Creating Regular Customers

I have been wanting to address this issue - because it is something that we as a family have noticed quite strongly since we stopped eating processed foods - and I am fairly certain this must be related because they would go hand in hand with each other.

What I am talking about is the phenomena of overeating, or you know how what happens when you buy a bag of salted nuts - you would find yourself eating the entire bag. Or crisps, chocolate bars, sugary treats, you name it - we might be able to lump these all together. 

For us as a family the only snacky food left in our diets which needed to be removed and replaced with a homemade version was the salted nuts. We have long since given up sugar, chocolate and potato crisps. 

When a bag (or a few) of salted nuts would come into the house, it was as if something else took over our brains. We could not help ourselves and could never get enough of these nuts. They tasted great, and were highly addictive!

Once they were left to the wayside with all of the other processed factory made foods, I started to make my own. And the response is entirely different. The roasted salted nuts I make are delicious, very tasty and we love them.

I can honestly say I like them far better then the shop bought nuts because they taste like 'nuts'. However, the one thing we all have noticed is how we are not 'craving' them, we are not desperate to shovel another handful into our mouths...yet they don't last long and everyone enjoys them.

So what is the difference here? Could these processed foods be linking into some addiction centre inside of our brains or bodies (gut?) and placing us on the losing end of a food battle?

This will take some investigation, but at this point I certainly think a couple of things here - one is that there must be other ingredients in the package which are not listed (5% rule) and secondly we are being controlled by other factors. Especially when it comes to our tastes, cravings and diets.

The 5% rule means something along the lines of when a product contains less then 5% of an ingredient at it's final stage, it may not have to be listed on the ingredients. This might mean anything such as MSG...but who really knows anymore!

As for the other factors controlling our tastes and cravings - well this is widely known to be all the non-beneficial organisms living in our guts such as molds, yeasts and nasty bacteria. If there are enough of them in the wrong areas, we can have some gut mutiny taking place. 

Lots to think about here when it comes to processed foods. I mean they are designed to be delicious and consumed in an addictive way - it's called creating 'regular customers'. 

Take matters into your own hands and make something homemade today - something you've never tried before - treat yourself, you are worth it!

April

Path to the top at Lough Hyne West Cork