Vegetables/Healthy Lifestyle

Question
My boyfriend and I are trying to start a healthy lifestyle which includes eating healthier and exercising.
Our complication is his stubborness. He doesn't like to eat many fruits and vegetables, absolutely hates tomatoes and lettuce, yet enjoys drinking V-8 and thinks that is enough intake for veggies. What could I do or suggest that might get him to try more things, or maybe make something that wouldn't have the distinct taste of something he would recognize?
Also, he doesn't follow serving size because he doesn't feel full enough. How do I help him out?

Thanks,
Kristin

Answer
Dear Kristin,

To comment on the stubborn bit: I am afraid the news is not so good: if he doesn't want to help himself he's not going to LET you help him out, and he could make your life miserable by disliking your efforts, the healthy choices and the sensible cooking. Or in the end: disliking you for them. They don't say for nothing: a way to a man's heart is through his stomach....!
If he doesn't "believe" in the power and goodness of (real) veg & fruit, or try to acquire the habit of eating 5 portions a day (it takes ox-like will power to JUST DO IT at first) then he is, per definition, never going to acquire a magic liking for them. Eating "raw ingredients" needs practice.  However, the better news is most people find veg  fairly dull and there is lots we can do about that. To the spoiled (average western modern) palate fruit and veg is coarse and insipid. And quite frankly most supermarket stuff IS flavourless. A smoker will never taste the finer fragrances that actually make nature's stores FABULOUS, but an additive addict, neither. But if you ween yourself off junk and processed food you will discover the miracle of human senses. Use all of them (The folks in the brilliantly inspiring movie, A Touch of Spice even use the sense of hearing in choosing fresh egg-plants!!). Learn from the Mediterranean cultures, who have excelled in taking veg and making it the pivot of every meal. You would never have guessed that would you? Check out Spanish/Arabic, Italian, Turkish, Greek, Lebanese, Israelian, Palestinian recipes. But the Chinese know how to keep all the nutrients in their veg in a sweet and sour stir fry, for example: scrumptious for any non-vegetarian even! Compare this type of preparation to to the more "Sufi" stews (not so spicy) and other cuisine of Iran for example, and the myriad of nuances in Asia, from Thai, Vietnamese to Pakistan and Indian cooking. The latter especially have bags of ideas for you daily portion of veg. Even the Slavs and Balts, with the little veg they use, have some good beetroot salads or coleslaw tips. And their potato cakes can hide no end of other veg in them!
The best news is, organic stuff has bags of flavour. For salads I cannot (along with the world's top chefs) advise you anything else but buy fresh ORGANIC fruit/veg. Best of all seasonal (to your area). All transportation/cooling ruins flavour. Then again, flavour can be a problem in itself! If you are not used to the "colour" of flavour you'll feel flooded! That is why it is essential that you must start eating them as a kid (if your are ever thinking of having kids with your boyfriend, help him (and you too) realise that to set an example you need to practice it for many many years first!).  It is not easy to stomach the dark green of broccoli or spinach at first! But don't disguise it in cheese: enhance it with a sprinkling, or a peppering, or a bespeckling (stir fried, add ginger, rice wine, sesame oil, slt/pepper, pinch of sugar, a chili pepper if you are daring, sesameseeds etc, etc). The sparky reds and sumptious orangy yellows of the fruits of bell peppers, tomatoes, squashes can seem too juicy: make a soup, hungarian goulash, rich pasta sauce with lots of healthy parsley, chives, tarragon, celery leaf (herbs count too!). Make a smoked salmon-cream sauce but actually to top off a platter of steamed broccoli, carrot, celery, courgette, serve with rice or pasta.
Deep blues and purples of berries, grapes, or egg plant skin, even, can all be a bit too "earthy" and "natural" for consumer, potato-couch man. But an oven baked pie is not going to retain their finer properties! Have a fresh handful for breakfast. Just do it. Munch through them and see how great you feel. Then have your cheese sandwich, muesli or what ever healthy normal breakfast you have. Incorporate fruit throughout the day. Eat that apple before you have your lunch: See it as a work out: ten push ups. But then like this: cut it up in to eights then halve again into chunks (very finely peel if skin is too tough) then eat while leafing through a paper or something. Gone before you know it; you are slowly, gently getting used to that darn fruit before you know it. Then learn to respect it. But that's step two for a guy like yours.
For the rest the trick is, if you are the one mainly in charge of organising meals, to cook as healthy as possible: low fat, alternative seasoning/spice to salt, cut out tinned (sugared) foods etc. Then get to know your produce, and buy the best basic ingredients. A tomato is only going to have any Jazz to it when it is grown in season, in full sun, and organically, then preferably topped with fresh basil, a slice of mozarella and a drizzle of olive oil laced with a hint of garlic, perhaps some pine nuts, or try a pesto-caper dressing.
I've got men to eat salads as long as they're plenty mixed and fun and "rewarding". Some successes follow:
Use a tender baby leaf, or crispy leaf (ice berg) as a base lettuce, spiked with some ruccola perhaps or young spinach (a butch kinda leaf).Optional: snippets of bacon (grilled), smokey tofu, tuna flakes, sardines, mackrell (tinned: these are for flavour not meant as fullside portion of protein). Add plenty of colour and texture, to tempt eye and mouth: add nuts (pecan is a sure hit), seeds (freshly toasted sunflower, or try pumpkin seeds, which is very good for prostrate), grate a carrot, slice some cucumber. Add corn (organic jar), boiled potato with dill and smokey paprika powder, kidney beans for a nouveau-Mexican feel. Chop up celery and apple with walnut in a mayonaise dressing (occasionally! Try to stick to a range of vinagrettes with olive oil,nut oils, mirin, balsamic vinegar, herb salt, cajun spice etc.). Hide an avocado in one salad, serve boiled egg on top of another; use radishes and spring onions for colour and surprise. Finish off with a tuft of alfalfa or mungbean sprouts. All of this is full of longevity and immunising potential!
But scare him if you need to: with facts and figures on bowel cancer (even a  smoothie with added fibre is NOT the same as 5 portions a day of fruit & veg). Keep reminding him of the health risks if you have an inadequate diet, if you are obese, have high cholesterol, or simply keep on being irresponsible (an "I don't care" attitude is not very sexy!). All you can do is try to make him want to dig in and explore. Each bite should be exciting and a new adventure. Dress up your food if you need to: as any woman knows, presentation can whet a man's appetite for any thing otherwise not touched with a barge pole....
Make sure he feels satisfied after coming away from the dinner table (half the trick is sitting down for a meal in one place, with a clear beginning, middle and ending) or else he'll snack later on. Try to stick to one kind of carbohydrate (rice/grain, or potatoes, or bread, not all at the same time): he'll get bored of three servings of the same thing! Realise: it will take time for his stomach to adapt to smaller servings and him to register a new point of satiation. Serve tea/coffee or dessert about 10 minutes after the main meal to tempt him away from the table and distract his mind on the next phase, without the total disappointment of final curtains. Whatever you do: do not start up on anything large after the main meal, let alone encourage constant nibbling (not even rice crackers!) after the last main meal of the day/ It is awful on your digestive system and you simply cannot burn off the calories that late in the day. Make it a (stubborn!) rule not to eat a single thing one hour after you've finished dinner (set that time, usually between 7 and 9 and don't succumb to so much as an apple or  milky tea. Do not watch tv ads!).
The good news is that if your boyfriend is really that stubborn he'll be a stickler for the new diet, once he believes it's the way forward and has trained up his jaw (I bet he hasn't really chewed on anything in ages!). A healthy diet is a lot of hard work: mainly for the cook/shopper/meal compiler but also for the eater.
I wish you loads of success and may you at least not be bullied off your excellent intentions for yourself. Never forget, you might be able to help a man change his body, but never his mind.
Love
Evelyn.

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