Does he EVEN eat BITTER GOURD ???

These were the actual words in astonishment from Abhi, my brother’s son about my son Sanjay when we visited India last time.  Let us take a look on what led Abhi to scream out this question…

During my recent visit to India, we were all eating lunch at my parents’ place, and I was noticing that Abhi was avoiding some of the vegetables.  I told him to finish his plate, and he said “No Periappa (Uncle), I do not like them”.  I explained to him the health benefits of those vegetables, and also told him that Sanjay can eat any vegetable, that was when Abhi with his eyes wide open shouted “Does he EVEN eat BITTER GOURD?” And I proudly said, “YES, Abhi!”.

YES, my son eats ALL veggies and spinach!  I say it very proudly!!  But there is just one thing he does not want to eat – mushrooms! I tried hard to persuade him to eat mushrooms, but he does not want to eat for some reason!  Getting him eat this delicacy is still work-in-progress, but I am OK if he never eats it as well as I am reading that mushrooms are basically fungi and should be totally avoided…

Let me pause here for a minute. Couple of quick questions to you:

1. Does your kid (or kids) eat all veggies / spinach?
2. DO YOU EAT ALL VEGGIES / SPINACH?

Let us review your answers to the above questions. If you answered “NO” to the second question, I know what is the answer to the first question!

I personally eat any vegetable/ spinach.  Actually, I have the same “love” for each vegetable, and each one is my “most” favorite! There is a random rotation of all vegetables/ spinaches during the weekly grocery shopping though some vegetable are constantly on the menu each week, like the bitter gourd (for me), the green mango (for my wife) and green beans (for my son).

Looking at Sanjay, I can see his love for all veggies as a repeat of what I experienced in my home while I was growing up.  My dad is an avid gardener and he grew (and still grows!) lots of vegetables and spinaches in our home in India.  And those vegetables that we normally did not grew in our garden, he bought them all from the local farmers market so we did not miss on any vegetable. I grew up eating all vegetables and spinaches. I do not remember if I appreciated/ enjoyed all this when I was young, but I certainly do NOW, thank you Dad for all this! Am sure my son will thank me the same way one day…

Now coming back to the questions again. If you scored a “NO” to any of the questions, do not to worry… It is easy (if you are perseverant) to train yourself (or your kids) to eat all vegetables. Here are some tips I followed:

• I used to take my son for grocery shopping when he was young. In the shop, I would tell him that I needed his big help that day to pick vegetables and put them in the bags. He would ask questions about each vegetable and I would answer his questions sincerely as I can…
• When he got a little older, every now and then while I prep for cooking (when the veggies are out from the fridge ready to be cooked…), I used to randomly pick a vegetable (say for example eggplant) and ask him to research about it in internet. He would search in his iPad and come screaming to me saying “Daddy!!! Do you know eggplant has so much potassium in it that is good for the body?” I would casually ask “How is potassium good for the body?”. He would then react “Well… I do not know… let me find out…”. He would do some more research and we would be continuing our conversation just like that… Never once I would tell him “See, eggplant has potassium, so you better eat it when I cook it now”. I would rather tell him “Honey, thank you for your research… I had a doubt and just wanted to clarify… now you can go and play”. After all these conversations, do you think he would avoid eating eggplant on that day when it is on his plate? Well, maybe if I did not cook eggplant that day, he might actually complain that I was a mean dad denying his daily dose of potassium!!!
• When our kids were young, we pureed the veggies, but that is not a permanent solution.  You need to somehow train them to eat them all…
• Try a different recipe if they do not like a particular way of cooking…
• Praise them a LOT when they eat vegetables. Tell them how you feel so happy when they eat lots of vegetables…
• Involve them in the kitchen. Ask them to pick the vegetables from your fridge what they want to eat that day.  If you do not want them (and you) to eat potatoes every day, give them 2 or 3 three choices and ask them to pick from those choices.  And rotate the choices each day.
• Let them wash the vegetables, or watch you when you are cooking.  Safety reminder, when your kids are in the kitchen, remember to follow basic safety tips – like keeping them away from hot surfaces, hot oil, boiling curry pots, sharp knives etc… you know them all!!!

I have to be honest, not all of my above attempts were met with instant success.  I had challenges too.  So I had to constantly innovate ideas to make my son eat all veggies!  So my advice to you, never give up! Better yet, be a role model yourself… I cannot imagine how your kid will think of you if you yourself hate bitter gourd but try to shove it inside your kid’s mouth!!! And another tip, if your kid resists so much, do not force him or her at all.  Give some time and try again after a month or so, you will be pleasantly surprised to note either they eat the same veggie or the resistance level goes down…

Old habits die hard.  My success rate in getting my significant other eat some of the veggies that are not her favorite is bleak!  Hey, I am not complaining about her, this frustration is out of pure love (thankfully her not so favorite list is very small!).  These strategies will work better when one is young (if your kids are older, still try these on them… for us parents, our kids will always be babies how much ever they get old, right?).

My brother is updating me that Abhi is getting better in eating more veggies these days… (Abhi, if you do not want a lecture from Periappa, you better eat all veggies, yes, including “bitter gourd” !!!).

Please let me know if you follow any special techniques to make your kids eat all veggies, would love to hear them all from you…

Hope you enjoyed my kitchen tip of the day!