anything and everything, taking it home and tasting all of it. It would be a quick and easy way to find out what you like and what you dislike.

You are right. My experience with fruits and veggies is limited, and that is part of my problem. I am hoping to avoid a trial and error process if possible, but I realize that there may become a point where that is my best option. I am hoping to have broadened my horizons with fruits and veggies enough by that point that it won't seem like such a difficult chore to do the trial and error.

[LMVector]

I've found that some foods you like, and some foods you learn to like. In my case, I used to hate the texture of mushrooms, but I knew they were good for me so I started eating them more often though I didn't really enjoy it, and now I love them. This has happened to me with quite a lot of fruit and vegetables, I just gave mushrooms as my recent example.

[outdoorsnewzealand]

As LM Vector said you can definitely learn to like foods, so keep trying the ones you don't like occasionally - they may even become your favourite food. This has happened to me with mushrooms and avacados.

Also I think carrots make a great snack food. They keep well so it's easy to have some on hand and for me at least there is something really satisfying about munching away on a carrot.

[The Cloud]

Potatoes and corn are more grains that vegetables. They are very simple starches, which is just one step above sugar. I'm not saying don't eat them, but I would suggest not going nuts because mounting evidence is showing that foods with a high glycemic index (which have relatively dramatic effects on blood sugar and insulin levels) can have negative effects like increased risk of diabetes and accelerated aging.

As far as salad dressings go, my favorite is italian (vinegar, light oil, and herbs). Then again, I am by no means a picky eater, so perhaps my advice in the taste category shouldn't be taken too seriously.

[ilovetoday]

Originally Posted by Holistic Star

Sometimes vegetables taste different if you grate them! I know its sounds weird but try grating carrots into a salad and they taste really sweet and are nicer to eat than a big chunk. Especially if you add a little olive oil and lemon juice as dressing.
It can take 10 - 20 tastes of something before our tastebuds adjust to a new flavour. So don't give up on something just because you didn't like it the first time. When I first tried avocado I thought it was horrible. I eat one most days now and often just on its own as a treat because I love them!

I agree, I do the same with carrot- I grate it into my salad and it tastes yummy- I started grating it into my spaghetti bol too.

And I had a friend who said he hated fruit and he had never eaten 90% of your basic fruits. I made him eat some-for his own good and now he likes some of them after a couple of tries. Same with seafood- he said he hated prawns and all seafood- I bought some and got him to eat a bit with me then he ate over half a kilo in a sitting- try foods a few times before you decide to dislike them.

[Fullcrum]

Alright, well, at least try out green smoothies.

[trs4ece]

I've heard that guava are supposed to be one of the most healthy fruits available and they're similar to apples. Good luck finding them though--most stores around here don't carry them.

Guava - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Love]

I am a very picky eater, too. I'm learning to increase my veg intake.

Greens and spinach can be very delicious. You can boil them with a little bit of chicken broth and mix in chopped turkey bacon. Yum.

Baby spinach leaves (uncooked) make for a very healthy salad base.

Peas in a lump by themselves are awful (in my opinion) but if you mix them into whatever rice you're eating, you don't really taste them. It's diluted and wham, you've got another vegetable thrown in. I do this with lentils, too, though the lentils are more noticeable.

I think most nuts are gross, but I can eat them when mixed in with trailmix that has raisins and cranberries.

I've recently discovered Wasabi dressing. Delicious. It tastes to me a little bit like soy mixed with mustard --(and I can't stand mustard at all) but it tastes very good on a salad.

Good luck...

[Jim11]

Grapes and pineapple are 2 of my favorites.

Pineapple not as often because it's more work to prepare.