Laura’s Lifestyle Links
Click here to see which are Laura's recommendations for a healthy living!

Home page > Articles > Help for Veggie Haters
Help for Veggie Haters

by Linda Formichelli

Vegetables have long been touted as protectors against everything from cancer to heart attacks. But no matter how much we hear about veggies' disease-fighting power, many of us just can't overcome our dislike of vegetables enough to take advantage of the nutritional benefits they deliver. In fact, studies show there is an entire group of people--dubbed supertasters--who are genetically wired to scorn vegetables because of the bitter cancer-fighting compounds they contain.

Can't stomach veggies? Here are some ways to block their bitter taste so you can get your five a day.

• Fat Can be Good
  Especially if it helps you eat more veggies. According to Paul Breslin, Ph.D., an Assistant Member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, some bitter compounds are lipophilic, meaning they readily dissolve in fat. So it's possible that putting a little fat in the form of a cheese sauce or creamy salad dressing on vegetables will suppress the bitter taste.

• Take Them with a Grain of Salt
  Ever wonder why your favorite chocolate recipe calls for salt, or why salted cantaloupe tastes sweeter? Breslin says that salt blocks bitter flavors (such as the naturally sharp flavor of chocolate) and acts as a filter that lets more desirable flavors shine through. Dusting your veggies with salt may make them more palatable.

• Go the Mary Poppins Route
  Last year the British Cancer Research Campaign, in conjunction with a major frozen-food chain, launched a new line of flavored foods--including chocolate covered vegetables--in hopes of getting kids to eat their greens. Okay, chocolate-dipped veggies may be going a bit too far--but the idea behind it is valid. If you find veggies too bitter, try going the Mary Poppins route with recipes that call for a spoonful of sugar.

• Do as the Romans Do
  According to Paula Wolfert, author of several books on Mediterranean cooking including Mediterranean Grains and Greens (HarperCollins 1998), soaking greens such as spinach or broccoli rabe in salt water overnight can eliminate the bitter flavors. "To someone who's super sensitive to bitter flavors it might not be enough," she warns. "But Mediterranean cooks have been doing it for years to dull bitterness in greens."

• Heat Things Up
  If veggies in the raw are too bitter for you, try microwaving, steaming or stir-frying them instead. "The Chinese are sensitive to bitterness, but they eat a lot of vegetables," says Adam Drewnowski, Ph.D., director of the nutrition program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. "How? They stir-fry them."

• Hide Them Away
  Maybe Mom had the right idea hiding veggies in the meatloaf. If you really can't stomach the taste of vegetables, the best thing might be to mask their flavor with other foods. Try zucchini or carrot bread, puree vegetables in a soup, grate carrots into hamburgers or tomato sauce, or toss bits of chopped vegetables into macaroni or potato salad from the deli.

Try these tips and savor the sweet taste of better health.