Published on 12, July, 2020
Discussions around diet come up quite often on NAS and I would like to share my experience in the hope that there will be some great suggestions.
To set the scene, I am a 53 year old high later life diagnosed, functioning male who really struggles with eating the vast majority of veg and salads.I have always been considered to be a fussy eater and this was especially difficult when growing up as my parents made me eat all manner of foods that I really struggled with, even to the point of being physically sick. This also had a considerable negative affect on my emotional state, Even in my 20's when my wife and I went to my parent for Christmas dinner I was made to eat at least one Brussel sprout , something that I was traumatised about and even still gets joked about at Christmas time. Obviously my younger years were a long time ago, if the were to happen i9n this day and age, you could potentially argument a point of child /disability abuse/ Of course, I was know to being autistic back then.
Anyway, I am trying to improve my diet to supplement my commitment to working out at the gym.But when it comes to Veg & Salad, i only eat the following - either because of texture issue, taste, or appearance - most often a combination of 2 or 3.
WHAT I DO / CAN EATPotatoes (in all forms - mashed, chipped, baked (no so keen)Carrots (must be well boiled to removed the crunch and the majority of the taste)Tomatoes (small amounts on a pizza /other dishes)Pepper (se tomatoes)Little bit of lettuce in a burger
Fruits I don't seem to have a problem with generallyBananasApplesStrawberries, blackberries (most berries)Pears I hate the textureOrange (ok when I have cold)
The challenge with fruit is that I don eat it every day.
Do other members have similar struggles?Any suggestions - maybe some smoothie recipes? Although, simply knowing that there are ingredients in a smoothie could be enough for me to not be able to drink it.
I can only digest veg if it's cooked completely soft. Salad makes me very ill. I use fruit juice to get my vitamin C and have a small amount of well boiled broccoli and carrots for vitamuns K and A. I used to eat 5+ portions of fruit and veg a day but my digestion is much better since I cut back.
You can use Cronometer.com to figure out which nutrients your diet is lacking and add foods or supplements to fill in the gaps.
GPK26 said:Any suggestions
Get yourself a nutritionist who understands your food issues and work a healthy, balanced diet that you can tolerate.
For the fruit side I used to get a load of apples, pears, berries, mangoes and whatever was cheap at the market, chop it into smallish bits and boil it up with a bit of water until it made a lumpy, fruit pure.
I would sweeten this to taste and freeze it in batches to save having to do this too often.
When one batch is defrosted then it works great when added to a Greek style yogurt - all the nutrition with the protein and fats from the yogurt but thick - kind of like ice cream if you squint and tilt your head to one side...
Bananas are great in smoothies or one way I like is chopped into pieces, frozen and added to ice cream - then it is crunchy rather than mushy.
Maybe you could have more veg roasted - pumpkin is great when cut into chip sized pieces, season with salt, pepper and paprica then roasted to a texture you like (longer for crispier). Make it thinner if you like crisp of thick if you like chunky pieces.
If you like stews then this is a good way to incorporate all sorts of veg you don't like too much (well other than salads I guess) - chop into smallish bits and they blend into a sauce and go well with chips or mash potatoes.
My tip would be to search through Google and YouTube for what to eat specific vegetables or fruit with and how to prepare them and for recipes. For example, if you want to get to learn to like rocket leaf, well, it's bitter in flavour and most people will not like it on its own but it can very nice served alongside chips or as part of a salad with a dressing. Over time you might learn to like vegetables more, it could just be a matter of time to get used to recipes using them, then experimenting yourself and developing a taste for them.