It Ain't Easy Being Green

There are some of us out there who cannot imagine going on this diet, simply because we grew up disliking most fruit and veggies for different reasons.

I'm not one of them. Although switching to a diet of mostly fruit was definitely a stretch for me, I was actually one of those kids who was resistant to meat and eggs (it made me gag and wanna throw up - just ask my Mom, I'm pretty sure she figured out early on that I'd grow up to be vegetarian some day).

But I have several friends for whom vegetables might as well be from the devil's own hot hands, given the measures they take to make sure those nasty crunchy weeds some people call food, don't ever brush their lips.

These are the same friends who will painstakingly work on pulling that last shred of lettuce from their cheeseburger without disrupting the magnificent natural pattern of the melted cheese on the patty, and flick off that gross green booger-like bell pepper that accidentally got on their meat pizza, with incredible speed and skill.

As for fruit - well, thank goodness someone invented ways to eat fruit without really eating fruit - there's that interesting fruit cake every Christmas, and banana bread, and apple pie and peach cobbler. Not to mention fruit candy! It's pretty easy to get your recommended 5 servings of fruit a day from candy and pie, right?

Okay I promise I'm only making fun of my friends in love. Trust me, I get enough teasing back. But most people do have this idea that fruits and veggies are healthy fare, even if they would never attempt to go on a diet consisting exclusively of it.

Yet it is very difficult to make yourself start liking something that you have spent years disliking, especially when it comes to food, because food is a very emotional thing, for each individual, family and society.

As my husband once said to me, (he heard it from somewhere else) -

"The three hardest things to change are your politics, your religion, and your diet; but the most difficult of these is diet."

If you are struggling with wanting to get more fruits and veggies in your diet, but not being able to stomach the thought of them because of taste or texture, I have a couple of ideas that may help.

1. It takes time and effort.
It takes time and dedication to change a habit, especially a food habit. I used to strongly dislike celery, and lettuce was mostly ornamental food in my book. There were several fruit I didn't like, and some I still don't like.

However, after being exposed to a fruit and veggie only diet for a decent amount of time, I found myself suddenly craving and liking celery! As for the fruit - I am more and more open to trying new things and finding that I actually like them. Figs, for example. And certain berries - raspberries and blueberries. What used to be weird at best or blah at worst to me, is now a treat I look forward to.

So be patient with yourself and once in awhile, push yourself to try something new. Dip your toes in the water and eat a piece of fruit every day that you otherwise might not have. Over time you may find your tastes changing.


2. Are your tastebuds in overload?
It is possible that you may think fruits and veggies taste bland or blah, because your tastebuds have been weakened and spoiled by the additives and spices added to your food - processed sugar, salt, strong spices and condiments.

It was shocking to me after deciding to go condiment free for awhile, to see which foods appealed to me most. I began to realize that I wouldn't want to eat certain things (meat, grains, dairy) if they weren't salted, sweetened and spiced up. This made me think hard about why I ate what.

And all of a sudden, I was discovering how sweet fruit really was! And how incredibly salty and sometimes even spicy celery tastes to me. And how sweet and sour tomatoes and oranges are. I also began discovering that each individual fruit tasted slightly different than another. For example when I eat a meal of bananas, there is something in each banana that tastes different from the others. It is incredible to experience such captivating tastebud experiences!

I realized that I could not fully appreciate the tastes in these foods before because my tastebuds were constantly assaulted and attacked by my favorite condiments of choice - salt and anything spicy peppery hot, so that anything unprocessed really did taste bland to me.

Now that I've eaten this way for 1.5 yrs, I am fully satisfied by the flavors in fruits and unless they're of poor quality I never think they're too bland or lacking any taste. So you could try going condiment free (even if it's one condiment at a time, say - go salt free for 2-3 months) and see if this changes your mind any about the flavor of fruits and veggies!

Share your tips!
Have you ever known anyone who had a hard time eating most, if any, fruits and veggies? Have you been that person yourself? What other tips would you have for someone struggling with this?