Some people crave salt, while others have a sweet tooth. Many of us have both. We seesaw from one to the other. Although I was trying to redirect my taste desires with water and juice, those tenacious food cravings do not go down without a fight. I had to contend with a nibbling and tasting habit that kept food cravings alive.
Some overeaters taste and nibble on food all day. People who love to nibble have a hard time seeing any attractive food without reaching out for a taste. We constantly get up and look in the cupboard or refrigerator for a bite of food. The desire to eat invades every waking hour. We habitually seek small bursts of intense flavor.
Nibbling before and after a meal becomes more enjoyable than sitting down for the meal itself. By contrast, if a certain time is set aside to enjoy a tempting food, such as during suppertime, the tastes are enjoyed with greater perspective. It’s far safer to indulge some snack food within the context of a meal than to have the food as an isolated snack.
In the days when taste cravings were a big problem for me, I remember trying to find some way to deal with that desire for intense flavor. First, I tried to suppress the desire by swearing off problem foods. That worked if I didn’t count all the cheating I did. Then I tried designating one small salty or chocolate treat to eat whenever I wanted a tiny taste. I reasoned that I should try to satisfy the desire with something I really wanted. I figured if I had just a taste, the craving would go away. But nothing satisfied for long. That taste led only to more craving. Even the less attractive substitutions kept my taste buds persistently reawakening for another fix of intense flavor.
Food manufacturers know the weight-conscious nibbler very well. Makers of popular candy bars are now offering bags of bite-size pieces of their products. The dieter is drawn to the pleasure of taking a small taste of the flavor they crave. It seems sensible because the calorie count of that small piece won’t wreck a diet, and it temporarily satisfies the clamoring taste urge. That bite, however, keeps your cravings alive and kicking. Soon, you’ll be eating half the bag at a sitting. Those bites of candy will eventually undo whatever discipline you have for dieting.
I finally gave up trying to suppress or satisfy those pesky taste cravings. The harder I fought to find a solution to the problem, the stronger the problem seemed to become. It grew in proportion to the amount of effort I put into defeating it. I really needed to forsake the conflict and walk away. I know this is so much easier said than done. For many of us, this is the heart of the conflict. Time stands still as we stare into the snack cupboard and fight the urge to take “just a taste.”
Food cravings can be habitual physical responses, especially at certain times of the day. If you can successfully interrupt the habit a few times, it will lose power. The sum total of the positive efforts you make to feel like a normal eater will give you the ability to succeed. Even better, these efforts will help you to completely avoid food cravings. Remember: Redirect taste desires with small amounts of juice and fully satisfy your thirst with water. This is a helpful strategy for salt cravings as well as sugar cravings. Both salt and sugar cravings are habitual and driven by thirst.
If you want a snack rather than a beverage, try nature’s original snack food—fruit. Perhaps try a cluster of grapes, a quartered apple, or a few sections of a navel orange. I need to acknowledge, however, that the fresh fruit we buy in the store doesn’t always taste as good as it should. It has likely travelled many miles to get to your store and it might have been picked before being fully ripe.
Some of us have eaten very little fruit because it does not provide the taste excitement we crave. You may even believe you don’t like fruit. This dislike of fruit might be a food prejudice that developed in childhood. It’s certainly possible that some types of fruit may not agree with you, especially at certain times of the day. Yet, other fruits may suit you. If a piece of fresh fruit makes your teeth feel funny, have canned fruit instead. It’s not necessary to eat a large serving of fruit. If you can’t eat a whole pear, eat just a few pieces. If you try to eat the whole pear, you could be thoroughly sick of it before you’re done. Train yourself with small amounts.
I remember being surprised the first time I went through a snack buffet line and discovered I was drawn to the fruit. The salty cheeses and buttery snack crackers didn’t tempt me as much. It’s wonderful when the body responds and begins to support the choices you’ve consciously made. The body will want what it is used to having. What a relief when you don’t have to fight and deny what you want, because you actually desire the better choice!
Fruit also comes in handy for the overeaters among us who are not nibblers and tasters. Some overeaters have very little trouble with between-meal snacking, but once they start eating during a meal, they have a hard time stopping. These hearty eaters have a much easier time ending their meal if they have an attractive dessert to look forward to. A nice fruit-filled dessert is a real benefit to them. Apple crisp, peach cobbler, and cherry pie are good examples of desserts that go well with a topping of slightly sweetened whole milk yogurt. Desserts should not be heavily indulged or eaten between meals, because they are typically difficult-to-manage. But a moderate portion provides a celebratory conclusion to a meal and is very helpful to the hearty eater.
