Salad Vegetable Conundrum

[Elizellen]

Yes, jalapenos are peppers and any sort of pepper is 'legal' and on the salad veg list!

[Elizellen]

Originally Posted by Eighties

I've managed to successfully do this plan with out eating salad veggies as with the exception of spinach, I don't eat raw veggies.

No problem - eat them cooked instead
Most of the veg on the salad list are just as tasty if not more tasty eaten cooked. Red and yellow peppers change completely in taste and testure after being roasted or sautééd in butter

[pokiedot]

I think that one of the traps many of us fall into that really contributes to our weight problem is that "need" for dressing, sauce or condiments for everything. We're conditioned to need complicated flavors. It's basically why water isn't at the top of most folks' favorite beverage list... they crave flavor, sweet, salt, etc. And hey, I definitely would include myself in that group - maybe even the Queen of that group - to me Ketchup is a food group, not a condiment. It was probably harder for me to kick ketchup than it was to kick cookies!


I would try really hard to broaden your palate without feeling like you need salad dressing to make it taste good. Now that you're eating what is probably a decidedly less processed diet, you might find that you can really enjoy the flavor of vegetables - salad or otherwise - without smothering them in salad dressing. We get so used to processed foods with all the MSG and artificial flavorings and stuff that we think everything has to be all multi-flavored to taste good. Granted, romaine lettuce and cucumber don't have that much flavor on their own, but cucumber diced with a little red onion and maybe some bell pepper... YUM. The flavors of the veggies work together to create something you enjoy.

[Niko]

Yeah, I hate water. I hate most fruits too but I like a lot of vegetables; just mostly the vegetables on the "other" list (and the forbidden ones~). I don't really like sweet things but I hate watery, spongy or tasteless things the most. Like tomatoes XP I detect no flavor in those whatsoever and I won't eat anything that's not tasty because it's just wasted calories then. Lettuce tastes bitter to me, cucumbers are too watery but I like the fresh taste. It's just the way my taste buds are. My mom always said as I grew older I'd learn to like things like tomatoes or olives so I've always made an attempt to try things I don't like to see if my tastes have changed but in 25 years I've remained constant.

I'm gonna stock up on some peppers since I know I like several varieties of them stuffed. I'm surprised they're salad veggies though; they're so high in carbs.

[pokiedot]

Well the stuff on the "other" list has more carbs from starch and less from fiber. The good veggies are higher in fiber and water than in non-fiber carbs... so that could be the reason that you like them better. My favorite vegetable is corn, which might as well be a candy bar it has so much sugar in it!

Some tomatoes are better than others, and if you lightly fry a tomato (no breading, just the tomato) in a little olive oil with some salt and pepper, it can really bring out the flavor. The cheaper a tomato is, the more the watery taste it seems to have, at least in my experience... so get one expensive tomato rather than a pound of cheap ones and you might enjoy those more.

The sauce/dressing/condiment trap is something that I think about alot. As a kid, I was the "ketchup girl" and ate ketchup on everything. I was never really chubby till I was in my early 20s, but by then it was too late, my sauce/dressing/condiment habit was as much a part of me as brushing my teeth as soon as I wake up. I used to eat salads with so much dressing that it was sort of inconsequential what was in the salad, all i could taste was the dressing. It's been very very hard to try and look at food the same way when it isn't drenched in some flavorful goo. Anyway, just some food for thought. (ohmygod that was a horrible pun!)

[Eighties]

Originally Posted by Elizellen

No problem - eat them cooked instead
Most of the veg on the salad list are just as tasty if not more tasty eaten cooked. Red and yellow peppers change completely in taste and testure after being roasted or sautééd in butter

Yes that is pretty much what I do.

I may need to revisit peppers. They used to give me terrible heartburn but since one of the many benefits of thos WOE is the near elimination of heartburn, it might be time to try them again.

[not2late]

The deal with the veggies on the "other" list is that they may have a slightly higher glycemic index than the veggies on the "salad" list. For example, tomatoes and onions have a higher glycemic index than lettuce. So the "other list" veggies are limited to 1 cup. Otherwise, they typically have a higher nutritional profile than the "salad" list veggies.

All the veggies on the "salad" list can be cooked----yes including the lettuces! There is a classic French soup called "potage de laitue." Grilled romaine recently was a chef's darling in fine dining restaurants.

Cooking changes the texture and flavors of most vegetables. Cooked cucumbers take on a mild zucchini flavor and texture when sauteed. Same thing happens with peppers. Mushrooms are on the "salad" list and taste better cooked, imo, so does Bok choy.

By the way, no where does Dr. Atkins write that the salad vegetables have to be eaten raw. So cook them and enjoy them.