(Day 6) Hubby's fully on board w/ W30 but hates veggies...

[Beth83]

We're on day 6 as a family, and hubby has been a full and happy participant. He wants to feel good as much as I do. We've been doing ok so far... with one small problem.

 

He hates vegetables.

 

He'll eat a few types, but in small portions, and can't bring himself to stomach more. This means that he has been relying on fruit WAY too much. To the point where I'm certain he's just feeding the sugar dragon, which will sabotage his efforts in the long run.

 

Example: today, he packed this for his lunch:

approx. 1.5 cups chunks of cooked chicken, marinated in a compliant greek dressing, then cooked.

approx. 1 cup of green beans, drizzled with avocado oil and salt (it would have been less, but I dished the beans out for him

A pear, an apple, a banana, and 3 mandarins

A thermos of homemade chicken bone broth

 

That's the largest quantity of veg he'll ever have at a meal, generally. He'll eat cooked green beans, cooked carrots, peas (but not on Whole 30), and that's about it. He'll eat most things when in soup, so that's good, but I can't make vegetable soup for 30 day straight. We'd all go insane.

 

Any suggestions for how he can change his palate and pluck up the courage to eat more veggies? Or how I can hide them in things?

 

(P.S. I put a cup of cooked acorn squash in the meat pie filling tonight and nobody noticed. Ha!)

[ShannonM816]

He has to be willing to change, or nothing you do is going to make him change. I mean, you can keep hiding vegetables -- you might look for tips on hiding vegetables for kids for ideas -- but for him to really embrace eating vegetables, he's going to have to put forth some effort.

 

If he wants to do this, have him look through recipes and find some he'd be willing to try. He'll need to try different vegetables, and prepared different ways, and probably try them all more than once -- part of liking things tends to be familiarity, so trying them over and over again can help someone get used to new things, although this works best if he's just meh about them -- if he tries them and actively hates them, familiarity may not ever help much..

 

Start out with roasted vegetables, roasting tends to caramelize them, making them a little sweeter. Make up mayo or some ranch dressing for him to dip them in, if you think that would help. Avoid things with strong flavors unless you know he likes those flavors, and definitely don't cook stronger flavored vegetables in with other vegetables, keep them separate until you know he likes those flavors.

 

Also consider if he has texture issues -- if he has an aversion to slimy, probably don't make him any boiled okra, and be careful how you cook greens so they don't end up overcooked.

[CaGirl]

Sweet potato  is a veggie.. THE book it does not break them down into a separate category to worry about  its counted as a veggie  BUT (here in these boards people do plop them in a carb category) I say eat what you can in veggies for now and worry about too much of a good thing later….

 

Start fixing sweet potato..  butter nut squash / roasted..   EVEN regular ole BAKED POTATO is a VEGGIE…  and with a  glop of Ghee how can he go wrong    Soon his taste buds will want to try the roasted broccoli and cauliflower..   And how bout salad.. red bell pepper,, radishes..  think simple.. its doesn't have to be an old slimy green thing… 

[littleg]

Bacon makes veggies taste better.

 

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/1626061164/roasted-broccoli-bacon-recipe

 

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/1670459416/roasted-brussels-sprouts-and-bacon

[Kristen CNM]

I could have written this post. Hubby and I are on Day 22 of our first Whole30. He snacks (a lot) on nuts and drinks OJ between meals. It is making me crazy because I know he'd feel better and have better results if he stopped...but I am not his mother. He has the information and its up to him to do what he wants with it. I finished reading "It Starts With Food" today and the chapter about not being able to "force" anyone into starting their own Whole30 journey helped me start to let go of wanting to nag at him about his choices. 

[JenHZ]

wondering  also if he may be a bitter supertaster.  Mine is.  He can eat super spicy but a watercress salad is just nasty to him.    I  has come to like roasted Brussels sprouts and sauted kale/chard.

[Growing123]

Any chance he has food allergies? I ask because my husband isn't fond of veggies either. It turns out he was allergic to most of them.

[loobylifts]

Cauliflower rice might be an idea! Also pureeing veg and adding to chilis and sauces. If he likes mashed sweet/normal potato you could try boiling some veg and mashing them in with it too. 

[Tulips]

My husband doesn't like veggies either, and is doing the same thing with juice, because he doesn't like plain water (or rather, he gets bored really fast). So I bought sparkling water and cut it with juice, and reduced the juice gradually, and now he'll do almost the plain sparkling water (we're still working on it). With the veggies, I've been adding a different veggie every few days while also having something he already likes. We've been through a lot of green beans...