As a registered dietitian, I am a big proponent of eating vegetables. Also as a human, I am a big proponent of eating vegetables. It seems like a pretty simple and straightforward concept. Until people complicate it.
Here are my top 3 things to avoid when trying to figure out a healthy balance of vegetable eating in your overall diet.
Number 1 – Turning Them Into Unsatisfying Versions of Carbohydrates.
This is a very popular diet behavior, particularly because carbohydrates have been on the ‘do not eat’ list for some time. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know! I have definitely tried the occasional cauliflower rice or zucchini noodle dish, but it never satisfies like the real thing. And even when you know it’s not the real thing, it further emphasizes the fact that it’s probably not even that good at all.
Here are some examples of veggies-turned-carbs:
- Cauliflower rice/pizza crust/gnocchi/mashed
- Zucchini noodles
- Butternut squash fries
- Lettuce-wrapped burgers/sandwiches
- Mushroom caps instead of pizza crust for individual pizzas
- Bell pepper “buns” or chips
- Dehydrated veggie chips
- Romaine lettuce wraps
- Spaghetti squash for noodles
- Roasting radishes acting as potatoes
If you are going to eat vegetables, enjoy them for what they are. Don’t try to turn them into something else. It’s like a compromise or meeting “in the middle” – neither party is satisfied or getting what they want. You aren’t getting the satisfaction of a carbohydrate, and now you aren’t enjoying the vegetable as the vegetable it is because you are wanting it to be something else.
Number 2 – Tracking Them in an App
If you are rigidly counting calories, you are likely tracking every single thing you eat and drink in an app. You are probably including vegetables in here also. I can get into why calorie counting is often useless in another post, but for now just stop tracking the veggies.
I remember when I used to do this I would weigh or measure out the lettuce, tomato, onion, etc. that I was putting in my salads. Sometimes I’d be logging as little as 4-6 calories! I was obsessed with making every calorie accounted for, when in the big picture that didn’t matter at all.
Vegetables (and food) are meant to be enjoyed. Vegetables are the lowest low-calorie food. 1 cup of most raw vegetables has only 25 calories. If you can’t even eat your vegetables without wondering how many calories are in them, there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
Number 3 – Overeating them Because They’re “Free” Foods
Popular diet platforms (Weight Watchers, Noom), include most vegetables as “free” foods, meaning they don’t have a point value or they don’t count toward your daily totals. In an effort to stay under points or calories, people participating in these diets often overeat vegetables because they don’t have to account for them.
This leads to lots of mental issues with food, but it can also be dangerous because it discourages the intake of some foods that are really satisfying and nutritious for us! Vegetables have lots of nutrients, but not all of the ones we need and not in huge amounts. There are other foods that include missing nutrients and completely different nutrients, which is why it’s so important to eat a well-rounded diet and not practice extreme elimination.
When you overeat on vegetables, it can also cause GI issues like gas and bloating, and it can take the place of other nutritious foods you should be including in your diet.
The bottom line: enjoy vegetables for what they are and learn how to prepare them in a way you love them!