WASHINGTON 鈥� It鈥檚 not exactly a shocking statistic: 25 percent of adults and 7 percent of kids eat vegetables daily.
Yeah, yeah, they鈥檙e full of nutrition, but eating them can feel like a chore 鈥� for good reasons. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e slightly bitter,鈥� said Sally Squires, who writes the blog. 鈥淭exture is also a big problem.鈥�
So how exactly does one work around this in the kitchen? One way, Squires said, is to take a cue from Mary Poppins and add sugar.
Recent university studies support it: Researchers added small amounts of sugar to vegetable slurries made from broccoli, kale and spinach. 鈥淭hey found that by adding increasing amounts, that they could really make these things more palatable but they didn鈥檛 have to add a lot,鈥� Squires told 91欧美激情鈥檚 Mark Lewis and Debra Feinstein.
This plays particularly well with kids, Squires said, as they have heightened taste receptors for sweetness. And it doesn鈥檛 require much to bring out the vegetables鈥� natural flavor.
鈥淪ome of the home-cooked Asian recipes will call for a teaspoon of sugar just to take the edge off of some of the bitterness,鈥� she said.
Because the amount used in the tests was small, Squires said, it didn鈥檛 undercut the vegetables鈥� nutritional value. If even a small amount is still too much sugar for you, consider adding fruit juice, a sweet-flavored vinegar (like balsamic), nuts, dried fruits or cinnamon. A fat like butter or olive oil, too, can make them more palatable.
And if you want to make the flavor more savory but minimize sodium, spices can be substituted for salt.
Another suggestion: Take advantage of the inherent sweetness of such vegetables as baby carrots, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Tomato soup, hummus and guacamole offer sweeter nutrients along with a more pleasing texture.
鈥淭here are a lot of things that we can do that will push kids towards really enjoying vegetables,鈥� Squires said.
