I'll be in bed by the time you get backOriginally Posted by Calliope
As for what I like to eat - I love Chinese food, Italian, seafood, sandwiches, NUTS! I love nuts. Peanut butter, ice cream...I keep trying to get into yogurt but I don't like the tang. I also don't like very many things that are particularly vinegary.
I'd say less than two hours is "reasonably close"! There's literally only three inches of space between the oven door being completely ajar and the kitchen wall so we might have to get creative.
Fried rice is very simple to whip up. Toss in whatever and experiment with your taste buds! Heat some vegetables on the stove with some sea salt, black pepper, a bit of garlic and a splash of white wine. Add noodles and sauce and there's a satisfyingly light and filling meal. Seafood is great! Get it fresh and try and avoid flash-frozen if you can. Tuna is quick and easy protein so learn to love it! And also yogurt is extremely versatile. Add some cereal, granola, chopped fruit, whatever floats your boat. Part of a well-balanced breakfast!
Two questions rolled into one: how does meat and salad dressings taste to you? Because the former is great for you, and the latter can be if you're getting a decent quality Caesar or something.
Also, Parmesan cheese. Add it to everything, always. The real stuff though. If it's coming in a bag or in a can or some trout then ditch it. The real stuff is so much better in every way.
Also, what Calliope said about the palette needing time to adjust sometimes if you've been eating stuff slathered in salt and sugar is true, so giving it some time to get used to a change in diet might help a bit.
Most meat I like. Salad dressing I'm iffy on and I only really like it in small amounts if at all.
Okay the fried rice thing is sounding really good.
Then the solution seems pretty obvious to me. Eat more meat with your food.Most meat I like. Salad dressing I'm iffy on and I only really like it in small amounts if at all.
Copious amounts of sauces that are bad for you of course.
a1-steak-sauce.jpg
This is great on everything!!
Because I'm one hell of a butler.
1) How many times have you tried various healthy foods?
2) What kinds did you try?
3) How were they prepared?
4) What did you dislike about them? Did they taste bad to you or did you think they just tasted bland?
5) Which healthy food items are the ones that actually give your problems?
6) How much water do you drink in a day?
7) How much caffiene/alcohol/sugary drinks do you drink in a day?
8) Do you take any vitamins or digestive aids?
9) What do you normally put on your sandwiches?
10) Is this more of an "I don't like the taste of healthy food" thing, or a "I dislike cooking and spending a lot of money on food" thing?
A lot, I keep trying to get into it and then I keep failing
A lot of different things people have recommended to me. Also lots of things that others have prepared for me. There's really too many to remember details right now, this has been an ongoing problem for years.
Every way under the sun! Fresh, cooked, baked...
There are a few things which I actively dislike the taste of (such as carrots) but most things I just think taste terribly bland and it's a chore to eat them.
Most vegetables I won't eat unless it's mixed right the heck up with tons of cheese and chicken or something. I don't eat much fruit, either, unless it's slathered in chocolate or peanut butter. It all just tastes so boring to meAlso I skip stuff like brown rice or wheat bread and go straight for the white stuff.
A lot, I love water and I'm pretty much constantly drinking it.
One or two sodas a day, I've usually been going for the Diet stuff lately. I don't drink alcohol very much, once a month maybe?
Yup I take a multivitamin and sometimes I take probiotics.
Lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, cheese, and some sort of lean meat. Alternatively, peanut butter and nutella.
It's kind of both but honestly I'd be more inclined to cook if I enjoyed the taste of what I was making.
That was a fun survey! xD
It's harder to give specific advice without more specifics.
Could you give a list of healthy foods you don't like, versus ones you do?
Generally, I will say that research has shown that you need to eat something several times again and again in order to develop a taste for it. For children it's about 10 times. Not sure what the rate is for adults, but probably more than that. So you have to consistently keep eating something. Also, your brain actually rewires itself with every positive/negative exposure to foods, so that you really can learn to like certain things if you keep at it.
Second, I'd love to get a better sense of how exactly these healthy items were presented to you.
For instance, have you tried broccoli, roasted at a very high temperature until crispy or caramelized, drizzled with olive oil, and some lemon juice (plus salt and pepper of course). This is super delicious and super easy. Like, a child could do this.
You can of course dress up veggies with sauces and fats and cheese and whatnot. But simple preparations can help you to really learn and love the natural flavors of veggies. Roasting is a GREAT way to eat veggies because it brings out the natural sugars and also gives it a great texture. You say you hate carrots. I've hated carrots for the longest time. But I've never had them roasted. Roasted carrots are incredibly sweet.
What other veggies do you have problems with?
For cauliflower, you can chop it up, and simmer with about a half cup of chicken broth. Then add a dab of butter and salt/pepper. Blend it in a food processor and you've got something that rivals mashed potatoes.
Mushrooms. Slice them up and sautee them in some butter or olive oil. Toss in some garlic, or shallots. Finish with thyme.
Green beans. Very quickly blanch them in boiling water that has a ton of salt in it for about 2 minutes. Plunge the beans into an ice bath to stop the cooking. If you have fresh green beans, these should be ready to go with just a sprinkling of pepper. It should taste sweet and crispy. You can add in a touch of sherry vinegar and olive oil to enhance the flavors.
Kale. Sautee in some olive oil. Toss in some chili flakes for heat. Top with some lemon juice. Or soy sauce to make it asian-y. You can also bake them and get kale chips. You can also eat it raw in a kale salad.
Veggies are very easy to prepare. The biggest thing is to get fresh vegetables. If you want to keep things healthy, utilize flavor enhancers like garlic or shallots. I LOVE shallots so much. Also, always make sure to season with salt and pepper. Always. Lemon peel shavings always add a great bright acidity to green veggies.
There's so many possibilities. I'd love to know if you've ever had veggies prepared in any of the ways I mentioned and how you liked them.
As for fruits, which fruits taste boring to you? Strawberries? Pineapple? Peaches? These all have incredibly strong flavors. When you eat them, do they taste bland to you?
Nicky is right that if you change the way you eat, you'll also change the way you percieve tastes. I cut back on nearly all sugars, including fruits for the past 3 weeks. And when I have a single strawberry, the flavor is INTENSE. That's absolutely bursting. Try cutting down completely on processed foods, refined sugars, etc. And then try eating a carrot. It'll taste like candy.
Also, eating a lot of fats is NOT bad for you, unless you're eating them in conjunction with carbs and sugars. You can google it, but there's been a lot of research that shows that high fat, low carb diets are actually excellent for you health wise. I've lost 7 pounds by changing my calorie intake so that 65% of my calories come from healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, butter.
So you CAN eat broccoli smothered completely in cheese, and it will still be fine. As long as you don't also eat a slice of pizza or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A piece of steak with a side of cheese and bacon covered cauliflower is perfectly healthy meal. Very little carbs, very little sugars.
Can't agree more with this. Something to also keep in mind, if you're a fan of butter, you can smother your veggies in the stuff and it's great and great for you. And for god's sake make sure it's butter and not margarine or some crap like that.
My stomach likes the way you think Miriel.
You can argue that butter is much better for you than margarine, but smothering anything in butter is not good for you - everything in moderation. Having said that, I agree with Miriel's point about fats not being inherently bad for you - I eat a lot of olives, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, nut butters and avocado, myself.
It sounds like you've been masking your vegetables completely, so I'd be interested to see if you've tried anything like Miriel has suggested above and how you may have enjoyed some simply prepared veges that allow their natural flavours to come through. Unfortunately, you do need to stick with it to get used to it.
The one thing I would advise without having more information is to do away with the sodas - If you can, I'd replace them with iced tea, coffee, or fresh fruit or vegetable juice, or if you have a jug of water in the fridge you can put some fresh fruit slices or sprigs of mint or something in there to flavour it. If you must drink soda, go for the full-sugar variety over anything with artificial sweeteners.
I think my personal sweetener hierarchy goes artificial sweeteners < white sugar < brown sugar < raw sugar < honey < maple syrup < agave nectar, but that's just me, and I have pretty bad reactions to highly sugary items (headaches, mood crashes, etc.). Sugar-free red bull remains my weakness, though, but I try not to drink the stuff very often, I swear I can feel it eroding my stomach even as it fortifies my spirit
I guess my last question is how you would define your wants/goals in this exercise - to have more energy, to decrease your cholesterol, regulate your moods, control your insulin, have more luck in concentrating and to sleep better? To be able to eat out with friends, cook for your family, have more variety in the foods you eat? I would also say that a plateful of cheese, meat and a white starchy vegetable constitutes a healthy meal depending on what else you have had to eat that day. Don't confuse weight loss and eating only the "right" foods with being healthy - they can indicate good and bad health both.
Last edited by Calliope; 05-21-2013 at 04:41 AM.
Healthy and tasty: There are brands of Hummus that tastes amazing and I really like a lot of the flavors by Sabra.
Anyway I generally agree with what some people said in here...it's not what you're eating, it's how much of you it and in conjunction with what it's topped with. I don't think it's okay to have too much condiments (especially salt) in your diet and especially not when you don't have enough water. I KNOW YOU DRINK MOSTLY MOUNTAIN DEW. Simply cut that trout out and you'll probably live to like 70 or something.
I guess you should also bear in mind that if you choose to experiment with this stuff, you don't have to make all of these changes at once! You can do this stuff gradually if it makes it seem like less of a chore or an overwhelming thing we are all expecting you to do (we're only here to attempt to make helpful suggestions).
Kinda going off topic a bit but...You can argue that butter is much better for you than margarine, but smothering anything in butter is not good for you - everything in moderation.
Butter actually is good for you. Particularly butter from grass fed cows.
Butter contains short and medium fat chains which are metabolized differently from other fats. Instead of being stored in the body like fats from carbohydrates, the butyric acid (which is what butter is named after) is burned by the body for quick energy instead.
Butter is rich with vitamins, can help promote colon health and stave off cancer. Plus a bunch of other positive benefits.
Fat is the body's preferred form of fuel. Secondary is glucose. When you consume carbs, it raises your insulin levels. Insulin is a hormone that causes you to store fat and burn glucose instead. If you are consuming BOTH fats and carbohydrates, then yes, putting fats on everything is not going to be good for you. But if you are limiting your carbohydrates and getting most of your daily allotment of calories from fats instead, then there's no reason to think that butter is going to be bad for you.
The thing is, most people tend to consume a LOT of carbs throughout the day, leading to fat storage.
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