Cravings

Ah... pancake day.  Who doesn't love pancake day?  My pancake recipe is in last Saturdays post, so if you're interested in it then go for it.

Whenever my 4 year old sees me in the morning, he always asks, "Is it pancake day?"  Because he doesn't usually see me in the morning since I am usually gone by the time he wakes up.  So, imagine his confusion when we weren't eating pancakes every day of the week during the Christmas break from school.  He asked a few times whether it was pancake day, so we had to explain that daddy was only home because of Christmas.

So, when he sees me in the morning he thinks, "pancakes"- that's right, my child sees me as the pancake man.

It makes me wonder to the extent that we train our bodies and minds through repetition what to crave and when.  I had a theory several years ago about this idea.  It goes something like this:  Our bodies need certain nutrients to thrive- fats, proteins, sugars, vitamins, minerals, etc.  In order to gain these nutrients, it must consume and process them.

At some point in our eating careers, we train our bodies to gain these nutrients whether in part, artificially, or through whole foods.  So, when our bodies feel a little low or undernourished these are the items we unconsciously go after.

So, say we've trained our bodies that potato chips are a regular source of potassium, then we would go after potato chips every time our bodies feel a little low- conversely, we train our bodies that a banana is a good source of potassium, then that's what we go after when we feel low... see the point?  The same would go for calcium, fat, sugars, etc.

A lot of processed foods have enriched their ingredients with artificial or even "naturally derived" nutrients.  The problem is that these foods had to have the nutrients destroyed so that they had to fortify them to make them somewhat healthy.  The more the ingredients in the food, the more processing it went through in order for it to have nutritional value.

If we train our bodies to crave potato chips then we can train our bodies to crave bananas instead... if my theory holds water.  Same would go with fats- trading the unhealthy for the healthier fats.  We can also train our bodies to go with less sugar and sodium.

It wasn't long ago that the US government, in trying to solve the problems with obesity, recognized the need for the American pallet to learn to crave less sugar and sodium- so it asked the processed food companies to start slowly putting less in.  Makes sense... I can't imagine the average American just cutting sugar from their diet cold turkey.  I am just embarrassed that the US government actually feels that it needs to step in to tell us to not eat so much sugar.  Even worse, that it would take the food companies to cut the sugars for us to be more healthy... people, what this means is that WE CAN'T BE TRUSTED left to our own devices!  I would never let my 4 year sit in a room alone with a bucket of candy because he wouldn't "just eat one"... our government can't trust us alone either, it needs to regulate, because we can't "just eat one".  *Sigh*

I started pancake day because I needed fuel for long runs on Saturdays.  Once this load of whole wheat pancakes has mostly digested, I'll be gearing up for a 16 mile run.  If I wasn't running today, we would have had less pancakes, because food is fuel and there is a purpose to what I eat, I try to manage my food intake with the activity I am trying to fuel.

This all took a long time to train for.  I had to ultimately train my cravings to suit my energy needs.  I trained my pallet to crave healthier, whole foods.  And yes, it is sometimes more expensive, but I don't eat as much and the health benefits far outweigh the monetary costs.  Also, don't just look at the price tag on the food you buy.  Foods processed with corn products are significantly cheaper because corn is heavily subsidized with yours and my tax dollars, so we've already paid a lot of money to make that box of "food" cheaper.

So, in essence, our government has used our money to help create a problem that it is now using our money to try to solve.  It's like a tobacco company creating both cigarettes and medication to alleviate addiction.  Create the poison and the cure and use other people's money to do it.  Brilliant!

Sorry, I got carried away... Happy pancake day!