Essays and Musings on Animals and Society

Monday, January 19, 2009

Dear NIH (Part 1): Figure Out Why People Don't Eat Vegetables 

Simply consuming enough vegetables each day may cut one's risk of heart disease and certain cancers 25 to 50 percent. What's more, vegetables' side effects tend to be positive; a stronger immune system, a hedge against obesity, and so forth. They're amazing and powerful, yet most Americans pay them scant attention. Many people practically boast about their avoidance or dislike of vegetables.

My request is: See if you can figure out why.

The physical, emotional, and financial costs of chronic or deadly diseases is enormous. Granted, one can do everything right and still be unfortunate enough to be stricken by a rare cancer, but to knowingly bring on disease—which is basically what people do when they decline to add sufficient vegetables to their diet day after day—and to sometimes even brag about it is a bit mad.

How can you get people to eat five servings of vegetables a day? That seems like one of the first steps they can take to reduce their risk of chronic and deadly diseases that start to impact their lives around middle age (if not earlier).

Are people—particularly men—embarrassed to profess, or show, a love for vegetables? Why do people—again, more men than women, it seems—shrug off salads as "rabbit food?" Is downplaying vegetables a macho thing? Are people so entranced by the steady barrage of meat ads on TV, radio, buses, newspapers, and everything else that they overlook vegetables? Does eating all that meat and high-sugar food affect your taste buds? Are people unaware of how many types of vegetables there are? Are they afraid to buy Daikon radishes and mustard greens because they're not used to them or didn't grow up with them? Would they be more likely to try new vegetables if someone they knew or respected ate them and recommended them? If Mom and Dad eschew or marginalize vegetables, do their kids internalize those same attitudes? How does one overcome those prejudices? Are there too many people taking the lazy way out and getting too many of their meals from fast food joints, which are not exactly a haven for vegetables? Are people unaware of how to prepare vegetables and use them in dishes?

I'd be interested in surveys, psychological inquiries, clinical studies, test approaches in schools, cafeterias, and workplaces—or anything else you can think of. This could be a multi-disciplinary effort. It's not as glamorous as putting someone on the moon for the first time, but it could be this decade's version of the Apollo project—with a potentially much huger payoff, at least in the near-term.

Basically: What if there were a miracle cure and most of the people who had access to it didn't take it? I would like to see NIH look into that. The benefits could be gigantic, diverse, and widespread. More on that when I put forth some not-very-innovative ideas in part 2.

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Posted by: Gary / 11:01 AM
Comments:
This isn't a study, but I'll give you some reasons I've encountered for people not eating vegetables.

The first is that they don't like them, obviously, but why don't they like them?

A very few people have a genetic difference in their taste buds and will never really be able to eat greeny leafy veggies. This is less than 1% of the population though. I know a woman with this problem and she avoids all veggies. However, someone with this problem can still eat mild lettuces, like butter lettuce, and sweeter veggies like squash and carrots and sweet potatoes.

However, most people have average taste buds. They don't like vegetables because they are not in the habit of eating them, or have never had them properly prepared. Habit starts in childhood, but it can be changed. A friend of mine in grad school was a fast food junkie when he decided to eat kale for health. He started off with kale cooked a long time and drowned in ginger sauce and gradually reduced the sauce and cooking time. He said he came to love kale, though he at first thought he'd always be choking it down. As for cooking, some people never encounter a veggie unless it's over-cooked and covered in cream sauce. They could experiment with different less fattening cooking methods until they found something they like.

Another anecdote here: when we were kids my brother refused to eat his veggies. My mother cooked them southern style, cooked down to mush with bacon in them. As an adult my brother declared he actually did like a lot of veggies, but the texture of over-cooked vegetables was what had turned him off.

More reasons people don't eat their vegetables. Many vegetables are shipped over long distances and picked unripe--they have little or no taste when they reach your grocery store. Stores in my area have a lot of spoiled vegetables out for sale, and I hear it's a continuing problem in low-income areas. Community gardens and more farmer's markets could help this. It might cost something to start such programs up, but we'd ultimately save in health care costs.

Convenience is a final reason. Even I fall victim to this. If you work all day and then come home to a huge list of chores, washing and chopping veggies is too time consuming. It's far simpler to microwave a burrito. But people can still get pre-washed spinach or salad greens. Actually even frozen veggies are pretty nutritious and beat no veggies.
# posted by Blogger Neva : 9:08 AM
 
I'm a fan of frozen veggies. Not as tasty as fresh from the farm, and lacking somewhat in diversity, but not bad and very handy, especially during off-season months.
# posted by Blogger Gary : 9:24 AM
 
There are definitely psychological, environmental, sociological, epidemiological, and biological reasons for not eating enough plants. But, my personal opinion is that it's habit. We're creatures of habit (as are most animals) and habits are difficult to break.

Notice, if you meet someone who is vegan from birth (after breast feeding), they do not have the same habits as people who were not. Meat is arguably an acquired taste as are many other things.

The biggest problem with habit is that often, the pain has to get great enough before people will change. This is often said about addiction to drugs. People will torture themselves until their lives are so bad that they are willing to change. Often, the pain doesn't get great enough for people to change.

I think, if everyone could simply see where their food comes from, be forced to think of it every time they eat, as well as do a trial for 6 months of a healthy vegan diet, then perhaps they would realize the difference both mentally and physically in their lives. But, how do you get people to start outside of forcing them?

Who knows. This is where studies would be helpful. I'd say early education is the first step. The recession probably has people eating vegetarian much more anyways. So, perhaps looking at the costs of things is the next step. Overall, it has to be someone's choice or the change will never be long lasting.
# posted by Blogger Philosophía und Tierbefreiung : 9:30 AM
 
I do not think the recession is helping. Meat is heavily subsidized in the US. There are few things cheaper than McDonalds as well. Where I live fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive, yet there always seems to be some kind of animal flesh on sale for some incredibly low price at my local stores.
# posted by Blogger Neva : 4:01 PM
 
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