Its hard enough to get people to eat healthier. Then you come across all kinds of healthy eating nuts that believe that you should eat all of your vegetables raw and plain. Salad dressing, butter and salt are all big no-no’s for these extremists…
I have some bad news for them. You need some fats for your body to absorb all of the nutrients in the vegetables you’re eating. So There!
And here’s another newsflash –
Most people won’t eat vegetables at all if they have to eat them that way.
I’m not saying it’s OK to drown your vegetables in butter and salt, but if you toss in a little butter and salt for flavor, its ok. If you put regular salad dressing on your veggies, its ok.
Whatever you need to do to get yourself and your family to eat vegetables, do it. Most people like some sort of dip – whether its ranch dressing or cheese, If they’ll eat the vegetables, consider it a victory.
If I serve broccoli salad that contains mayo, and sugar, and bacon, and I get people to eat a cup of broccoli that they never would eat otherwise, so be it. (I’ve recently switch to Canola Mayo so you’re getting Omegas too.)
Here’s a confession – I had to teach myself to like broccoli. At first I had to cover it with cheese or Catalina dressing. My daughter liked it raw and plain. Now its my favorite vegetable. I eat it almost every day.
If you have to have a little sugar on your strawberries, go ahead. It’s better to get the strawberries in than not eating them at all. Growing up, one of my favorite things at breakfast was an orange cut in half and sprinkled with sugar. You’d scoop the orange out with a spoon to eat it like you would a grapefruit. Another favorite was sliced bananas in milk, again sprinkled with sugar. Remember, I was raised by a southern family.
The real problem today is all of the sugars we’re getting in packaged foods. Cut out the packaged foods and fake stuff, and replace with real food and you’ll be just fine.
When you use butters, sugars, and salt – use real stuff, and use it in moderation.
Extremism never works. Moderation works like a charm!
Hi Fiona,
I remember you were always good at that. Now they can do the same for their families.
Hi Carole,
Yes, I remember when my family were small and not too fond of lots of vegetables in dinner. I developed a way to incorporate « hidden vegetables » into homemade soups, stews and pasta sauces. Now they all love veggies and when they asked me for my recipes, were surprised that they contained so many veggies!