Eating Healthy Food = Gag!

Admit it. Many of you think healthy foods are yucky. You grew up in an era when so called “health foods” tasted like cardboard and looked like rabbit food. In fact, you might still refer to vegetables and the like as rabbit food on rare occasions you speak of such things (and then only to make fun of the people around you who can recognize celeriac). You have visions of your parents or grandparents eating that high fiber cereal that looks like twigs yet doesn’t taste quite as good as what you image a twig would taste like. If this is what you think healthy eating is like then you are dead wrong. In fact, you’ve never been wronger.

I’m going to confess something that I am not proud of. I was an extraordinarily picky eater as a child. I was so picky that the thought of eating a sandwich made with whole wheat bread would make me want to cry. I exaggerate not. The only fruits I liked were apples, bananas, and green grapes. Everything else was out. The only vegetables I liked were iceberg lettuce, carrots (only raw), celery, and corn. Everything else was totally grodey. Then, guess what? I grew up! Over the course of several years I retried the things I used to despise: whole grain breads, squash, Brussels sprouts, spinach, peaches, strawberries, and much more and found that not only did they not trigger my well-exercised gag reflex, but I actually enjoyed eating them. Nay, I LOVED them. There are things that I still don’t care for (brown rice comes to mind), but I incorporate them into my diet because I’m an adult.

"Health” foods have come a long way in only the last few years. Vegetarianism and its variants are taking off. Organic foods are more popular than ever. Organic grocers like Whole Foods make it possible to try amazing foods like quinoa, fiddleheads, gruyere, and lentils de puy anytime you want. The choices are almost endless. Don’t like soy milk? Try almond, rice, hemp, or coconut. Don’t care for Brussels sprouts? Try preparing them in a different way. Add garlic or red pepper flakes. Stop denying yourself the experience of benefiting from eating well because you think you won’t like it. Grow up.