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If you’re like millions of kids, you’re not completely sold on eating vegetables. Well, it turns out sometimes you shouldn’t eat vegetables!
Some veggies, mostly those labeled cold-weather vegetables, will go through a transformation when the weather gets too hot. What’s great for vegetable haters is that this process, called bolting, saps a vegetable of its nutrients. That means that vegetable isn’t actually all that good for you after all.
You see, when a plant bolts it’s making a last-ditch effort to survive inhospitable conditions! Instead of continuing to sprout out those nutritious leaves and fruits, it focuses on survival by sending up seed-bearing stems. To do so, it drains all the good stuff out of the parts your parents are telling you to eat!
Of course, gardeners have ways to try to stop a plant from bolting, but your parents might not know that! So, the next time they try to feed you some spinach or broccoli, tell them you’re pretty sure those particular veggies have bolted and explain what happens. Maybe—just maybe—they’ll agree!
At the very least, they’ll be surprised by your gardening expertise!
