How do I learn to eat better?
i’m not sure this is a help, as i don’t really have your problem, and you mention not liking certain kinds of lettuce in sandwiches, but in my opinion a “veggie delite with no cheese, all the veggies including jalapenos, oil and vinegar” from subway somehow tastes like junk food, but is chock full of veggies. as i said, i suspect you’ll hate it, but i offer it on the off-chance that you might find it a useful bridge from fast food to salads.
I’m with the anon defenders. One one hand it sounds like a just a personality quirk, but speaking from experience many people get very, offended isn’t quite the right word but its the best I can think of, offended when someone doesn’t want to eat what or when they are eating. Eating can be a social activity and when you are so far from the norm with others you are dining with, it can cause friction. I know exactly the response Anon has because I have it, even to a worse degree because the foods that don’t make me gag are much more limited. In my case, I’ve explored some psychiatric options, but haven’t found anything yet that really sticks. But, that aside, two things I can suggest. 1. If you are comfortable talking about your preferences/pickiness/choices, take a couple cooking classes. Not high end classes for gourmet type stuff, stick to ones that work with the basics. Spend some time getting familiar with foods you don’t eat. Don’t push yourself out of the gate, but try to be comfo
I find this reaction is often a matter of how they’re prepared. People who hate vegetables, like my Dad, often hate them because the cuisine they are accustomed to does nothing for them. If you are the kind of guy who eats meat and potatoes with a oouple of boiled broccoli florets on the side, then I don’t blame you for hating vegetables. If you want to love them, you’ve got to branch out. Buy the Laurel’s Kitchen and Sundays at Moosewood cookbooks and cook some of the weirder vegetarian dishes in them. Eat out at Ethiopian, Thai, and Indian restaurants and try to order vegetarian. Go to a farmer’s market and buy some cherries and mangoes and purple carrots. This is kind of a cultural thing so you’ve just got to spend more time in cultures that can do wild and amazing things with vegetables and fruits. Make your own guacamole. Try juicing fresh apples and carrots. Discover spanikopita and gazpacho and baba ganoush. A burger and fries will soon look like a brick and popsickle sticks.
I can handle leafy lettuce on my sandwich but not shredded. Have you tried lettuces other than iceberg? Cause once I tried romaine and mesclun, I found out not all lettuce is alike. Plaintains are also great, especially if their seasoned up with some garlic. Actually, seasoning and spice are one way to get past veg-o-phobia. Some pickled sweet peppers on a sub (which are free of seeds) are a good start since the heat (if you like hot stuff) helps overcome the initial fear. I never had the phobia of corn, but Green Giant makes a blend called mexicorn with little chopped peppers in it that might have the same heat effect. Sauerkraut has a real strong flavor so that’s another way to get the veggies in you. Nuts are a good way to get some nutrition too. I used to think I hated ’em, but now I gobble salted peanuts constantly. Pecans are great too. Collard greens, which are cooked up with a mess of pork fat, are a good way to slowly get over green food phobia. I still can’t eat raw onions, t
I’d say the first thing is to stop eating fast food. Eat hamburgers and chicken sandwiches and french fries, if you want, but not at fast food joints, where the texture of everything is carefully chemically controlled. Stick the the veggies and fruits that you’re okay with at first, then add something similar to your repetiore. For example, tomato sauce. Then maybe some tomato sauce with some roasted red pepper pureed in. (Actually, you may be able to introduce yourself to the taste of all kinds of things if they’re pureed into tomato sauce!) Include pears when you eat apples. Oven-roast yourself some cut-up potatoes…and sweet potatoes. And so forth. I’ll try damn near anything once, but I still have a few veggie issues from being a picky eater as a kid. I found that I was much more adventurous when I tried vegetables from cuisines with which I was unfamiliar while growing up. In particular, I discovered all kinds of new veggies thanks to different Asian cuisines (new kinds of greens
