As I was growing up, I did not like to eat vegetables. Every parent has a way to make their children eat vegetables. My mother’s way was unique. She loved to read, and she never got the chance to read after she had kids (we basically kept her super busy.. yes.. guilty of that). I used to admire my parents sit and sip their morning coffee fighting for pages of the newspaper and who gets to read weekend magazines that were delivered.

One of the magazines impressed my mother, as she had found her key to make me read and to make me eat my vegetables. World-wide universities do research on food habits and what is nutritious to eat from across the world and why.

Properties of green leafy vegetables, turmeric and spices that have the ability to cure complex health conditions and diseases. These research papers and summaries are quoted and referenced in many world languagges and multiples magazines reaching the common man across the world. Little did I know that she was drilling into me the concepts about reading, doing research, getting inspired by university research topics and taking an interest in beautiful properies of vegetables. She started clipping all those articles and compiled a huge pile (decades of research) and she gave it to me as my wedding gift. I never knew if I would ever get a chance to read all of them in my life! But whenever, I need something, I pick up some paper from that pile and read the article on it, and somehow miraculously, it will relate to some information I need to know at that point. I still have that pile and now, while my children eat their vegetables (not my side of the gene pool for sure :)), I would like them to know the medicinal properties of these vegetables. Hmm.. yes, I see my interest passing across generations 🙂

Some of the research articles from the pile..

1. Benefits of Turmeric (As a kid, it was interesting to read about something from our kitchen like Turmeric being researched by US universities. Kitchen and spices in them seemed to be a place of wonder!)
2. Why non-vegetarians need to continue to eat meat – as their bodies get used to processing Iron from non-veg sources
3. Importance of sunlight and Vitamin D

While I continued to be interested in what else the universities research on topics of my liking, I started following them and it opened up many doors. More on that in the subsequent posts.

Now, for the how I ended up eating them..

1. My mother’s sister blended the vegetables to make it into a smoothie, milkshake, juice form and made it tastier. That is how I started liking Carrot Milkshake
2. My mother started ignoring me at the dining table offering vegetables in different forms and tastes to everyone else in my family except me. The peer pressure got to me 🙂

Every parent has a way to talk and explain the importance of vegetables to their children. Not just vegetables, but any topic in general. That has a huge impact on how our mind and thought takes shape!