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Robert Byron / Featurepics.com
Think about steak, eat broccoli. This probably doesn't work for vegetarians.
Do you still act like the kid on the school lunch line who grumbles when he's served a pile of flaccid carrots? Here's a weird trick: Staring at a picture of a T-bone beforehand may make your vegetables more enjoyable, according to a new study in PLoS ONE.
When you view a salivating picture, your orbital frontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for coding pleasant experiences, lights up and convinces your tongue that the bland food you're eating is tastier than it actually is, explains study author Johannes Le Coutre, Ph.D, head of perception physiology at Nestle Research Center in Switzerland.
We don't expect you to carry around pictures of juicy steaks or blistered pizza, but you can make your own healthy meals look and taste more like caloric feasts. We've recruited food stylist Brian Preston-Campbell, who is also a trained chef, to give us a few tips on how to make the following five health foods more tantalizing.
Related: Takeout That Delivers
1. Broccoli: Salt It
Green vegetables should always be cooked in salted boiling water because it not only seasons the produce, but enhances the color. Then shock them in ice water to halt the cooking process and lock in that emerald beauty.
2. Cauliflower: Add Color
"Steamed white cauliflower is a food stylist's death knell, only made worse when it is paired with steamed chicken breast or baked tilapia in a white butter sauce," says Preston-Campbell. One remedy? Leave some stem on the florets to help to break up the rounded tops of the cauliflower pieces and add a little contrast. Then add some color and texture to the dish with breadcrumbs, herbs, or spices. You can also mix it with colorful vegetables. (Need more great ways to spice up your food? Watch how chef Eddie Huang reinvents junk food.)
3. Yogurt: Strain It
Line a fine mesh strainer with a coffee filter or clean paper towel, and place on top of a bowl to catch the yogurt's liquid. Pour in the yogurt, and drain overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, you'll be left with a thick, velvety yogurt that can hold a swirled texture (like a spiraling cone of soft serve).
4. Kale: Perfect Its Color
Buy the freshest, most vibrantly green bunch you can find, you want to start with a quality product. Then heavily salt the water to perk up the color and boil for only one or two minutes, just to soften these hardy leaves. Then, saute for about 5 minutes (don't let it brown) with some garlic, pine nuts, bacon or pepper flakes for added color and flavor. Avoid mixing in acids such as vinegar or lemon juice, which will make these leaves wilt in vibrancy and texture. (Start stripping off extra pounds with the newly expanded 2012 edition of Eat This, Not That!)
5. Tilapia: Keep It Moist
Tilapia doesn't look appetizing because it's flat, white, and simply not as exciting as a thick piece of bright red tuna or fresh fillet of salmon. Cooking this fish in a tomato broth will add color and keep the fish moist. Follow Preston-Campbell's recipe: Puree two cored and coarsely chopped tomatoes, the juice of half a lemon, a dash of dried oregano, and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a blender. Salt and pepper to taste. Strain into a saute pan and bring to a simmer. Place the tilapia fillets in the pan and poach the fish (just below a simmer on low heat, don't let it boil!) until they are cooked through, about 8 minutes.
Related: The Best and Worst Foods for Your Cholesterol
Make healthy miso-walnut dressing for a kale salad
More from Men's Health:
- Cauliflower Power
- Your Grocery Aisle Survival Guide
- 3 Kitchen Mistakes You Don't Know You're Making
- Americans Ate a TON of Food Last Year!
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
This annoyed me.. why not just be an adult and know what it means to eat healthy! "Heavily salt..saute with bacon" - probably the worst advice I've ever heard for eating vegetables. There is so much produce out there that is manipulated, dyed, bleached - strictly because consumers don't like to see imperfections.. get over it and eat the friggin carrot.
Silly article I agree. As someone that eats mostly vegetarian in the last several years I can attest to the fact that vegetables are absolutely delicious - better even than that artery clogging steak. What most people don't understand, including this author, is that healthy food is really scrumptious and after you eat you feel great not only because the food is healthy for you but also because it makes you feel great.
There is NO need to disguise vegetables with bacon, nonsense! Carrots are a bit bland but go for healthy-saute mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, corn and many others. Spices are the key here - you can do incredible things with a little cumin, curry, pepper, mustard and many others.
I think you are both missing the point... I realize that you both like vegetables, but many people don't. This article had those people in mind.
It is far better to eat vegetables with bacon, than no vegetables at all. Caveman diet is the way to go. Vegetables, berries, meat, healthy fats, nuts, eggs. Yum Yum. The key is to go organic with your meat and then even the fat is good for you- even the bacon!!! Starches and fillers and overly processed foods are what will clog your arteries, not orgainic meats. Starches and fillers also cause inflammation in the body by spiking the blood sugar, which is what leads to obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, auto-immune diseases, Alzheimers. If someone wont eat vegetables, any way you can get them to start eating them is good. Smother them with cream, butter, and bacon or sausage- it is all good. After a person eats them for awhile they will adjust, and it will become more natural. Someone who doesnt eat vegetables will not enjoy good health as they age. Period.
Some suggestions of my own that go along with the article.
1) Boil your broccoli in 2 tsp salt to a quart of water, but add one no-salt chicken bullion cube. The salt works because it opens up the pores of the vegrtable, not because it makes it salty. By making it more absorbant, a flavor such as a no-sodium no-fat chicken bullion cube can make a really great new flavor.
2) The easiest way to add color to cauliflower is to slice it into "steaks" then brown it in a tiny amount of oil. Then top with your favorite salsa. Guaranteed.
3) Bypass it all and get real Greek yoghurt that is tart and lemony. Get good yoghurt and you don't need to do anything to it. Get piss-poor yoghurt and there is nothing you can do to rescue it. Try good Greek yoghurt in mashed red-skin potatoes, for example, and you'll never do it any other way.
4) Try sauteeing the kale with water and a no-fat no sodium chicken bullion cube. The "southern" way would be to add a couple of teaspoons of sugar. I like to mix some mustart greens with my kale to give it some depth and still prefer turnip greens.
5) In summer, I use the same method to cook fish (I prefer crappie or bass), but I add yellow squash or zucchini when in season for even more color and flavor.
No, I get that. I'm not sure you got my point that the reason many people don't like vegetables is because they don't know how to cook them... or even tried many. I guarantee that I cook vegetarian dishes that everyone would enjoy - well, at least some of them.
And we wonder why Americans are so damn fat. "Don't like your veggies? Put salt and bacon on them!"
Great health advice. Can I look forward to an article advising people to put a cheeseburger on their celery to make it more palatable?
It didn't say to salt them, it said to cook them in salt water. The salinity of the water will cause the plant cells to fill with water, increasing the internal pressure and making the plant crisper. The salt doesn't go into the food, and you can wash it off after cooking it.
hamjam is obviously a cook and Chris629898 isn't. He is right about the salt water except that some salt does get into the food --- but only a tiny amount.
This article is ridiculous and insulting. Vegetables aren't bland or boring. Stop perpetuating the myth. As FedA said, most of the supermarket veggies have been blanched, bleached, and stored for ages; flavorful vegetables = fresh vegetables.
I love vegetables! They don't need tarting up with bacon, fats, sugar, cheese, salt, etc. Good quality vegetables taste great without that stuff. If you are going to add flavor though, there are much better ways to do it. Great olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a bit of sea salt on top, spices, etc. And please don't overcook them!
I love vegetables too! Very refreshing especially in the spring and summertime.
Oh, and the yogurt thing. Yes, let's make it more fat concentrated by volume and throw away the healthy and delicious whey. Yes, okay sometimes, but why imply yogurt isn't good and has to be made into yogurt cheese? And what the heck does that have to do with enjoying your veggies???
There is no amount of staring at a picture of a big juicy steak that will make any vegetable on my plate taste better..................
I like how they turned this article from an interesting neuroscience study into a hugely boring health food piece.
I already like veggies so I tried this trick on my wife. I stared at an image of Bo Derek in the nude and it worked. We actually had you know; a good time. Now, when I go to work I will imagine disneyland first lol
will that make you appreciate "mickey mouse" workplaces? LOL
So yogurt is a vegetable? Just like pizza, huh.
Veggies tate good without the added fat, salt, butter or gravy. Anyone who can't put on their big girl pants and eat veggies steamed or cold deserves the heart disease waiting in every plate of bacon.
Why why why is this article still featured - is there nothing else to talk about?
This article is stupid. If someone doesn't like vegetables, no amount of staring at a picture of steak or pizza is going to change that.
A lot of people lose their sense of smell (or with chronic allergies, sinus, etc) as they age and everything starts tasting bland! I think that might at least be one reason for wanting to spice it up. Also, some people have no issues with salt in moderate amounts. Some even have low blood pressure that benefits from a little salt.
My motto is" "Moderation in all things, including moderation."
Why the tricks? You make it sound like vegetables are something that's are right up there with bitter medicine. Veggies and fruits are delicious! My entire family (grandbabies included) all choose the veggies over the meat at the dinner table. No one is ever forced to eat their vegetables. It isn’t necessary. Maybe the things that come out of a can or are drowned in artificially flavored sauces are less then palatable but not the fresh food that we eat. And yes, it's fast and easy to prepare.
Absolutely right! Last night I had a veggie burger with a side of southwest style veggies with lowfat ranch dressing for dinner and it rocked!