Better Health & Living
Love ‘em, Hate ‘em, Eat ‘em
Vegetables are good for you. Here's how to like them - and meet your quota.
Published in food+nutrition •eating_right | 0 Comments, Talk about this article »
Behind my back, I’m holding a chocolate bar in one hand and a handful of broccoli in the other. Which hand would you choose? My guess is you’re hoping for the chocolate, and think the broccoli is the booby prize.
We all know we should eat more vegetables, so why do we crave almost anything else instead? Actually, there is a good reason. Here’s the lowdown on our love-hate relationship with veggies (and fruit), plus some tips for helping love conquer all.
Power Plants
We know fruits and vegetables are good for us. They’re our best dietary sources of the substances that boost our defenses against most disease: antioxidants, fiber, and phytochemicals, from sulforaphane in broccoli and lycopene in tomatoes to flavonoids in grapes and lutein in spinach. “Thousands of studies, spanning decades of research, consistently show that people who eat diets rich in vegetables and fruit lower their risks of most age-related diseases—from heart disease and diabetes, to hypertension and cataracts,” says Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.
In fact, at least 35 percent of cancer deaths could be avoided by diet alone, with fruits and vegetables leading the pack in cancer prevention. Eating produce also helps with weight control.
With the deck stacked in favor of plant-based foods, you’d think we’d be eating carrots, broccoli, and mangoes to the exclusion of all else, but we’re not. National nutrition surveys repeatedly report that Americans average about four daily servings of fruits and vegetables. More than half of us don’t eat fruit at all, and 1 in 5 don’t have even one vegetable on any given day.
Even when we do eat health-preserving produce, our choices are mostly nutritional duds. Our favorite is potatoes, especially French fries. Now, potatoes aren’t bad for you; it’s just that sweet potatoes, kiwifruit, and spinach are so much better. And, ounce for ounce, fries contain 3 times more calories, and 12 times more fat, than a plain potato.
Next on many people’s hit parade are iceberg lettuce and apple juice, which pack a weak nutritional punch. The good choices—colorful, nutrient-dense foods such as broccoli, asparagus, and strawberries—barely ever make it to the table. My son’s guinea pig puts away more vegetables in a day than most people eat in a week!
Think you’re doing fine in the veggie department? Not so fast: Almost 9 out of every 10 people who don’t include ample produce in their diets think they’re getting enough.
When Kitchens Were Caves
Part of the answer to our so-so relationship with plant foods could be in our genes. Humans began as hunter-gatherers living in a harsh environment. To adapt to a tough life and low-calorie food supplies, the human body evolved complex appetite controls to defend against weight loss and maximize weight gain. Vegetables and, to a lesser extent, fruits, were abundant throughout our evolutionary history, so our bodies had no reason to evolve a system for craving or storing them. Our bodies did develop complex systems to make sure we got fat and sugar—two high-energy nutrients that aren’t abundant in veggies (with the exception of olives and avocados).
“We humans have a love affair with fat and sugar that dates back to our most ancient roots when these calorie-dense nutrients were in short supply,” says Adam Drewnowski, Ph.D., director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle. Our brains release a stew of appetite chemicals—from serotonin to endorphins, to entice and even force us to eat sweet, creamy, and crisp foods such as chocolate, ice cream, fries, and chips. We have no comparable appetite controls for produce. Today, we live with a glut of sweet and greasy foods, so we get too many calories, and there’s no reason to fall back on the old staples—leaves, roots, and berries. The bottom line: We need to use our highly developed brains to ensure that we consciously eat what our ancestors ate automatically.
How Much Is Enough?
How much produce do you need? “The USDA‘s dietary guidelines recommend that we consume, daily, up to five servings of vegetables and four servings of fruit; that’s nine servings a day, from a very conservative recommendation,” says Dr. Blumberg. Actually, we don’t know what an optimal amount is, but we do know that the more phytochemical-rich fruits and vegetables you eat, the more you boost your body’s defenses against disease. Nine servings may seem like a lot, but it’s really not when you consider that a serving is only:
- 1 small piece (one small apple or carrot)
- 1 cup raw vegetables
- 1/2 cup cooked vegetables
- 6 ounces juice
Outsmart Your Genes & Meet Your Quota
Bring them.
Stuff your purse, briefcase, backpack, gym bag, or diaper bag with apples, oranges, bananas, baby carrots, and boxes of raisins so a candy bar isn’t your only option when a snack attack strikes.
Double them.
Turn one serving into two, by doubling the amount you serve. Turn a salad into two or more servings by adding additional vegetables or fruit to that pile of lettuce.
Hide them.
Disguise vegetables by grating them into sauces, pureeing them in soups, chopping them into pita sandwiches, layering them (try some spinach) into lasagna, stirring them (add corn, carrots, or blueberries) into muffins, or adding more to canned vegetable-beef soup.
Cross-dress them.
Please your brain’s appetite chemicals by disguising fruit as dessert, i.e., dunk strawberries in chocolate syrup, sprinkle crystalline ginger over mandarin oranges, or mix kiwi into strawberry-kiwi yogurt.
Two-fer them.
Include two fruits and/or vegetables with every meal and at least one with every snack.
Like them.
With hundreds of selections to choose from, there must be at least a dozen fruits and/or vegetables that even the most ardent vegetable hater is willing to eat. For example, you can:
- Open a bag of preshredded cabbage and mix in a little light coleslaw dressing (add chopped apples or canned pineapple chunks if you like).
- Mash green peas into guacamole to reduce fat without changing the taste or texture.
- Add lots of leaf lettuce, red onion, and thick tomato slices to a turkey sandwich.
- Pop frozen blueberries or grapes into your mouth for a sorbet-like treat.
- Top your morning cereal with dried plums or cranberries, or a handful of fresh berries.
- Stir fresh peaches or berries into frozen yogurt.
- Skewer more vegetables (cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, or sliced carrot, eggplant, onion, squash, sweet potato, etc.) than meat on shish kebabs.
- At restaurants, order entrees that feature vegetables (a grilled vegetable sandwich, salad, or vegetable soup) or substitute two side orders of steamed vegetables for a potato.
When you think about it, life doesn’t get much better than enjoying chin-dribbling strawberries, chilled watermelon, crispy carrots, or garlic-sauteed asparagus!
Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., loves mangoes, spinach salads, and grilled asparagus. She is author of 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet
Related Articles
Eat Healthy For Less
Posted by Colleen Pierre, RD5 Minute Breakfasts
Posted by Elizabeth Somer, RDEat To Beat Depression
Posted by Winnie YuThe New Superfoods
Posted by Daryn EllerBad Foods You Should Be Eating
Posted by Robin Warshaw
» Advertisement «