Eat Your Veggies

[October 5th, 2010 in the Dining section of the New York Times, Jane E. Brody wrote an article called “Even Benefits Don’t Tempt Us to Vegetables.” At the end of the article, Brody asks for opinions of why America won’t eat their vegetables. What follows is my response.]

I eat plenty of food during the day so why is it that I can’t seem to consume enough vegetables? If I treat vegetables as an afterthought, waiting to be “fit in” to my daily routine, like an optimistic visit to the gym, even I know it just won’t happen.

Nutritionists bombard me with technical information proving why vegetables are good for me. They label some of them “super foods.” I know vegetables are good for me. That’s not the problem. But no matter what cape my broccoli puts on, it won’t swoop down to save the day unless I actually eat it.

Maybe the problem is less about the actual vegetable and more about the stigma surrounding the unfortunate food group. If simply adding vegetables to my diet doesn’t work, then maybe I need to fundamentally change how I am thinking about them. What if I manipulate my daily routine by swapping out the unhealthy food, those with empty calories, and replacing them with nutritional ones like vegetables?

I can identify three basic concepts that will get me eating more vegetables, every day.
1. I don’t need to be a trained chef in order to prepare vegetables.
I visit the farmer’s market or the produce section of my grocery store and bring home some vegetables. Now what? When did vegetable-preparation become so complicated? I look on line for how to cook broccoli, for example, and I find an array of recipes from a mushy casserole to a sauté with exotic ingredients, smothered in cheese. No one tells me that I don’t need to add anything at all in order to eat broccoli but perhaps a little heat to soften up its raw crunch. A lot of vegetables can be consumed raw. Most vegetables may also be steamed, baked or sautéed. Then all I have to do is put them on a plate and enjoy. Sure I can add some butter or olive oil and salt or I may need some tips on how to peel or chop or steam, but vegetables don’t have to be gourmet.

2. I need snacks with calories that count.
 I eat snacks for a reason; I get hungry between meals. Snacks need to satisfy my hunger, give me energy without making me feel too full so I can go about my day until the next meal. Who said junk food is the only snackable food group? Companies have been perfecting junk food’s packaging, shape, taste and texture for years making it more irresistible each time. There is no way vegetables can compete on the outside. But when it comes to the inside, there is no choice. Vegetables will give me the nutrients I need without the unwanted fat, sodium, sugar or calories. A veggie snack truly gives me more bang for my buck when I consider nutrition first. Why not grab some carrots and dipping sauce or a bowl of steamed peas for a snack? How about rushing out of the house with a bag of snap peas or sliced up bell peppers? Why does a snack have to be shrink-wrapped with a shelf life of over a year?

3. I won’t eat what I don’t crave.
In between meals, my energy drops and I look around for a snack. I grab a bag of chips or a muffin or maybe even an organic granola bar. I eat the junk food and I feel satisfied. The next time I need a snack, I crave junk food. It is a cycle. My body wants what my body knows. If I satisfy my cravings with junk food, I will only crave it again the next time hunger strikes. Consider the alternative. My energy drops and I grab a vegetable snack (an avocado and salad dressing or lightly steamed string beans, for example) or even an apple. I feel satisfied after my snack and so the next time I am hungry, I crave another veggie or fruit snack. Could it really be that simple? My body craves what I give it. If I don’t reach for vegetables, my body will never know what it is missing or be able to ask for more. The same goes for meals. If I don’t include a vegetable as an integral part of dinner, I won’t miss it and then I will never eat it. But if I eat vegetables every night, when I do forget, I will miss them and crave vegetables.

If I keep vegetables on a silver platter saved for special occasions, they will never have the opportunity to infiltrate my everyday life. Super foods may have super powers but I need them to put on their street clothes and meld into my daily routine without all the excitement. Eating vegetables should be no big deal. America needs to pop the mystery bubble that makes vegetables appear unattainable and take them off the to-do list that simply never gets done.

Healthy Enough

In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about how you don’t need to be the tallest person around to be a professional basket ball player, you simply need to be tall enough. The same is true for education, according to Gladwell. You don’t need to go to the best college in order to win a Pulitzer Prize; you simply have to go to a school that is good enough. Well I would say nutrition works in a similar manner. Sure there will always be someone who eats a more healthy diet than I do. But in order to live a healthy life, I don’t think I need to grow all of my own food and raise my own cows. I simply need to eat healthy enough.

Perhaps there is a threshold for nutrition just like Gladwell’s basket ball players and Pulitzer Prize winners. We need to strive to eat a healthy diet but not necessarily the most healthy diet possible. Striving to eat healthy “enough” means cutting ourselves some slack now and then. I do all I can to put nutritious food in front of my family, but we also need to live a little. And at the end of the day, that makes us a little more healthy. To be healthy, after all, has to do with not only what we eat but how we live as well. Eat well, exercise and don’t forget to indulge now and then and have fun.

Of course this begs the question, how healthy is healthy enough? I am sorry to say that I have no perfect formula for what constitutes healthy enough. Everyone has their own threshold that works for them and the particular needs of their family. All I can say is that as much as I believe in nutritious food, I also believe in moderation. Every now and then it’s good to stand back from the most recent toxic plastic scare or obesity statistic and say to myself, “you know what? I am doing a pretty good job of getting fresh food on the table for my family.” Although my family may not be the most organic farm fresh, marathon-running family on my block, chances are, we are healthy enough.

Faster Than Take-Out Pasta

Well, maybe not faster but I think it takes just as much effort to call up and order food, get the kids together, drive or walk to a restaurant, bring the food home, and eat it. Okay, so maybe you’ll say, why not just sit there, at the restaurant and eat it? Or perhaps you live in an area where you can get any type of food delivered to your door. I understand, some nights I want to eat at home without making a big fuss in the kitchen. Even if I call for food to be delivered, I still have to wait maybe 30 minutes for it.

Typically I think of ordering take-out because I am tired or pressed for time or my kids are all in bad moods or I haven’t gone to the grocery store and so I think I have nothing to cook for dinner. Whatever the situation may be, the fact is, I can make a quick and easy dinner with items I have in my pantry, stocked in my freezer or left over in my refrigerator that will satisfy myself and my kids and be ready in just as much time it takes me to order take-out.

Some nights I simply need a break and order take out. But those other nights when I just get lazy, those are the times when I remember Faster Than Take-Out Pasta.

What’s my secret? Pasta, olive oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Really, that’s it. Okay so you may have some leftovers to throw in like left over chicken sliced up or a side dish of steamed frozen peas or garlic and zucchini to sauté. You may even have some fresh parmesan cheese to grate up or basil for garnish. Whatever you’ve got – put it together, put it on the table and call it dinner. Chances are it will be quicker, easier and certainly more nutritious and less expensive than another night of take-out. Not every home-cooked meal requires planning and shopping and standing over pots.

A nutritious meal doesn’t need to be complicated. What’s your faster than take-out meal?

Halloween Teeth

“Mommy! Mommy!” scream my kids as they run from trick-or-treating at a house in our neighborhood. “I got a toothbrush!”

One of our neighbors is a dentist. Every year for Halloween, instead of candy, he hands out a toothbrush to the kids trick-or-treating at his house. The adults standing on the sidewalk chuckle over this choice of Halloween treat. I’ve seen pencils, pennies, stickers, or even small containers of play-dough in lieu of candy. I’m always in full support of any effort to diminish the candy fever but even I recognize that the kids just want candy.

To my surprise, the toothbrush causes just as much of a craze as the candy. When we get home that night, after eating quite a few pieces of candy from their loot pumpkins, I say to my kids, “time to brush your teeth.” Usually I get a moan or an “aw mom,” before they sheepishly mope off to the bathroom for the nightly ritual. But tonight is different

“My new toothbrush!” my 5 and 3 year-old exclaim practically in unison, as they rush of to find it buried in the candy pile. Tonight they both brush their teeth with a new found energy. I suppose it could just be from all the sugar they have consumed over the course of the evening. But to me, it is an excitement over a new toothbrush that is brought up to the level of candy on Halloween.

You may not have a neighbor who is a dentist, but this experience got me thinking. Why not give the kids a brand new toothbrush as part of their Halloween treats? I know I can’t stop the candy, so I might as well get in a good brush before bedtime. Happy Halloween!

CSA Box of Treats: Collard Greens

Each week I open my box of organic vegetables and am surprised by what I find.

Last week I found a large green-leafed head of collard greens in my box. Although I live in the South now, I am from the Northeast, so cooking collard greens is simply not in my repertoire of vegetable side dishes. Faced with the task of preparing these enormous green leaves for the first time, I quickly went on line to find a recipe. After weeding out anything that required me to be in the kitchen for more than 30 minutes, I settled on a simple collard greens and bacon recipe. I rushed out to the grocery store to buy the bacon, came home and cooked up delicious collard greens of which I am sure even a real southerner would approve.

This week when I opened my box, I found another large bouquet of collard greens. I gave the impressive green leaves a wink and made a mental note to swing by the grocery store for more bacon. One thing led to another that afternoon and I ended up skipping my quick trip to the store. Then I got to thinking, why was I in such a rush to buy bacon again? The reason I didn’t have bacon lying around in the fridge is because I don’t usually cook with it. I love bacon but it is not something I buy every week. Why am I rushing out to buy bacon for the second time in 1-1/2 week? Oh yeah, I need bacon for the collard greens recipe.

Hmmm…. That doesn’t sound right. I signed up for my weekly organic veggie box in order to eat more organic vegetables not to add large amounts of bacon to my diet. Vegetables shouldn’t require fat and salt in order to taste good. Sure, bacon with collard greens is a delicious side dish. But if I am going to eat it every week, I need a new strategy.

In general there are 3 rules of thumb that I try to stick to in my kitchen:

1. Cook with what is on hand. I don’t let a missing ingredient keep me from making a home cooked meal. Instead, I put together whatever I have even if that means making new variations of familiar dishes. In other words, I improvise.

2. Cook simple dishes that do not require long prep or cooking durations. I love to cook but I don’t have the time or the energy to stand in my kitchen all day long. I like to chop it and cook it, and maybe give it a stir or a flip and then move on with my day.

3. Make it healthy. I try to cook with all fresh ingredients, salt only enough for flavor and use extra virgin olive oil as much as possible.

If I apply my 3 rules of thumb to me and my collard greens having a stare-down in my kitchen, it would seem that I do not need to rush off to the store for bacon. Instead, I reach into my box of organic vegetables to see what else I have on hand. “Garlic, and green pepper,” I say aloud as I reach into the box, “I can do something with those too.”

So Here is the recipe that I improvised in order to prove my point; collard greens do not NEED bacon in order to taste good. Enjoy!



Collard Greens (hold the bacon)

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
¼ tsp pepper
Several dashes of hot sauce(to taste)
2lbs collard greens (or 1 large head), rinsed, center stem removed, cut into strips and then cut in half again
2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
Optional: 1 small green pepper, chopped, or several stalks of celery, chopped

Sautee garlic and onion in olive oil over a medium flame for 3 minutes. Add any optional vegetables (other than the grens) and cook for another 3 minutes. Add chicken broth, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Stir and bring to a slow boil. Add collard greens and stir. Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until the greens have fully wilted and lost their bright green color. Serve warm in their juice as a side dish.

Picky Eater Enabler or Responsible Parent?

A good friend mentioned to me in an email the other day that she may be guilty of enabling her kids to be picky eaters. After taking in the context of her comment, I decided that I disagreed. In fact, I thought she was acting as a responsible parent. This got me thinking…am I a picky eater enabler? Should I make my kids eat what I eat or not eat at all? I don’t want to fall into the trap of becoming my family’s short order chef. But I also don’t think food should be put on an “eat this or else” plate. Where is the line?

Let me give you a specific example. Let’s say one evening for dinner I cook fish, mashed potatoes and zucchini. I know my kids don’t like any of the food I am preparing, but I serve it anyway. Maybe they taste it, maybe they don’t. Maybe they can’t stand the smell of the fish or the consistency of the mashed potatoes. Whatever their reasons, they won’t eat. I tell them that’s what’s for dinner, like it or leave it. They choose to leave it claiming that they are not hungry. They leave the table in a bad mood with their plates untouched. Fifteen minutes later it is dessert time. The kids come bounding in for dessert and want seconds. Soon it is bedtime and the kids want snacks. I give then some cheerios. They are still hungry so I give them apple slices.

Have I won the battle? I cooked one meal, yes. But my kids ate dessert, cheerios and apples for dinner. Meal time was about unhappily looking at food they didn’t want to eat, disobeying my commands to take a bite, and leaving the table feeling hungry and dissatisfied. Then moments later, they return to the kitchen whining for more food.

Here is an alternative scenario to the above example. Let’s say I cook fish, rice (instead of mashed potatoes) and zucchini as well as broccoli. I know my kids do not like to eat fish or zucchini but I also know they love rice and broccoli. I offer them a taste of the fish and zucchini. Maybe they taste it, or maybe they give it a big “yuck.” Then I fill their plates with rice and broccoli and make a mental note to have a protein they like at dinner tomorrow. The kids happily eat the food that they like while watching my husband and I eat the additional food items that they refused. Everyone leaves the table with clean plates, feeling full and satisfied. When it is time for dessert, the kids eat one portion and do not ask for more food before bedtime.

Am I enabling my kids to be picky eaters because I am catering the dinner menu to their likes and dislikes? Some might say yes. But I say no. Catch phrases always sound great when I hear them by themselves but when put into play in real life, they don’t always hold up. My goal for dinner is to have some food on the table that I know everyone will eat. Everyone doesn’t need to eat EVERYTHING on the table. But everyone does need to eat SOMETHING. My job is to make sure there is something for everyone.

Kids get hungry. Kids need to eat. Kids need to consume food with nutritional value. Eating should be a positive experience which should leave kids feeling satisfied with what they have consumed. My job as a parent is to build-up my child’s confidence in eating good food while slowly expanding her tastes into new territory. Some kids naturally try new food while others tend to want to eat the same thing over and over again.

I don’t think I am enabling my kids to be picky eaters. Instead, I am making sure that everyone has something nutritious to eat while instilling a little bit of meal time confidence. Helping kids develop a positive relationship with healthy food, even if their repertoire is limited, is more important than getting them to taste new food. So go ahead and make your kids’ favorite healthy dish. Just keep trying the unfamiliar food without forcing the issue.

Growing Food

 Today I had a lunch date.  A 10:35am lunch date with my daughter and her kindergarten class in the school lunch room.  A cafeteria full of 5 – 7  year olds eating their lunch is certainly a sight to behold.  The organization and strategy needed to simply complete the task at hand is impressive.  I mostly sat there with my mouth open, taking in the scene, wondering if herding cats would be an easier operation.  The teachers who walk around the cafeteria making sure the little kids eat their lunches and behave nicely told the kids to eat their “growing food” first, and then dessert.  My daughter held up her sandwich and pointed to her cantaloupe and whispered to me, “this is my growing food, mommy.” 

Growing Food.  What a fantastic phrase.  It’s not good food or bad food, healthy food or unhealthy food, food that mommy wants you to eat or food that you really want to eat.  Instead, it’s about growing up.  I’m pretty sure that all kids think about growing up in some way, every day.  So to talk about nutritious food as food that will help you grow is just brilliant.  No one is saying that cookies are bad; instead they are saying that a sandwich will make you grow. 

This phrase allows the child the independence to think through the scenario himself.  “I want to grow up and be a big kid…I will eat my sandwich first….then I will eat my dessert.”  The phrase Growing Food teaches little kids WHY we want to eat nutritious food rather than just forcing nutritious food without an explanation. Thank you to the lunch teachers, for inspiring our little ones to eat their growing food.