rheanna

paxy,

Some people have lived long and relatively healthy lives eating no fruits and veggies. A lot depends on your genetics. The people who have lived for many generations in the frozen north have historically had almost no veggies in their diets -- they have genetically adapted to get what they need from animal sources.

However, most of us are not so genetically blessed. A veggie or two now and then would do us good.

Please keep in mind that you don't have to actually looooove veggies in order to get some in your diet. As janewhite1 said, corn, tomato sauce and potatoes count.

When I was a kid, I hated most veggies. My parents learned to hide them in dishes that my sister and I liked. So, putting celery and onions in the spaghetti sauce counts -- and of course the tomato sauce counts as a veggie. We really hated frozen mixed vegetables, so we got them the next day buried in a meatloaf (meaning that we refused to eat them the first day they were served as naked veggies!). A cheese sauce makes lots of veggies taste better.

You might try thinking of it as an adventure:

First, how can you sneak a veggie or two into a meal so that it's disguised but you get to count it towards your virtuous brownie points?

Second, perhaps you could try different ways of preparing certain veggies until you find one or two that you don't mind eating. Keep in mind that veggies taste different raw vs cooked, and fresh vs old. My husband likes chomping on raw carrots, but hates cooked ones. I don't mind the taste of finely chopped cooked mushrooms, but I can't stand biting into pieces that are big enough to tell that they're slimy yucky things. This means that I serve mostly raw carrots, or I grate them finely in a sauce so that my husband doesn't notice that they're cooked. I chop mushrooms finely to put into a sauce, but I pick out any pieces that are big and give them to my husband to eat.

The point is that you may never actually become a veggie-lover. But veggies give us fiber and vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidents and lots of other things that pills can't provide. Perhaps you can think about it for a while. You don't have to eat salads or big piles of brocolli every day, although both are nutritious and (to some people) tasty. But try thinking about how to sneak a veggie or two into your diet now and then. I used to know someone who said that if she put two big slices of onion on her sandwich, that counted as two veggie servings! Every little bit helps.

--Rheanna