The NYT looks at vegetable-eating habits in America, and the trends are not good.

Quoting a study by market researchers the NPD Group, it said that "the number of dinners prepared at home that included a salad was 17 percent; in 1994, it was 22 percent. At restaurants, salads ordered as a main course at either lunch or dinner dropped by half since 1989, to a mere 5 percent."

The story continues with some of the deficits that vegetables bring to the table: " People know that vegetables can improve health. But they’re a lot of work. In refrigerators all over the country, produce often dies a slow, limp death because life becomes too busy.

"'The moment you have something fresh you have to schedule your life around using it,' an NPD spokesman says.

"In the wrong hands, vegetables can taste terrible. And compared with a lot of food at the supermarket, they’re a relatively expensive way to fill a belly." Well, yes, but let's say why: The government, our government, subsidizes some crops, especially corn, but not "real" vegetables (under my nutritionist' tutelage, I regard corn as a starch), and not fresh vegetables. The subsidies are why McDonald's is so cheap (corn-fed beef, corn-syrup-brewed colas, corn-oil-submerged potatoes, etc.) and why corn derivatives are in salad dressing, and bread, and ice cream, and margarine, and ketchup, and baby food, and candy, and mayonaise, and toothpaste, and, well, lots of stuff.

Collectively, we didn't set out with these outcomes as goals, but we've got them, and powerful lobbying interests aim to keep them that way, no matter the effects.

But back to veggies: The NPD spokesman says we know the veggies are good for us, but that's just not enough: “Before we want health, we want taste, we want convenience and we want low cost." It brings to my mind how often sophisticated machinery is sold on the basis of how many cup holders are in the passenger compartment. Just for the record, I like cup holders too.

Before I adopted a healthy food plan, fries were as close as I got to veggies, more or less, so I can certainly relate. I also have a niece, a vegetarian since infancy, who once famously said that she didn't like vegetables. But nowadays, we have learned (mostly independently) how to make veggies really palatable, to the degree that when I notice at all, I notice that I've practically finished the veggies on my plate before starting in on the protein or the starch.

This is neither surrender nor even compliance with an "oughta." It's strictly because I am drawn to them by flavor. I agree with what the spokesman says about making a commitment to veggies when I buy them, for they will spoil if I don't follow through, but for me, cooking for myself and my family is a splendid way to spend my time.

It just is, for me. Like so many elements of my life before and after, I'm surprised to think, and feel, and express things like that, but still, it is. And, repeating a theme that serves me well — "I'm just another bozo on the bus" — I don't see why it wouldn't be that way for lots of other people, if they gave it a try.