There is a certain group of vegetables (most of them actually) that I can’t eat. Not because I find the taste unpleasant; I don’t have a problem eating something that tastes bad. I can’t eat certain vegetables because I gag when I am chewing them up in my mouth. These vegetables include squash, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and zucchini. The flowerettes on broccoli are by far the worst for me, BTW. I found out in a psychology class about conditioned responses, and it made me wonder if perhaps I was ill when eating vegetables at a young age, and threw up, and maybe my brain asssociated the vegetables with throwing up, so whenever I try to eat them, my body wants to throw up. I have a friend that had a similar experience with eggs and ketchup, as a child he ate the combination when he had the flu, threw up, and now can no longer eat that because it makes him gag.
As a baby I loved vegetables, particularly squash. Which really perplexes me. Frankly I wish I could enjoy vegetables more; I know I am missing out on a lot of great nutrients, and if I didn’t have this problem I could really positively improve my eating habits. Really the only vegetable I like are green beans. Carrots I’m starting to like.
Can someone give me some advice? I tried forcing myself to eat broccoli every day, but after a week of running to the bathroom thinking I’m goign to puke I gave up.
“Can someone give me some advice? I tried forcing myself to eat broccoli every day, but after a week of running to the bathroom thinking I’m goign to puke I gave up.”
Yes, I can give you some GREAT advice. Don’t DO that. You are conditioning your own response. A famous doctor…I forget his name at the moment, but anyway, he said that if your body didn’t want something it would tell you. I will guess that taking a good multivitamin/mineral supplement if necessary will get you past the broccoli. I like vegetables and I eat a lot of them. I especially like fresh, raw corn-on-the-cob. But Jello makes me gag. It never made me sick as a child, I just cannot put it in my mouth. I used to think it was the slime factor but I LOVE boiled okra, so go figure. Hey, enjoy your green beans. And try some okra.
As kids, one of my siblings hated veggies and I loved them. Another sibling hated mayo & I love the stuff. None of us were ill re: food that I can recall. I used to love raisins until a couple of years ago when I found a maggot half way thru a little box. I cannot eat raisins now. In my case with raisins, it may be “conditioned.”
It should be mentioned that I had a mother who harassed me to no end to eat my vegetables. It was awful. Both my parents thought my gagging was an act to get out of it; some meals were vertiable nightmares.
Just wait till you get over 50. Then you will lose most of your taste buds. The bright side. You can chomp on all sorts of disgusting vegetables and honestly say to your kids
These brussels do not taste disgusting. Now eat them up!
I’m not sure if you can truly consider something “conditioned” if the repulsion is the result of one negative incident. As I understood it, conditioning is a process by which the negative stimulus is introduced repeatedly and the negative reaction is developed gradually.
My mother too harassed me to eat vegetables; she forced herself to eat them when she was younger because she knew they were good for her, and thought all I needed was sufficient prodding. It didn’t work. I also was a gagger, and my parents also thought I was faking it… until I actually barfed on my plate at dinner. That ended that.
That’s very possible. There was this vegetable (I don’t know its english name) my mother used to serve once a week and that I hated (like most other vegetables). She would force me to eat them nevertheless. I still remember I puked once, when I was fairly young (4 or 5, i think). I still find repulsive to eat the thing, while I came to like the other vegetables I didn’t want to eat as a little kid.
I’ve a more recent example. When I was a teenager, I was once very ill after a meal in a chinese restaurant where I ordered a dish I never ate before which included tripes (that I liked) and some spice which was new to me. I could have been another dish which made me ill, but this one sticked out since it had an unusual taste.
During a long time, I avoided chinese restaurants because I felt some sort of repulsion at the idea. It took me years before I could eat tripes (that I liked previously) again. And never since I could eat a dish containing the spice (which is relatively common in chinese cuisine). It makes me gag. I assume that since this spice was a novelty for me, contrarily to the tripes, my body/brain definitely associated its taste with being ill…
I’m going to bet you can overcome it, Incubus, and here’s why. About 15 years ago, before I actually became a vegetarian, I decided one day “I shall be a vegetarian.” I made up a nice stir-fry, with big hunks of vegetables. As I popped a broccoli floret (which I actually like) into my mouth, I told myself, “this is replacing the meat,” and chomped away miserably.
Then, gradually, I began preparing dishes which didn’t have something to replace the meat. They were good dishes all on their own and didn’t lack something. Now, when making a stir-fry I don’t look around for a piece of broccoli to replace my meat. I don’t want it, at all.
Second story – some years after I became vegetarian, I was served lima beans at my mother’s house, a dish I loathed with every fiber of my being from birth on. Amused, my mother watched me scoop up a small serving. Stunning us all, I gobbled them down and reached for more. Why, they were delicious! In the intervening years, when I’d given meat the boot, I’d gradually started consuming a lot more beans, and eating them with relish. Mommy didn’t serve me blackeye peas, but now they’re on my table at least once a week. Anyway, my palate had become conditioned and eagerly accepting of any lima-bean-like items placed upon it and I went from wheezing and gagging at the mere thought of a lima bean, to scarfing them with abandon.
Well, that might be overstating things but my point is that you can retrain your palate. Try experimenting with recipes which include more vegetables. Shred them to bits and add to sauces, etc. Get yourself used to eating them in innocuous forms and one day you’ll leap to the plate with a glad cry, eating your broccoli like Ellen loves her limas.
I used to have the same problem with the same vegetables you mention, especially squash, zucchini, and eggplant, but also with brocoli, tomatos, and spinich. I had an automatic gag reflex (especially with zucchini and squash) as soon as I’d put these in my mouth.
Now I love all these vegetables (well, I’m still working on fresh tomato, but it’s getting there).
For me I think it was eating the vegetable prepared in a way I liked, and then I was able to branch out into other ways of eating it. If you don’t like boiled or steamed zucchini, for example, try it raw. Or fried. Yum!
I know a woman who was being questioned by her doctor regarding dairy-product consumption. A little thought, a little surprise … hardly any! Just a little splash with tea or coffee, but otherwise no dairy products, simply because she didn’t like them.
Turned out she was lactose-intolerant and the doctor made sure she knew all about other sources of dietary calcium.
I’d suggest you see a doctor - you may have an allergy and at the very least you need to ensure that what you do eat meets your needs.
