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I have always had a strong aversion to cooked vegetables. To this day, the mere smell of cooked spinach makes me nauseous. When I was a kid, my dad was convinced that I was exaggerating my dislike for cooked spinach and would force me to eat it, even to the point where I vomited once or twice right at the dinner table. I tried everything too - washing the small bites down with milk, burying the spinach in other foods, like mashed potatoes - but nothing eased the reaction.

Only much later in life did I discover that not only could I eat raw spinach (as well as some other vegetables raw) but I actually liked raw spinach. If I had known that as a kid, I might have been able to save myself some real misery.

The problem with cooked veggies back in the day was that our moms boiled them to death. Plus, the only spinach we ate came out of a can.

Lightly sauteed spinach with olive oil and garlic is delicious. Not to mention most veggies brushed with olive oil and grilled outdoors!

My father gave up making me eat vegetables, or even coaxing me, after I ate five okra rockets and re-launched them a few minutes later. Then there was trying to be polite and eat cooked spinach in a restaurant and getting a strand the length of my throat that would go neither up or down. I figure it’s cruelty to force a child to eat anything mushy, slimy or sulfurous.

There’s a lot I could not eat when I was pregnant and the revulsion lasted months post-partum for me - so if it lasted several years for my children, so be it.

Vegetables were disgusting until I learned to shop and cook myself - always fresh now, and barely stir-fried. Organ meats, sushi and boiled beets, okra and spinach are on the won’t-even-try-list, and ever shall be.

So there, I say to all my elders, here and gone, who always ate everything on their plates and were grateful for it.

Mrs VS

My father gave up making me eat vegetables, or even coaxing me, after I ate five okra rockets and re-launched them a few minutes later. Then there was trying to be polite and eat cooked spinach in a restaurant and getting a strand the length of my throat that would go neither up or down. I figure it’s cruelty to force a child to eat anything mushy, slimy or sulfurous.

There’s a lot I could not eat when I was pregnant and the revulsion lasted months post-partum for me - so if it lasted several years for my children, so be it.

Vegetables were disgusting until I learned to shop and cook myself - always fresh now, and barely stir-fried. Organ meats, sushi and boiled beets, okra and spinach are on the won’t-even-try-list, and ever shall be.

So there, I say to all my elders, here and gone, who always ate everything on their plates and were grateful for it.

Mrs VS

Only much later in life did I discover that not only could I eat raw spinach (as well as some other vegetables raw) but I actually liked raw spinach. If I had known that as a kid, I might have been able to save myself some real misery.

Me too! Only, I now will even eat it cooked in something like spinach dip or lasagna.

I can STILL smell that horrific cooked, canned, spinach that they served at school...I gagged every time I was near the cafeteria. Same with butterscotch pudding....ICK!

By the way, I am quite a picky eater. Not picky at all about any type of food...very picky about how it was prepared and by whom.

An example: I purchased a pound of ham at a local grocery deli the other day. Only after I ordered, did I realize that the woman who was handling the food was sick as a dog...coughing, sneezing, etc. Took it home, and threw it in the garbage can.

It is shocking how many food service people go to work when they are ill...I distrust most restaurant food for that reason. I am probably crazy...but ending up in the hospital with food poisoning will do that to you.