Desiree Nielsen, RD, a chef in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the author of Un-Junk Your Diet: How to Shop, Cook, and Eat to Fight Inflammation and Feel Better Forever, and the upcoming book Eat More Plants, suspects a couple of reasons for the disconnect. Overcooking is one of them. “I think for a lot of people, they grew up eating sort of mushy, flavorless veggies, maybe with a little salt on them. I totally get why vegetables might not seem like the most interesting thing to them.” Another possible reason is that people equate veggies with salad. “I love showing people that vegetables are so much more than that.” Unexpected textures and flavors can help open your mind if you’re not a fan of them now. “One of my favorite go-to dishes is sweet potato pasta with a cashew Alfredo sauce. It’s a serving of pasta, but that pasta is actually sweet potatoes.” RELATED: 7 Creative Ways to Prepare Sweet Potatoes (That Are Also Diabetes-Friendly) Whether you’re a meat eater who’s interested in adding a few more vegetables to your daily meals, or you’re interested in giving up meat and transitioning to a full-blown vegetarian or plant-based diet, food and nutrition experts such as Nielsen have a few pieces of advice.
1. Roast Your Veggies to Bring Out Their Flavors
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2. Trade Your Animal Protein for Plant-Based Sources
If you’re not ready to swap out your meat dishes for plant-based protein, you can simply swap half the animal protein you eat for the same portion size of plant protein, says Nielsen. For instance, if you like a traditional ragout pasta dish, “Take 50 percent of the ground beef out of the sauce and replace it with brown lentils. They have a similar flavor and texture, but you are getting extra fiber, extra minerals, and less fat,” she says. Compare that to 100 g of ground beef — just under ¼ pound (remember that burger?). That serving size has 179 calories, 20 g of protein, 9.8 g of fat, 0 dietary fiber, and 2.4 milligrams (mg) of iron. Meanwhile, 100 g of cooked lentils (about ½ cup) contains 116 calories, 9 g of protein, 0.4 g of fat, 7.9 g of dietary fiber, plus 3.3 mg of iron — plus 1.3 mg of zinc, 19 mg of calcium, 36 mg of magnesium, 180 mg of phosphorus, and a whopping 369 mg of potassium! (A recipe by the registered dietitian Emily Kichler on the site Chatelaine describes a technique for making the swap.) RELATED: How Do You Tell the Difference Between Good and Bad Carbs? If you make the transition to a fully plant-based diet, continue to mind your protein. “If you are removing the chicken from the stir-fry then you need to add stir-fry tofu as a substitute,” says Nielsen. Not everyone is willing to let go of the taste and mouthfeel of meat, and that’s a desire that Burger King is betting on with its 2019 rollout of the soy- and potato protein-based Impossible Burger in a reported 7,300 locations. At the same time, Beyond Meat pea-protein-based burgers and sausage products can be found in grocery stores and restaurant chains such as Carl’s Jr. and TGI Fridays. Nielsen says that about once every week or two she indulges in a Beyond Meat burger, the option that is more available where she lives in Canada. “Both of those are great options for people who really crave that meaty flavor but have an honest intention to eat less meat. I think they’re an amazing transition food, especially since we don’t recommend eating real burgers three times a week! So they’re a fine inclusion into an otherwise healthy, whole-foods-based diet. “The only thing that I caution against is for people to remember that Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers are hyperprocessed foods. They don’t quite deliver the same kind of nutrition as whole foods do, and they do have a lot of ingredients and a lot of additives.” Remember that 100 g of cooked lentils, which had 116 calories, 0.4 g of fat, 9 g of protein and 7.9 g of dietary fiber? A ¼-pound Beyond Burger (113 g) has 250 calories, 18 g of fat (roughly double that in the ground beef burger!), 20 g of protein and only 2 g of dietary fiber. A ¼-pound Impossible Burger has 240 calories, only 3 g of fiber, 19 g of protein and 14 g of fat. Instead, make your own burger substitute at home using beans, she suggests. “Beans are going to offer you some protein, but they’re also going to offer you fiber and a whole bunch of naturally occurring minerals such as iron.” Nielsen makes a Beet Walnut Burger that includes 90 g of black beans per burger. Per ½ cup, black beans offer 7.2 g of protein, 0.4 g of fat, 8.3 g of fiber, 42 mg of calcium, and 2.3 mg of iron. RELATED: 10 Healthy Foods That Are Great Sources of Iron
3. Try Not to Overthink It When You’re Meal Planning
Matthew Kenney is a renowned author, restaurateur, and chef of plant-based cuisine based in Venice Beach, California. His Kelp Noodle Cacio e Pepe would delight any pasta enthusiast looking for a veggie-based, low carb alternative — but they’d need a food processor, a dehydration tray, and ample time to rise and soak the ingredients before sinking their teeth into this plant-based creation. And not everyone has time for that, Kenney acknowledges. “People get into plant-based eating, and then they fall off quickly because they make it too difficult,” Kenney says. “What I try to tell everybody is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to go and make a gourmet dish out of a book all the time … it doesn’t always have to be four-star food.” He encourages plant newbies not to overthink it. “There are so many foods that are perfect on their own,” he says. “One of my go-to dishes is: really good sauerkraut, half an avocado, hempseed, a little bit of nori, maybe some nut cheese, and a handful of arugula or kale. It’s really so simple but you really learn to love the pure flavors of it, and not expect salt and processed flavors.” RELATED: The Processed Foods One Dietitian Says You Should Be Eating
4. Keep Things Fun (and Be Creative) When Preparing Plants for Children
Remember buffalo wings? Try making cauliflower wings, suggests Nielsen. Coat cauliflower in your favorite sauce, bake it and then coat and bake it again. Then serve it with a dip, such as hummus or a cashew miso dip. She has another kid-friendly suggestion for cauliflower: “Sneak it into mashed potatoes, using a food processor to whip it into an incredibly silky mash. Use 50 percent cauliflower and 50 percent white potatoes. Maybe no one will even notice. So it’s a great way to introduce this nutrient-dense vegetable into what is typically just a starchy comfort food.” She has a recipe for sweet potato cauliflower mash that describes the process. Graham has other sneaky advice. “Add finely grated vegetables — carrots, beets, and zucchini work well — to meatballs or even baked goods. They add a little color and a lot of nutrition.” RELATED: 6 Common Vegetarian Diet Myths, Debunked
5. Beware Tummy Trouble as Your Body Adjusts to Eating Veggies
If you usually eat a lot of meat then suddenly begin to load up on veggies, “the digestion of legumes, whole grains, and vegetables may be troubling,” warns Dr. Graham. Gas, bloating, and stomach pain can occur during the adjustment period. The gas-creating culprits are fiber and different kinds of carbohydrates (sugars), as well as the microbes in our gastrointestinal (GI) tract that consume them, Graham says. “Our gut bacteria love to eat these nutrients, and when they do, they create gas. Beans and cruciferous vegetables [such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts] have a complex sugar called raffinose, and onions have fructose, both known to be gas producers.” To ease these symptoms, gradually work up to eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans, says Graham. Drink water to help move fiber through your GI tract. “Without enough hydration, fiber could potentially cause extra bloating [and constipation],” he adds. Other suggestions: Start with eating well-cooked vegetables until your body adjusts, and then gradually introduce more lightly cooked and raw preparations. Also, before eating beans, soak them overnight to help break down some of the gas-producing sugars, and then throw away the water. RELATED: Seriously Bloated? The Warning Signs You Shouldn’t Ignore Graham suggests digestive enzyme supplements as another option. Early research suggests these supplements may help in certain cases of tummy trouble, Harvard Health Publishing notes. Naturally occurring digestive enzymes are produced in the pancreas, mouth, stomach, and small intestine to help you break down food so you can absorb the nutrients. Probably the best-known example of a digestive enzyme supplement that people use when eating vegetables is Beano (alpha-galactosidase). But, says Graham, many foods also contain enzymes. “One of the classic ones is pineapple, which in its natural form contains a digestive enzyme [called bromelain]." Rather than taking a pill, he advocates eating the fruit to aid digestion. Keep in mind that the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says there isn’t enough evidence to determine if bromelain is effective for gastrointestinal problems. “When you’re making a dietary change, you just have to be very mindful, and be prepared for how the body reacts. I think once you have that understanding, it’s a trial and error,” Graham says. RELATED: 7 Easy Ways to Tame Excessive Gas
6. Try Going out for ‘Vegan’ the Way You Would for Any Other Type of Cuisine
“People can and will benefit from eating plant-based cuisine, regardless of their lifestyle or personal preferences,” says Kenney. “In fact, a great majority of the guests in our restaurants aren’t vegan at all — but they enjoy and experience our food the same way anyone would, vegan or not.” If you go out for Italian, you can grab vegan takeout to go. Or the next day, instead of ordering in chicken pad thai, order vegetable pad thai with tofu. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a meatball sub the following day. RELATED: The Best Home Remedies for Gas and Bloating
7. Make Changes to Your Diet Slowly So You’re More Likely Sustain Them
Like Kenney, Nielsen suggests that long-term success depends on easing the dietary changes into your life in a way that you can sustain for the long haul. “Go slow. We [tend to] get really excited about any new dietary trend or regime and we want to go all in overnight. We can end up being really dissatisfied or feeling hungry if we don’t plan ahead.” She adds that if you like adding vegetables to your diet and you want to keep going into a fully plant-based regimen, do it by transforming one daily meal at a time. Start with breakfast. “What will replace your egg scramble in the morning? When you think of it on a meal by meal basis, it’s easier to wrap your head around.” Maybe 50 percent of your meals being plant-based is a great place to start, she adds. By taking this approach, “You are going to feel healthier, you are going to have a whole lot of fun choosing recipes, and then it does not feel like a lot of pressure to make a change,” says Nielsen. “We have enough pressure in our lives.” RELATED: 6 Vegan Habits Everyone Should Adopt (Without Giving Up Meat) Even if you go no further and stick with the omnivorous life, you can still reap many health benefits by trading meat for veggies. “I tell my patients to be meat aware — of how many servings you consume per day or week. High consumption of red meat has been associated with diseases such as heart disease and colon cancer.” The World Health Organization has classified processed meat as carcinogenic and red meats as probably carcinogenic, he adds. Stick with 8 to 9 servings (or fewer) of meat, poultry, or eggs a week, and 2 to 3 servings of fish weekly, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends, with each serving being no more than 3 ounces. As for veggies, eat at least 5 servings per day (with 1 serving being generally considered 1 cup of raw veggies or ½ cup cooked), says the AHA. So, you can still enjoy burgers or chicken wings, just in moderation, and surrounded by plenty of plant fare. “Bottom line: Reduce your meat, including fish and poultry intake, and observe a few meatless days per week,” Graham advises.
