What happens if you don't eat your vegetables?

Factual Questions
1

A friend of mine doesn’t eat vegetables. Period. (Unless you count potatoes, which to me are marginal at best.) I don’t think he’s real big on whole-grain foods either. This is unfathomable to me, who was raised on a ~90% vegetarian diet and very little refined carbohydrates.

My question is: is he putting his long-term health at risk with such a diet? He seems healthy, but then he’s only in his late 20s. He takes vitamin supplements, so he’s not likely to die of rickets or scurvy or something like that; but is there some other, more subtle effect that could get him into trouble 20-30 years down the road?

2

I don’t eat vegetables, either. I like grains, including whole grains. I like some fruits, and like your friend, I enjoy potatoes immensely.

For most food items, it’s a texture issue. Take my relationship with tomatoes, for example. I like ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and tomato soup. I’ll even drink tomato juice without fussing too much. But if I get a chunk of tomato in my mouth, it’s over. Raw, cooked, doesn’t matter. If my spaghetti sauce is chunky, those chunks are getting picked around. Similarly, I only like onion rings if they’re made with diced/minced onion instead of whole pieces. If they’re the minced kind, I positively love them…if not, I’ll pass.

I do the same thing with a lot of fruits, too. Hate oranges, love orange juice. The less pulp in the juice the better. It’s all about texture.

Anyway, my diet is mostly pasta, breads, potatoes, meats and dairy. And a hell of a lot of breakfast cereal. :slight_smile: I’m in my mid 20s, but see a doctor pretty regularly. I’ve never been told that I’m in any condition other than perfect health. I’ve got no symptoms of nutrient deficiencies, my blood pressure and cholesterol are outstanding, and I feel fine.

I know it’s anecdotal, and I’m hardly old. But it’s worth something, I’m sure. If you can get all your required nutrition from a vegetarian diet, why is it so hard to believe that the inverse diet could be just as complete? The enrichment and fortification of so many off-the-shelf makes that even more likely. As much as you can’t fathom being a pure carnivore, the idea of being a vegetarian is abhorrent to my tastes.

All in all, any type of diet where you exclude a large category of foods is bound to be less healthy then a very well-rounded one. But is it unhealthy enough to be a big deal? Maybe not.

3

If he is eating potatoes, then he will be fine. Potatoes are the closest thing you can find to “the perfect food.” They contain just about everything you need to survive and thrive, and meat fills in anything that was missing. Remember, the Irish survived for generations on just potatoes…no meat, no nothing else. They were stunted due to the lack of protein, but they survived.

The only long-term problem your friend is likely to encounter is going to be due to the fat content of the meat, not the lack of vitamins. He should start checking his chloresterol levels before too long.

4

Check out Cecil’s column which touches on the subject of all-meat diets.

5

The biggest risk is when the person eats lots of starches. Then the risk for type II diabetes goes way, way up.

And I would disagree with silenus that potatos are anywhere near “the perfect food”. The Irish didn’t eat “just potatos”. They ate any edible vegetable they could get their hands on, including a lot of green leafy things. And they ate the potatos skins and all, providing fiber.

By themselves even potatos might not be quite so bad, but in our culture noone eats potatos. They eat potatos fried in fat, seasoned with salt, dipped in sugar (ketchup), covered with cheese, etc etc.

Also this type of diet tends to be low in fiber, which also increases the risk for diabetes, but possibly for colon disorders too.

QtM, MD

6

Well, no way am I going to argue with a doc. But I would like to point out that I never defended the use of potatoes as a delivery system for toppings. I just repeated the US Govt. statement:

The US Department of Agriculture has stated that “a diet of whole milk and potatoes would supply almost all of the food elements necessary for the maintenance of the human body.”

Add to that the grain products he eats, and he’ll live. Other than that, what Qadgop said.

7

I was watching the Travel Channel do a show on my ancestral homeland (Finland). There was a Sami man (from the extreme northern part of Finland) who had never tasted a vegetable until he was 50. I don’t know how old he was then, but he was no spring chicken, as it were. I guess the Sami eat lots of fish and reindeer. Too cold up there to grow veggies. But he was alive and kicking.

8

Awwww! Poor little unfulfilled green beans! Poor lonely asparagus! They live their tiny lives to give us pleasure and nourishment, and some of us cruelly spurn them. (snif…) :frowning: