Hmmmm... I'm really cautious about viewing eating as primarily or majorly an exercise of will, and tend to worry that it devolves into a dysfunctional exercise. I think the primary motivation for evaluating food & food cravings, and probably closer to what you were intending, is not control, but what is best for your body and what it actually needs.
From experience living with people with particular dietary quirks, the desire to not have a food is sometimes a form of emotional craving - as you pointed out, for control
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ha ha. Actually, you manipulate yourself and your mood via what you don't eat :)
It's a pretty interesting approach to take. Fasting has been used for thousands of years for lots of purposes. As long as you're drinking lots of water (and, I'd suggest taking a decent multivitamin) you can go up to 40 days without food without too much ill effect. Not great for you perhaps, but definitely doable (just ask Jesus).
It's also interesting that humans are the only mammals that keep eating when we get sick. Particularly since digestion requires so much energy, most mammals preserve their energy for getting better.
As a general rule though (and particularly given exposure to anorexicia) I'd strongly advise against doing that sort of thing on a regular basis.... but then, you'd already figured that out :)
If our instinct is telling us we must have this or that food, we are no longer in control of ourselves. We are, in some sense, less than human. Of course, it's up to each individual whether they want to accept this in their lives, or, little by little, step further into the light.While on one hand, I do agree with your opinion on this, on the other hand, it's one of those areas I have little warning bells going off, the kind of warning I have to give myself when I'm ranting and have to do a quick "holier than thou" check. You have to stop and think for a moment if telling people they are behaving in a less-than-human way when they are following the instincts that are a big part of what keeps us alive and allows us the luxury of self-reflective thought and other human qualities we prize, is actually helpful. It's something I've said in the past about issues like morality, but not about basic physical survival
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Yes, I agree with you - for the specific case of chemical imbalance - "If you get a gut feeling to eat something, then do it".
I wasn't delineating enough with that end bit - that was referring primarily to the other forms of cravings, not those brought on by nutritional deficiency. I believe the emotional cravings are far more prevalent than the other forms (although avoidance/self-medicating is pretty common - particularly with coffee/alcohol).
"If you get a gut feeling to eat something, then do it".But the point is that, 95% of the time now, that isn't going to actually *help* with the cravings, for the reasons I've outlined above. And I also think, as stated above, that many of the emotional cravings would be diminished if we had a baseline of generally nutrient-rich food, instead of a baseline of generally nutrient-deficient food. So I still disagree with your core argument: it's not about people making poor choices [or even no choices at all]: it's that the good choices are ridiculously difficult to make, and that in a world not very long ago, we *didn't need to make those choices at all*. It's essentially a moot question. People are behaving the way people essentially should be behaving, if everything were balanced. Choosing food shouldn't have to be hard, it *should* be effortless, we *should* be able to sleepwalk through it! It's not an essential human trait to be able to recognise that we are out of balance - it's a rare and unique talent. You're one of the rare and
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no, true. Gut feelings are really only going to help with chemical imbalance (the special case where cravings are helpful).
I don't agree that better baseline nutrition would change emotional cravings (unless you're talking going raw, but that's a healing thing, so slightly different) - simply because emotional cravings come from our emotions, not from what physical state our body is in.. but that's ok, we're allowed to have different opinions about this :)
With scent being so integral to food & taste, it makes perfect sense that we have this incredible memory recall & sentimentality over food.
Frankly, I think this is why so many people *love* McDonalds. *shrugs* No matter where they go they will most consistently get the same thing.. even if the same thing is crap. Can you say "Comfort Zone." Unfortunately, as our friend Morgan Spurlock has so eloquently (tongues cheek) pointed out.. ;) Supersized Fast Food is harsh for your mind & body.
That being said.. looking at this pic of Fish & Chips immediately catapulted me back to a time where some of Maori friends from Rotorua came to live with me for a while. On the weekends we'd have big parties & they'd go all out makin' heaps of fish & chips for everyone.
Just the site of those chippies.. makes my mouth water & my arteries prepare themselves for the fat onslaught! LOL
Well exactly! See how it's the emotional charge off it, rather than anything about the actual food itself that is the motivator?
You make an interesting point about scent and how powerful it is in terms of memory recall.
The really interesting thing I've found is - once I tapped out the emotional association to fish & chips, now I can look at those and really get very little if any kickback or desire from them at all.. and I used to eat them 3-4 times a week, religiously!
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I'm really cautious about viewing eating as primarily or majorly an exercise of will, and tend to worry that it devolves into a dysfunctional exercise.
I think the primary motivation for evaluating food & food cravings, and probably closer to what you were intending, is not control, but what is best for your body and what it actually needs.
From experience living with people with particular dietary quirks, the desire to not have a food is sometimes a form of emotional craving - as you pointed out, for control ( ... )
Reply
" But that might not be so bad, as even..."
Before "if I do have even a slight sensitivity".
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It's a pretty interesting approach to take. Fasting has been used for thousands of years for lots of purposes. As long as you're drinking lots of water (and, I'd suggest taking a decent multivitamin) you can go up to 40 days without food without too much ill effect. Not great for you perhaps, but definitely doable (just ask Jesus).
It's also interesting that humans are the only mammals that keep eating when we get sick. Particularly since digestion requires so much energy, most mammals preserve their energy for getting better.
As a general rule though (and particularly given exposure to anorexicia) I'd strongly advise against doing that sort of thing on a regular basis.... but then, you'd already figured that out :)
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I totally understand the desire for colours.. our entire house is white, if we didn't have vegetables in the house, we'd be screwed! :)
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I wasn't delineating enough with that end bit - that was referring primarily to the other forms of cravings, not those brought on by nutritional deficiency. I believe the emotional cravings are far more prevalent than the other forms (although avoidance/self-medicating is pretty common - particularly with coffee/alcohol).
And you're bang on the money re organic too.
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I don't agree that better baseline nutrition would change emotional cravings (unless you're talking going raw, but that's a healing thing, so slightly different) - simply because emotional cravings come from our emotions, not from what physical state our body is in.. but that's ok, we're allowed to have different opinions about this :)
Reply
Frankly, I think this is why so many people *love* McDonalds. *shrugs* No matter where they go they will most consistently get the same thing.. even if the same thing is crap. Can you say "Comfort Zone." Unfortunately, as our friend Morgan Spurlock has so eloquently (tongues cheek) pointed out.. ;) Supersized Fast Food is harsh for your mind & body.
That being said.. looking at this pic of Fish & Chips immediately catapulted me back to a time where some of Maori friends from Rotorua came to live with me for a while. On the weekends we'd have big parties & they'd go all out makin' heaps of fish & chips for everyone.
Just the site of those chippies.. makes my mouth water & my arteries prepare themselves for the fat onslaught! LOL
Reply
You make an interesting point about scent and how powerful it is in terms of memory recall.
The really interesting thing I've found is - once I tapped out the emotional association to fish & chips, now I can look at those and really get very little if any kickback or desire from them at all.. and I used to eat them 3-4 times a week, religiously!
Reply
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