Multiple servings of vegetables are considered helpful in a balanced diet and in providing the nourishment individuals need to sustain life and enhance personal longevity. Vegetables add color to dishes and zest to our favorite meals. Some have even determined to only eat vegetables for very personal reasons. The role of vegetables is a long standing one with farmers providing food for a global population. While we can give vegetables significant praise, the truth is there are those who find themselves fearful of produce. This phobia is known as Lachanophobia.
While vegetables are good for you they also have their fair share of individuals who view them with disgust. Fear of vegetables may actually have very little to do with whether you enjoy the taste of veggies of not.
What Causes the Fear of Vegetables?
For some individuals this fear may have a lot to do with observing vegetables in a garden. Sometimes abnormal growth on the vegetable or multiple insects crawling on or in a vegetable can instill a profound sense of fear when it comes to vegetables.
There have been cases where vegetable seeds have been known to grow within the human body in places like the lungs and nose. Even though the potential is incredibly small it is possible for a person to obsess about the possibility to the degree that they are no longer comfortable eating vegetables.
The fear of produce can also be the result of modeled behavior. When a trusted adult in our formative years demonstrates a fear of vegetables it can become possible for an individual to accept that the object feared by that adult is worth fearing as well.
Symptoms of Lachanophobia
The fear of vegetables may extend to anything that has vegetable products in them or it may be isolated to only fresh, frozen or cooked whole vegetables. For instance some may fear a fresh or stewed tomato, but may not struggle with a pizza that uses tomato sauce. Many phobic individuals will stay away from any place that serves vegetables. This likely means the individual may not frequent either restaurants or grocery stores allowing others to do the shopping for them.
Other Symptoms May Also Include…
- Air hunger
- Trembling
- Weeping
- Screaming
- Fainting
- Elevated heart rate
- Temporary elevation in body temperature
- Loss of control
- An urge to flee
Wherever the fear comes from it is potent and elicits a highly emotional response from the phobic personality.
How to Overcome Lachanophobia?
It is true that vegetables grow outdoors. it is also true that insects may crawl on the produce. However, it is also true that the vegetables can be cleaned and unwanted or undesirable portions disposed of.
In many cases the ability to overcome this fear hinges on an individual’s ability to understand the fear and respond in a new way. This often requires the aid of a therapist. It can be important to uncover why you respond the way you do, and a therapist can be instrumental in helping retrieve information on the foundations of your phobic response.
The fear of vegetables is also referred to as:
- Vegetable fear
- Lachanophobia
