Blasphemous Nutrition

Increasing Produce Intake and Expanding Your Veggie Palate - Part 1 with Carolyn of Wellness While Walking

• Aimee Gallo • Episode 47

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Struggling to get more veggies into your meals without sacrificing flavor or convenience? You’re not alone! In this episode, Carolyn Cohen, host of Wellness While Walking, invites Aimee to dish out creative, practical strategies to level up your vegetable game.

From tackling the chaos of a busy lifestyle to spicing up your cooking methods and even making smarter dining-out choices, today's conversation will show you how to make veggies not just tolerable, but totally crave-worthy. Carolyn and Aimee share tips for adding flexibility to your healthy eating routine and reveal how to uncover veggies in the most unexpected places. Whether you’re a veggie newbie or just looking for fresh inspiration, this episode is packed with actionable advice to make healthy eating deliciously sustainable.

Hit play now to start hunting for veggies like a pro!



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MacBook Air Microphone-1:

Happy holidays, my fellow healthy heathens for the next two episodes. I'm going to be taking some time off to enjoy my family this holiday season, but I am not going to leave you hanging. My podcast, pal, Carolyn of wellness, while walking has graciously shared the episodes that I recorded with her, for her podcast. And over the next two weeks, I'm going to share these episodes with you. So we're going to be talking all about vegetables and it's a really great segue into some of what I am planning on sharing in 2025. You're going to learn some time honored tips to get more veggies on your plate in easy, sustainable ways, how to increase your willingness to eat vegetables when you are feeling a little reluctant and how to get better at finding them whether you are on the road in an airport, or even navigating a new grocery store. Carolyn and I discuss what to do when your plan goes sideways, creative ideas on how to expand your veggie palette and myriads of ways that veggies can improve your health. I do hope that you enjoy these conversations as much as I enjoyed. having them and have a wonderful, wonderful holiday.

Carolyn:

We're going on a vegetable hunt. Guest Amy, host of the Blasphemous Nutrition Podcast, will give us some tips for finding vegetables out in the real world and bringing them into our lives and onto our plates in a realistic way and with a big dose of fun. Welcome to the wellness while walking podcast. I'm your walking guide and health coach, Carolyn Cohen. Whether you've been walking or otherwise moving regularly, or it's fallen off your schedule, I'll be here to help you make your own wellness priority. We'll plan for about a 30 minute walk each week, and while you're ambling, I'll be rambling in your ear. Mm hmm. We will talk about walking a bit, but also about wellness in the largest sense of the word so that we can continue on a journey of a beautiful life of no regrets. Let's chat, learn, laugh, and move in the most natural way possible, and then get back to it. To designing and living the best, most rewarding lives we each ever imagined. Hi, welcome to episode 227. Thanks for being here with me today. Before we continue a reminder that I'm not a doctor or mental health professional, and the content presented here is for educational and informational purposes only. Please make sure you check with your doctor before making any health or lifestyle changes. Oh yeah, I never thought of it like that, is one of my favorite things to say, and if not to say, then to feel. Having somebody open up a different way of looking at things for me, I think is such a gift. I've learned a lot about vegetables over the course of my studies and years as, you know, a home chef, an eater of vegetables. I've coached a lot of folks on getting more vegetables into their diet, and I've sung vegetables Praises here on the show before, but today's conversation opened me up to some new ideas and approaches to warming up to vegetables and how to expand our veggie reach, if you will. My guest today is Amy. She's the host of the Blasphemous Nutrition podcast, and she paves a different path to getting more of those veggies in on a regular basis than we've spoken about before. Before I step aside to let you hear the conversation. It might be Salsa fee, you'll understand in a few minutes. Okay, let's do this. Hello everybody, I am here with Amy. She's a nutritionist and the host of the Blasphemous Nutrition Podcast. We crossed paths recently. I'm so glad we did. We're like minded in many ways. We have some differing points of view and approaches in others. And I'm really excited to speak with her today because I know you're going to get a lot out of what she delivers. And I will link to where you can find her in the show notes, of course. But Amy, hi, how are you?

Aimee:

I am wonderful. How are you doing, Carolyn?

Carolyn:

Um, good. Today, thank you so much for joining us here. One of the things that we've talked about a lot is produce, fresh fruits and vegetables, or perhaps Not fresh. We can talk about that as well. And I'm just wondering what, you know, if you had to deliver like the state of the union on produce today, where do you think we stand on consuming produce in terms of our modern lives and maybe comparing it to what we used to do, whether that be 40 years ago, 100 years ago or millennia ago?

Aimee:

I feel like for me to give a state of the union address. on produce would be one of those experiences where like a politician is giving a State of the Union address and they're stating the obvious and it's so obvious that people are sitting on the couch rolling their eyes because they're like, tell me something I didn't know. It's very clear to, to most people that they're falling short in that area. And it's very understandable. It's very understandable. When we look at where our priorities lie or where we're driven to focus, it is on tasks and activities and things which are quick and easy to obtain, right? Because there's so much on our plate. The proverbial plate.

Carolyn:

I love it.

Aimee:

That we don't have the bandwidth to get creative with our meals a lot of the time. We don't have time to chop vegetables, prep vegetables, cook vegetables. And there's a perception that it takes a great deal of time to do this. And so they tend to fall away. And it's one of those things in the back of your mind, like flossing, you're like, Oh, I should be doing this, and I'm not doing this, but I should be doing this. It'll be often something that'll come up when someone is seeking support for a health goal, you know, Oh, I should be doing this. How can I do this? Or if I initiate that conversation, like, you know, How are you? How many servings of vegetables do you get in a day? If the follow up isn't, well, what does a serving mean, then it's, it's like, well, not, not much, you know, that's the norm.

Carolyn:

I agree. That is the norm I see as well. It's funny that you mentioned flossing because I've been thinking a lot about habits lately and working with people on habit change, you know, and I do think that It's a little misleading to equate, you know, things like flossing and bringing a flossing habit into your life with procuring, preparing, planning for cleaning up after cooking and making vegetables, let's say, because it's just much more multifaceted. There are a lot of tough love coaches out there and I try to take a little bit more of a kindness approach with clients and people I'm working with and people who are listening to this because it is complicated and our lives are so full. Like you said, our plates are very full. So when people feel badly about not incorporating more vegetables in their diet, I do like to give them grace and let them see how, you know, it's not quite the same as like another habit that you might.

Aimee:

You're absolutely right. It is, it is an unfair comparison to compare it to flossing for sure. And I think when we think about acquiring healthy habits or being consistent with the habits that we want to have as foundational for our lifestyle, we often are looking at, okay, the end goal, right? And not the multiple steps. We don't take that into consideration when we make the goal. Uh huh. Exactly. And so we do create a false equivalency where it's like, I'm going to floss my teeth every night and I'm going to get, you know, three servings of vegetables at dinner, as though that requires equal energy and effort. I

Carolyn:

know. That's what I, that's exactly right. And that's the same thing with like resolutions that never get brought down into, okay, well, let's break that down. How do we do that? And then what does it show up like? If not in your daily lives, at least your weekly, right? Like, so it just when you have these blue sky goals, and there's not, you know, the breaking down of them, and then people just feel badly. It's like, no, that's not a failure. We just have to take a little bit of a different approach.

Aimee:

Definitely. Yeah. Break it down into just small steps. Right.

Carolyn:

Exactly.

Aimee:

There are actually a lot of ways to do that with produce, even if you are not able to, you know, make high produce meals at home. One of the things that I like to tell my clients when they're first starting out is to just start looking, just start looking for vegetables. When you begin thinking about your next meal, or you sit down at a restaurant and you open up the menu, if you ask yourself the question, Where is the produce? Where am I going to get my produce? You start spotting it in all of the different areas on the menu. And you start thinking of options where it's always been there. But because you never asked the question, you didn't realize it's been sitting there all along.

Carolyn:

Yes. I mean, even when you're looking at that menu and you're choosing between two things, you know, just having that orientation might make you pick one over the other because it's sitting on a bed of, of broccolini or what have you, you know, and you just go with that one instead. And then what a, What a gentle approach. Exactly.

Aimee:

Exactly. It's not forced. It's not dogmatic. It's not authoritarian. What you're essentially doing is you're looking for opportunities. You're hunting.

Carolyn:

Yeah.

Aimee:

And one of the things that I've done, I did my master's thesis on the value of produce and optimal servings of produce for longevity and health span. And I was on this fervent mission to get America to. Eat some produce, please. Because this is so important. So important. And, um, you know, there's a lot that actually came out of that. It was a very creative period of my time, of time for me. One of the things that did come out of it that I haven't spoken to in a very long time is an app that my husband created called Veg Hunter. And I think it's, it's currently being withheld from being out like on the app store because we haven't updated it in a while, but you can go to veghunter. com and use the desktop version. And it's essentially a produce tracker. So you can produce, you can track your produce based on, you know, how many servings of produce you have per day, whether you're measuring cups or grams. the color of your produce so you can get a wide variety. You can literally use it to track eating the rainbow. It's a super fun app and we will be updating it sometime in the next month or so.

Carolyn:

Oh, that's great.

Aimee:

Yeah, so that it will be available again on iTunes and Android.

Carolyn:

Yeah, that's great. Sometimes I think there might be challenges of Planning, buying, preparing somehow, so on, if we're eating at home, and also that oftentimes I don't find vegetables readily available when I'm hungry and out and about, it's not like I can duck into any number of places and pick up some crudités, you know, it's just not, that's not a thing as much as I would hope. But I guess there's also the question of like, there are people who Because just the way our food ways have changed and our culture has changed that haven't been exposed to a lot of vegetables and maybe feel like they don't like a wide range of vegetables. Are you seeing both those dynamics as impediments to eating more produce or do you feel like it's more one than the other?

Aimee:

I would say, um, at least with the demographic I work with, most of the time they like some vegetables. You may not like all of them, and that's, you know, it's not realistic to expect everybody to like everything that grows out of the ground. Nope. But generally, overall, enjoyment of vegetables typically is not a problem. And, you know, of course I work with a very thin slice. Of the demographic and I know that is not true broad spectrum across the board so you know in regards to to the convenience and finding them when you and this will this may be a fun exercise for you to Carolyn is in that scenario of becoming a vegetable hunter you are effectively going to go out in the world and always be on the prowl. Before you need to procure a meal, start thinking about where are vegetables hiding in plain sight? Where do they congregate in the wild?

Carolyn:

So funny.

Aimee:

Grocery stores are a hotbed of produce.

Carolyn:

Thankfully.

Aimee:

Yeah, when I'm on a road trip, I don't go through a drive through. I stop at a gas station that has a grocery store. We fill up the tank, I run in, I get some vegetables, I get some protein, I get some quick snacks. And then I can maintain, you know, perhaps not optimal produce servings on a road trip, but I can make sure that they do show up every day, and it makes such a big difference, you know, particularly for people who have digestive issues when they're traveling.

Carolyn:

Yes, yes, it's really helpful to be able to secure those. There is like planning ahead and kind of looking and getting used to looking is really helpful because then you notice like, Oh my goodness, you know, like in this snack box at Starbucks, there are carrot and celery sticks or what have you, you know, like kind of knowing where, where they can be found.

Aimee:

And then you start to accrue, you start to accrue this knowledge base of I can get produce here. I can get produce here. This restaurant has these options. And And one of the things that I do recommend for people who don't like vegetables, generally speaking, even those individuals have one or two that are passable, that they can tolerate. You start there. The amazing thing about the human palate is that it is very adaptable, and it changes. It's amazing. So when you start eating the vegetables that you like, and you just do that in more frequency, right? It's like, I like corn and, or I like the peas and carrots frozen blend. Fabulous. Amazing. Wonderful. So let's just consistently have that, right? Or I like raw carrots, but I don't like cooked carrots. Beautiful. Have some raw carrots with ranch dip or hummus and let that be your snack throughout the week. And trade that off with, say, you know, maybe frozen peas, right? Or whatever the other vegetable is that's tolerable. Maybe you only like broccoli when it's covered in cheese sauce. Fantastic! That's wonderful! It means that there is a way for you to get broccoli into your body.

Carolyn:

Love it.

Aimee:

And broccoli's freaking amazing!

Carolyn:

It is. It is. I so agree.

Aimee:

It has so many compounds that are so wonderful for protecting cells against developing cancer, from helping the liver to detoxify, all of the compounds that we are in contact with. Broccoli has appreciable amounts of vitamin E. It even has some iron. It's a wonderful source of fiber. And for those of you who do cook broccoli at home, you can save the stalks. This is a great tip. Don't throw those stalks out or don't compost them. Instead, what you can do is you can take a knife and cut off that tough layer or use a vegetable peeler to peel it off. And the stalk on the inside is actually Sweeter and more, and more tender than the florets, and it's really wonderful to cut up like carrot spears and then use it as a hummus dip. The other thing that I like to do is steam it and then blend it in, blend it and then mix it in with guacamole. And then you have broccoli.

Carolyn:

I love that. I didn't think of not cooking it along with the florets and then using it raw as like a dip carrier. That's a great tip. I also agree. Once you peel the rough edges off, it really is as good as the rest of it. So it's great to not waste it. And I think it is even slightly has a slightly different makeup than the florets. So everything is helpful. That beep indicates we're about halfway through the episode. So if you're not walking a loop, you might want to turn around and head back now. I love that approach. And I love the gentleness of eating it however you want and getting it in, in whatever way. And your perspective applies to me. Similarly, in your view on, you know, organic produce, like, it's way more important to get it in any shape, way, shape or form than to be very precious about it, I guess.

Aimee:

100%. And I don't think that can be emphasized enough. Because the health culture online is so purist that in addition to really, I think, driving away a lot of people who could benefit from their good intentions, it also makes health inaccessible to many people. Because they can't afford organic 100 percent of the time. That is simply unrealistic to ask of the majority of the population. Not all of us have garden space to be growing our own food, even if we wanted to. And the time. And the time, precisely. When we hold this ideal at the expense of everything else, Right. It's just another example of all or nothing thinking that only ends in nothing.

Carolyn:

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And whether we bring that all or nothing thinking on ourselves, or it's overlaid by society. And like you said, the health and wellness culture, you know, online and in various other places, it doesn't matter because You know, if we're not going to be perfect, then we're going to oftentimes do nothing. And obviously, there's so much, you know, fruit, so to speak, to be harvested by living in the gray on this or anything. And so to make it seem like there's only one way to do this, right? No, absolutely, absolutely not. Anything that makes us feel that way is a real detriment to our health.

Aimee:

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, if you're on a very low fixed income and you are getting your produce from, you know, the food bank, you are at the mercy of whatever is available. Canned produce is fine. It still has some antioxidants in there. It still has fiber. It still has some vitamins. It will still help your palate acclimate to a broader range of produce options in time. If you are consistently consuming what you can get your hands on in whatever form you can get your hands on it. There is no bad way to do this.

Carolyn:

That is so important for people to hear, so thank you so much for, for spelling that out.

Aimee:

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things, too, that people can do if they are struggling with produce variety or have a very limited range of, um, vegetables in particular, most people are more keen on fruit than veggies, And this also holds true for those who are unfamiliar with cooking vegetables and feel very intimidated by working with them in the kitchen, right? In these situations, it is very, very helpful when you are dining out to order something that has vegetables in it. To order a vegetable focused meal and see how the cooks and the chefs behind the kitchen are preparing it because it may be that you actually like brussel sprouts, but they need to be deep fried and salted.

Carolyn:

Funny. That's like the new French fry in my

Aimee:

book. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And, you know, I'm not. I'm not going to diss that. Brussels sprouts are like, they're another cruciferous vegetable. They're right up there with broccoli. They're also so amazing. And you know, if they're deep fried, okay, that's fine. You are still actually very, very subtly acclimating your palate to that more bitter taste that a lot of vegetables have, or that soul free kind of old egg taste. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That cruciferous vegetables can, can get, particularly as they start to age. And that will, that will allow you in the future to again, expand your palate. If you're not familiar with cooking vegetables. And you really like those deep fried brussel sprouts in your gosh, you're like, gosh, maybe what if I found a fried brussel sprout recipe that I could try in the air fryer? Could that work? And then you have an in to start to expand your repertoire with something that you know, if you find the right recipe, you're going to enjoy it just as much as what you enjoy in the restaurant. And you start to expand your possibilities. If you're a super taster, you can ascertain like, what are some of the flavors in this vinaigrette, in this salad that made it so amazing? What are all the vegetables in here? Can I do something like this at home? And you can start to play with different flavors and, and really let the pros who know what they're doing, be your inspiration and your initial guide into this, this foray of. Abundance that produce can really give us because there is so much of it so many varieties that can be prepared in so many ways. It's impossible to get bored. So long as you stay curious,

Carolyn:

perfectly stated a couple of things I do at restaurants is, um, I scan the sides and sometimes we order a side as an appetizer. So I'm starting the meal, you know, with a delicious preparation of a vegetable that I would probably not make at home, or maybe I, you know, approximate it later, like you say, and another thing I'll do is ask for side dishes of things I'm not ordering, but the vegetables that come with that. So like, you know, if I see like last night, I just happened to have eaten out and there was One of the entrees came with something called a salsify puree, and I asked if I could have a side dish of it. It's not something I would normally make or eat, and I probably maybe even said it wrong, I don't know, because it's not something I grew up hearing about, but it was delicious, you know, so it just, Is another way to explore with, like you said, a pro at the helm who can help us introduce a different preparation or something that, you know, just a flavor that goes so well with something that maybe we want to expand to. And only other thing that I'll just build on what you were saying is one of the approaches that I took with my kids was like food linking, where you. Think about what you like, and then maybe you change up a slight variety of it. You know what I mean? Like you change up one aspect of it, like the vegetable itself, prepared the same way that you've been enjoying broccoli all those years, you know what I mean? Or the preparation changes, and you try, you know, it with something else, but just a way to sort of like take what you're doing, what you're liking, and seeing if there's something similar, you know what I mean? Like even for carrots, going from all orange carrots to maybe multi colored carrots, which I'm finding just to be more prevalent here in the supermarkets in the US. And so even those just the different colors will give us different nutrients and slightly different flavors and certainly a different look. And so just taking what you already like, and maybe looking ways to expand a little bit from there, like jumping from a lily pad to another one.

Aimee:

Yes, I love that. That's a great idea because you retain that aspect of familiarity and comfort and just crack that door just a little bit open, open a little bit more.

Carolyn:

Tweak it a little bit.

Aimee:

Yeah.

Carolyn:

So it seemed like maybe it was pronounced Salsify but then I saw Gordon Ramsey in a 30 second video preparing it and he said Salsify. Salsa phi, salsa fee, however we say it. It's a root vegetable, and I had it mashed that night at a restaurant, which was so good, but check out Gordon's 30 second video, which I'll link to in the show notes. He fried the salsa fee phi, but I Probably would do that in the air fryer. By the way, here's a perfect reason to broaden our range of vegetables that we eat. Salsify was used by the Greeks and Romans for medicinal properties, including for gallbladder. and liver issues, and the Spaniards used to use it for treating snakebites. There are a host of reasons to eat it now in the current day, in addition to its great flavor and texture. It can help feed our most beneficial gut bacteria. It has certain antioxidants that might help reduce the risks of some cancers like prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, and it might even help prevent cancer. promote hair growth. I'll put an article singing Salsify's praises in the show notes as well. Okay, so back to Amy and our vegetable hunting. I love the idea of priming our brains to be on the lookout for veggies. I agree that's so fun, but I've never looked at it that way before. And priming can really help us be on the lookout for anything. For our negative self talk, if we're going on a walk, maybe if we're primed to look for awe and wonder, we'll find that more. And now we might find veggies where we don't expect them, like at the gas station. In, uh, the Midlife Health Launchpad program that's going on now, we were just talking about so called food rules, including those put forth by Michael Pollan several years back. In addition to his saying, um, Eat food, mostly plants, not too much, which would speak to eating vegetables, by the way. But in addition to that, he had some other guidelines for how to eat healthfully in our modern world. One of those was don't eat where you get your gas, gasoline, that is. Well, personally. I'm thrilled every time I see some healthy options anywhere I happen to be. And if that's at the gas station, well, it's pretty awesome. So I got to run. I'm packing up for our move, which I'll talk a little bit more about next time or sometime soon. And also next time, Amy and I will dig a little deeper veggie wise. Oh, see what I did there? Dig veggies. Anyway, uh, we'll come back and we'll talk about some more how tos. Maybe something will spark a thought different from how you've thought about prepping veggies or dealing with picky eaters or something else altogether. And you'll have that, ooh, never thought about it that way before. That'll get you perhaps getting more vegetables into your diet to feel better and enjoy better health. See you next time. A reminder that neither I nor my podcast guests are doctors or healthcare professionals of any kind. And nothing on this podcast or associated content should be considered medical advice. The information provided by Wellness While Walking, Whole Life Workshop, and Bermuda Road Wellness, LLC. is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking any new health care regimen, including walking.