Growing up, many kids hate to eat vegetables. Some still despise them even as adults. Unlike the sweet fruits that almost everyone loves, vegetables tend to be an afterthought. These foods mainly find their way onto our plate as a side and not given much thought. However, vegetables are nutrient dense, low-calorie powerhouses that are packed full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals that support our body and keep us healthy well into our later years. 

What are vegetables?

The term “vegetable” refers to any edible part of a plant. This includes the stem, leaves, roots, flowers, fruits, and seeds of all plants that we can eat. A blade of grass is a plant, but if we could eat and process it as a horse does, it would be referred to as a vegetable. Simply any edible portion of any plant is referred to as a vegetable.

You may be scratching your head at this point. I knew I was when I first learned about this terminology. To the layperson, vegetables are savory, and fruits are sweet. To keep things simple and for the purpose of this blog, I will be referring to vegetables as what the majority of us know them as and how they are labeled at the grocery store. 

Why eat vegetables?

As I mentioned before, vegetables are nutrient packed low-calorie powerhouses. They provide our bodies with vitamins and minerals that we need for everyday functions. Fiber that keeps us regular and feeds our good gut bacteria. And phytochemicals, which are only found in plants, that help protect our body and prevent disease. 

Vegetables are the original and one of the best “health foods” available to us at dirt cheap prices compared to the processed health food we have all seen at stores. Multivitamins and vegetable capsules may contain the vitamins, minerals, and fiber but lack the phytochemicals that help protect our body. There are also certain chemicals that work synergistically within a food that supplements lack the ability of providing.

The key to giving your body the greatest amount of these diverse phytochemicals is to eat a variety of vegetables on a daily basis. Simply eating broccoli or spinach at every meal, as nutrient dense as they are, will limit the benefit your body can get from eating a wider range of vegetables. 

What are these phytochemicals?

Phytochemicals are chemical compounds found only in plants that help the plant protect itself from disease and predators (insects and animals). When consumed by us, these chemicals have many roles in our body. One of the greatest roles is the ability to scavenge and neutralize free radicals in our body that cause oxidative stress and chronic low-grade inflammation. Both of which lead to disease such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer. 

These phytochemicals have many other roles in our body and will be covered in depth in a future blog. Make sure to sign up for the weekly blog email below to not miss it! 

The multitude of colors found across the different vegetables is due to the different phytochemicals in each vegetable. The orange in carrots, green in broccoli, white in cauliflower, and purple in beets are all due to having different phytochemicals in different amounts. One of the best ways to make sure you get the greatest amount of different phytochemicals is to focus on eating as many different colors each day and week as possible. 

Doing so will give your body the greatest combination of natural protective chemical compounds that are not available in any supplement on the market. 

Incorporating more vegetables into your diet.

Most people eat the majority of their vegetables boiled or raw. This can often lead to boring, bland, or bitter vegetables. Just think of how much salad dressing you add to your salad to improve the taste, or for some, to mask the taste of vegetables. Flavor and texture are big drivers of eating certain foods over others and improving these qualities can help increase your intake of vegetables. 

In addition to being bland, the act of boiling removes many of the water-soluble vitamins from the vegetable which end up being poured down the drain. If you consume the liquid through a soup or stew, then you do get the vitamins assuming they did not break down from extensive cooking times or high temperatures. 

A better and quicker method to cooking fresh vegetables and unlocking their natural flavors is to steam them. This method keeps the nutrients in the vegetables and reduces breakdown since steaming cooks vegetables a lot quicker than boiling. You may even find that the vegetables have more flavor and better texture. A steaming pot is the easiest to use, but there are other options to steaming as well. Make sure to keep an eye on them as some vegetables can overcook quickly.

Other cooking methods to improve taste and texture include:

• Sauteing 

• Roasting

• Grilling

One of the best methods to incorporate more vegetables into your diet is to look into vegetarian recipes to find new ways to prepare, season, and cook vegetables. A vegetarian cookbook is a great tool to create new sides to add to your meals or even use them as the main meal. 

Not all meals have to have vegetables, but vegetarian and vegan cookbooks may show you ways of adding vegetables to breakfast and breaking out of the usual lunch salad.

The Key takeaway

Vegetables are amazing natural powerhouses that when added to our diet can protect our body and keep us healthy as we age. Forget the 5-a-day motto and instead focus on having different colors on your plate and finding ways to improve the flavor and texture of vegetables. Start with a vegetarian/vegan cookbook or go to a restaurant that focuses on vegetables as a main part of the meal instead of just a side. 

If you don’t like a certain vegetable, don’t write it off just yet. Try a different way of preparing and cooking it. You may be surprised how much of a difference it can make! 

Written by: Adam Skowyra MPPD, RDN, LD