What is it about bad food that makes us want it so much? It's easy to point the finger at MSG (and believe me, I do) for making junk food so tasty, but i think there's a deeper issue here.
Since we are both currently unemployed/ out of school, my beau (I hate the word boyfriend, seriously...) and I spent the last two days together, just happy to hang out, talk, and do a little shopping. I know he's trying to do the low carb/ no carb thing, so I brought down sufficient eggs and bagels to see me through, and resigned myself to eating absolutely delicious, but bread-free meals. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to cut down on "empty" carbs too- I now use wheat flour, whole grain crackers, and multi-grain bagels, and tried to cut superfluous sugar out of my daily diet as well, but I still have things stashed around the house should the craving hit too hard. After two days of having fruit for snacks, meat and fruit for dinner, the same plus rice for lunch, and my usual egg and bagel breakfast, however, I was seriously craving something.
On the way home, fraught with the usual Denver traffic, I started planning out what to eat for dinner, since I'd had only a sketchy lunch and then worked out with my beau. I remembered I have a ham steak in the fridge, and organic french fries in the freezer, and apples to go with it. Unfortunately, thinking about food is the first step in the digestive process, so I started getting hungry. That's when the ice cream and chocolates in the freezer and the doritos in the cupboard started coming to mind, and suddenly I was ravenous! I got home, tossed everything in the living room and made a beeline for the kitchen (not as hard as it sounds, since the kitchen is central to my apartment, but still!). I made the fastest milkshake you've ever seen, dumped some doritos in a bowl, and sat down to pig out.
Once my junk-food-coma wore off though, I got to wondering. I am usually the type of person who is happy to just think about tasty foods, and then be satisfied having healthy alternatives. Walking down the chips or candy isles in the grocery store is usually enough for me to be happy, because I can remember how they taste... as well as how eating too much of them makes me feel. On the rare occasions that I do splurge and get a bag of chocolates for the house, they usually last a month or so, because I already have them! I don't need to actually eat them, I have them, and that's enough.
In talking to other people, however, I find that this attitude towards goodies is not universal. For them, if it's in the house, it calls to them. It taunts them with its presence. "I'm here", it whispers to them, "why not eat me so I'm not so lonely?". The next thing they know, the entire bag is gone, and (if they're particularly unlucky), the someone else they're living with is holding an empty bag, demanding to know where their treats went. This is an especially bad situation if someone like this lives with someone like me. Why, you ask?
Because there's a flip side to not needing to eat something. I have to know it's there in order to not want it. If I know I can fulfill my sweet tooth at any time, I'm less likely to do so, because there's no rush right now. If I can't though, because, say, Boyfriend has finished off the bag of candy suddenly, then the need to fulfill that sweet tooth becomes urgent. My sweet tooth can't be satisfied, so it starts clamoring for more, because who knows how long it will be before I can have any? It starts weighing on my mind... when can I have chocolate (or licorice, or what have you)? I haven't had any in so long! I've been so good! I deserve it! I've earned it! Gimme gimme gimme, must have it NOW!
Ironically, once I do go buy something to curb that want, I usually have one, and then go back to business as usual. I have it, I can have it at any time, therefor I don't need it. Which works just fine, up until the time I discover someone's eaten my entire stash...
Again.
Since we are both currently unemployed/ out of school, my beau (I hate the word boyfriend, seriously...) and I spent the last two days together, just happy to hang out, talk, and do a little shopping. I know he's trying to do the low carb/ no carb thing, so I brought down sufficient eggs and bagels to see me through, and resigned myself to eating absolutely delicious, but bread-free meals. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to cut down on "empty" carbs too- I now use wheat flour, whole grain crackers, and multi-grain bagels, and tried to cut superfluous sugar out of my daily diet as well, but I still have things stashed around the house should the craving hit too hard. After two days of having fruit for snacks, meat and fruit for dinner, the same plus rice for lunch, and my usual egg and bagel breakfast, however, I was seriously craving something.
On the way home, fraught with the usual Denver traffic, I started planning out what to eat for dinner, since I'd had only a sketchy lunch and then worked out with my beau. I remembered I have a ham steak in the fridge, and organic french fries in the freezer, and apples to go with it. Unfortunately, thinking about food is the first step in the digestive process, so I started getting hungry. That's when the ice cream and chocolates in the freezer and the doritos in the cupboard started coming to mind, and suddenly I was ravenous! I got home, tossed everything in the living room and made a beeline for the kitchen (not as hard as it sounds, since the kitchen is central to my apartment, but still!). I made the fastest milkshake you've ever seen, dumped some doritos in a bowl, and sat down to pig out.
Once my junk-food-coma wore off though, I got to wondering. I am usually the type of person who is happy to just think about tasty foods, and then be satisfied having healthy alternatives. Walking down the chips or candy isles in the grocery store is usually enough for me to be happy, because I can remember how they taste... as well as how eating too much of them makes me feel. On the rare occasions that I do splurge and get a bag of chocolates for the house, they usually last a month or so, because I already have them! I don't need to actually eat them, I have them, and that's enough.
In talking to other people, however, I find that this attitude towards goodies is not universal. For them, if it's in the house, it calls to them. It taunts them with its presence. "I'm here", it whispers to them, "why not eat me so I'm not so lonely?". The next thing they know, the entire bag is gone, and (if they're particularly unlucky), the someone else they're living with is holding an empty bag, demanding to know where their treats went. This is an especially bad situation if someone like this lives with someone like me. Why, you ask?
Because there's a flip side to not needing to eat something. I have to know it's there in order to not want it. If I know I can fulfill my sweet tooth at any time, I'm less likely to do so, because there's no rush right now. If I can't though, because, say, Boyfriend has finished off the bag of candy suddenly, then the need to fulfill that sweet tooth becomes urgent. My sweet tooth can't be satisfied, so it starts clamoring for more, because who knows how long it will be before I can have any? It starts weighing on my mind... when can I have chocolate (or licorice, or what have you)? I haven't had any in so long! I've been so good! I deserve it! I've earned it! Gimme gimme gimme, must have it NOW!
Ironically, once I do go buy something to curb that want, I usually have one, and then go back to business as usual. I have it, I can have it at any time, therefor I don't need it. Which works just fine, up until the time I discover someone's eaten my entire stash...
Again.
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