We all want the food we eat to taste good, and that’s the way it should be because our taste buds are there to satisfy this want. However, if we think about it, “tasting good” is very short-lived. It ends once we take that last swallow of the morsel in our mouths. The food’s flavor lasts only a few minutes while we chew and swirl the food around with our tongues. The food is then passed on to the rest of the body through the intricate digestive system, which responds to the “need” to be nourished. The food is then broken down, and the body’s wisdom decides what to do with it. There are no taste buds past the throat and, therefore, no taste experience beyond our mouth. If we look at this fact from a different perspective and step back a little, where we can compare the area of the mouth with the rest of the body, what can we conclude? This gateway to the digestive system occupies a very tiny area. Yet, we are so influenced and overwhelmed by the taste of the food that we often ignore the body’s needs so that it can continue its lifelong task of keeping us healthy. That’s what our body is always fighting for, regardless of whether we’re aware of it or not. That’s what it is good at.
This craving for taste is so dominant that many people, even those who switch to a plant-based diet for health reasons, find it challenging to give up the cravings for hamburgers, cheeses, pizzas, KFC, etc. They constantly try to find substitutes for those tastes, which are often highly processed, requiring additives, salt, sugars, trans-fats, and artificial coloring to mimic the tastes they are missing. These highly processed substitutes are often not much healthier than the original unhealthy food people try to give up.
We become so attached to the primary tastes of salt, sugar, and fat on our taste buds that we completely forget that for the next few hours, our body and our immune system will be working incessantly trying to deal with some of the foods that we should be avoiding, foods loaded with the salt sugar and fat. Examples of this are the middle aisles of highly processed foods in the supermarket and the craving hundreds of millions of people worldwide have for fast foods, even though most are aware of how unhealthy they are.
Losing the cravings for different foods takes a while. Because our taste buds are constantly renewed, they will eventually adapt and even thrive with the new tastes. We have to be patient. For example, if we refrain entirely from eating salt for one week and then eat something salty, it will taste “too” salty. I suggest not focusing on the foods we think we’re missing but on the new world of flavors awaiting us.
When good health becomes a priority, we pay more attention to the potential positive or negative repercussions of what we put into our mouths. We then realize that taste, although very important and satisfying, is only a small and fleeting part of the digestive process and that we need to be more diligent and more proactive by choosing the foods that respond to our body’s needs as well, especially if we want to thrive with a healthy and long life, free of chronic diseases.
To your health,
Michael
