The Food Connection

I participated in an interesting, albeit unplanned, experiment over the past 10 days.  I was pet sitting/house sitting for a friend, while she and her husband were on vacation.  Like most of us, they cleared out the fridge before going on their trip.  What was left?  Sodas, cheese sticks, tortillas and a freezer full of frozen dinners.  And in the cupboards: a plethora of crackers, cookies, and other snack items that never make it through the door to my house..... not because I'm such a natural food angel, but because I know my limitations.  I know that if I have cookies, chips, crackers, etc in my house, I'll eat it with abandon.  So I just don't buy any of those things; and I don't miss it or crave it.....that's the interesting part, the craving.  Part I of my unintentional experiment.

So when in Rome, right?  I dug into the Wheat Thins, Ritz Crackers, and cheese day one (pretty much through day 10!  So much for "mindful eating!")  I had a handful of crackers (a very large man's hand) and knew that should be enough. But that handful was not enough to satisfy me.  I craved more.  And since there WERE more of them, I ate 'em.  This happened over and over during the course of the week with all of the processed food I ate.

I'm convinced that there is something in the packaged "food" that triggers something in the brain or body to actually craves more of it.  My brother-in-law (a brilliant man) and I talked about it today, and at the risk of going all "conspiracy theory" on you, he said (having researched this same idea, regarding sugar substitutes because of his Type 1 diabetic child)  said that there are chemists hard at work making "foods" that makes you crave more of them.  Real food, real ingredients actually trigger your brain that you've had enough, that you are sufficiently satisfied.  Processed food may actually do the opposite.
So that was finding #1 of my unscientific experiment: real food, whole foods send a signal to the brain that you're full; processed "food" does not, and thereby allows you to easily overindulge.

The rest of my findings from 10 days of eating poorly and contrary to the way I normally eat were evident in how my body reacted.....

First of all, my face quickly broke out like a teenager..

My skin was as dry as the Sahara....no water-packed fruits and veggies to keep my skin hydrated.

My hair was dry and ill-behaved, and my patience was at an all-time low (maybe because of the bad hair days, but I think it had more to do with the food)

Every evening I went to bed and every morning I woke up with my belly feeling like this:

While my jeans miraculously still fit, I don't even want to know what the scale might actually say.

So now I am back home and I'm contemplating a bit of a "cleanse", which for me means no dairy and no gluten, and obviously nothing that comes in a box or a bag.  It'll look more like this....

I hope that this makes you think a little bit more about the food that you put into your body (and especially into your kids' bodies, if you have them).  I'm kind of glad that I veered off the healthy eating path this week, so that I could see just what happened when I ate packaged and processed "food."  Makes me feel like the path I've chosen both in the way I eat and the way I teach others to cook is all the more validated.  Eat well; live well!

"Eat food. Mostly Plants. Not too much."........Michael Pollan