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Developing Resistance to Junk Food

The past few days at the office have seen boxes of pizza, pastries, cupcakes, Chinese food, and wraps for meetings. Temptation? No--except for the wraps made of turkey and spinach, which I ate without the wrapper, of course. This wasn't any great feat of willpower: after over two years of eating little or no wheat, pizza or Chinese, these didn't even look like food to me. The Chinese food was overcooked (broccoli is supposed to be bright green, not dull chartreuse) and the pizza smelled like a wet dog. I think I understand why the French avoid junk food much more than Americans: they just don't like the stuff because they eat real food.

Here's the problem with a frequent cheat day: it keeps your taste for junk food alive. If a friend were trying to quit smoking, would you recommend a weekly smoking day?
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Angel said…
On the rare occasions I eat junk food now, it usually seems oddly tasteless and "empty" for lack of a better term. I can still taste the overstimulating stuff, but there's no there there - the food equivalent of a house of mirrors. (Note: ice cream is a notable exception, maybe because I love dairy fat in all its many forms.) Real food is genuinely satisfying.
June 09, 2012
Lori Miller said…
Tom Naughton put it well: when you're used to real food, junk food tastes like junk. And I'm sure that chips and such are supposed to be appetite stimulants, rather like casinos with no windows and no clocks.

At least ice cream is mostly actual food. (Full disclosure here: I do love dark chocolate.)
June 10, 2012
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