Is there any scientific reason that you have seen that makes eating vegetables necessary? “micronutrients”? For people that struggle to gain weight, it just seems like a waste of stomach space. This is assuming getting adequate fiber from carb sources. FWIW, I am an MD and asked this question all the way through med school and was either laughed at or just told that it was “healthy,” never given a straight answer. BUT, I know you guys are too logical for that BS. Appreciate your input.
I think that this is a good question deserving some time poking around the research world and other considerations.
First, we need to agree that talking about folks whose health would be improved by gaining weight, which includes those with wasting diseases, sarcopenia, substance abuse, eating disorders, malnutrition, etc. CANNOT be done at the same time. We also need to agree that folks who desire weight gain in order to gain more muscle mass but who are otherwise healthy, e.g. the typical hard gainer, represents a totally different population than the others mentioned before.
If we agree on these two premises, then we need to to further refine our question by specifying the outcome. If we’re talking about micronutrient deficiency alone then no, eating vegetables are not necessary in the short term or long term to ensure normal physiologic function in humans. However, if we’re talking about health outcomes like certain cancers, cardiovascular disease processes like heart attack and stroke, metabolic diseases including diabetes, etc., then that is a different question that CANNOT be addressed by short term studies and thus- nothing can be said about the short term risk:benefit profile for avoiding vegetables in any population. That said, we also cannot say that decreasing vegetable intake produces a reliable increase in calorie intake or other desired outcome- in this case increased muscle mass. In short, I wouldn’t expect that decreasing veggie intake would help someone gain weight and other steps would likely be more appropriate here.
On the other hand, reducing servings of fruits and vegetables from 9-10 per day (RR 0.69) to 1 per day (0.94) increases relative risk of ischemic stroke by ~30% per the Nurses Health and Health Professional Follow-Up studies. Other similar associations have been seen for other conditions and again, I’m not sure that the risk:benefit assessment would be in favor of eliminating fruit/veggie intake to gain weight.
Vegetables are important part of healthy eating and provide a source of many nutrients, including potassium, fiber, folate (folic acid) and vitamins A, E and C. Options like broccoli, spinach, tomatoes and garlic provide additional benefits, making them a superfood .