By Colleen Patrick-Goudreau on March 4, 2009

Eat Your Vegetables!

Before introducing our super duper guest blogger today, I want to give a shout out to the Goddess Group fasters! xo, Kris

“If we don’t have time to be sick, then we have to make time to be healthy.” ~Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard a thousand times: “Eat Your Vegetables!” From the day we moved onto solid foods until we moved out of the house, we heard this culinary command at least three times a day. Yet at some point, we tuned it out.

A new study confirms this: Americans are eating fewer vegetables than ever. Researchers recently evaluated data from two large national health surveys and reviewed how many people ate three or more servings of vegetables a day. (French fries counted!).
In the first survey, 35% met the goal; in the second survey, 10 years later: 32%. So, why are we ignoring the most consistent message of our childhood? I have a few ideas.

I teach vegan cooking classes, and many of my students have no idea what to with a head of broccoli or a bunch of kale. Most of us were raised on a meat-centered diet, where vegetables played a minor role and either came from a can, were boiled to death, or were drowned in cream sauces and butter. It’s no wonder we didn’t get hooked on veggies.

We’re also ridiculous creatures of habit. Many of us rotate the same dishes over and over, and as the researchers discovered, most people demonstrate very little diversity when choosing vegetables. Here’s a secret: when I switched to a plant-based diet, I actually found more options. With meat, dairy, and eggs out of the way, a world of plant foods opened up.

Here are some recommendations I give to my students:

~ We should never decide what to eat for dinner at dinnertime. That will set us up for failure every time. We should know each morning (at the latest) what we’re having for dinner that night. Ideally, we should know the night before so we can plan in our brains what to prep when we awake and arise!

~ Aim to eat a pound of raw and a pound of lightly cooked fresh vegetables per day. Even if you fall short, you’ll be way ahead of the curve.

~ When you get home from the grocery store, never store all the veggies in the bin right away. Take a few minutes to chop them up and store them in the fridge before doing so. That way, when it’s time to eat, you’ll actually eat the food instead of complaining that it will take too long to chop them up.

~ Shop by color! All of the bright and beautiful hues of plant-based foods contain the powerful healing phyto (i.e. plant) nutrients!

~Celebrate the flavor of the vegetables themselves! The flavor in food comes from plants – not animals! The flavor is in the herbs and spices!

As people incorporate more plant-based foods into their diet and transition to a plant-based diet, questions and challenges often arise. Here are some tips for easing the process:

~ Identify the craving. I’ve heard people say they tried giving up meat but really started craving it. In response, I assure them that they were not craving meat. We’re not true carnivores. We don’t start salivating when we see a deer or a cow or a squirrel. We’re not lions. Lions would die without meat. We, however, thrive without it. It’s not the flesh of the animal we crave, but we do tend to crave fat, and we tend to crave salt. More than that, we crave texture, familiarity, and flavor – and all of these things are found in abundance in plant foods.

~Give your palate time to adjust. The more you leave off these fatty, salty foods, the less you actually crave them. Your palate definitely changes, and your body adjusts.

~ Repeat after me: “There is Life After Cheese.” Related to what I said above about identifying the craving, when it comes to cheese, it’s really about the salt, the fat, the texture, and the familiarity. So for instance, when people sprinkle a little parmesan on their pasta, it’s really about the salt and the fat. Instead, toast some pine nuts or walnuts, and mince them up with a little salt. This is just one example of identifying the craving and satisfying it through plant foods.

~ Get to know your spices. Most people have adorable spice racks lined with cute jars of spices and dried herbs that they never use. First of all spices and herbs do have a shelf life (about 6 months for dried herbs and 1 year for spices), and though eating stale herbs and spices won’t kill you, but they will have lost their flavor. Don’t be afraid of the herbs and spices. Don’t be afraid of experimenting with them. That’s how you learn. Experiment, and have fun.

I’ve found that eating healthfully does not necessarily take more time. Rather, it takes just a little more thought. Venture forth, and enjoy!

For the animals, both human and non-human,

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Colleen is a sought-after and inspiring public speaker on the spiritual, social, and practical aspects of a vegan lifestyle. She has appeared on the Food Network, is a columnist for VegNews Magazine, is a contributor to National Public Radio, and her first book, The Joy of Vegan Baking, won VegNews Magazine’s “Cookbook of the Year”; her second cookbook, The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion is due out in June 2009. www.compassionatecooks.com

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