Yep, my parents are also sadly in the school of "just take a pill for it," which then turns into taking more pills for the side effects of the pills they're taking, and on and on.
While I'm in the "make healthy lifestyle changes" camp and have, so far in my early 40s, never been on long term medication and hopefully never will. It's so frustrating watching my parents deteriorate while still paying for so many meds.
I just discovered a cookbook called Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden while looking up cookbooks to get me to eat more veggies. It's in the mail, so I can't vouch for the recipes yet. Apparently it's very highly rated though and I'm excited for some tasty veggies.