Wednesday, April 20, 2022

I am fascinated by the fact that deliberately eating more veggies is cutting down my cravings for chips and ramen.

My junk food "weakness" had always been chips, ramen, and fried foods more so than sugary stuff like candy/cake/ice cream. I mean, I DID like the latter, just not as pathologically or intensely as I do the salty/savory crap.

Given the many times I've tried and failed at weight loss, I decided recently to approach it differently by slowing down the changes I make. I decided to NOT restrict myself from bad stuff b/c in the past that would blow up in my face then I'd binge (I'm sure people can relate). This time, my new rule is - I can still eat the crap, but ONLY after I finish eating a HUGE bowl of veggies that gets slowly munched on throughout the day. So I'm not cutting anything out, I just make it a rule that I have to eat the right stuff first. I guess a good metaphor is how playtime is only allowed AFTER finishing homework. This is good b/c it makes sure I eat what I need, AND I have something to look forward to.

Two changes: 1. my esthetician whom I visit monthly commented that my skin looks better, and even my mom said my complexion looked brighter, and 2. I notice I'm craving crap less! The first change is not surprising, but the second really was a revelation. I still think about chips, but the intensity of that craving is a lot less.

I just find it interesting, and would love to hear your stories or theories about why this is. My theory is that unhealthy lifestyle = our body lacking trace minerals/micronutrients, and this is expressed as "cravings." But we don't recognize it so we keep running to junk foods. I think maybe the salt in chips is "similar" to the minerals we need and so we get tricked into eating that.

Also, https://www.reddit.com/r/leangains/comments/o4kwjj/i_lost_my_craving_to_binge_and_for_junk_food_why/

There's some great comments in this that I think also add to the picture, like how our gut microbiome adapts to foods we eat. So start eating Food X --> gut bacteria adapt to want Food X --> we eat more Food X. This is true whether X=good or bad food.

The highlight isn't that my craving got less after a long time of no exposure, it's the fact that even when I let myself eat junk, I want it less. I'm sure I'll still enjoy it, but that weird desperate craving is less! I don't think about it as much. It's weird but great. Would love to hear if you experiencer the same thing, or if you have other science theories.

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