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Food Revulsion

After four years eating mostly real food, I'm having the opposite of junk food cravings. For awhile now, a lot of foods have no longer looked like food to me--noodles, pastry, cake, most snack foods that come in plastic bags. (Cookies and brownies still do.) Later, most fruit didn't smell good. I recently made the mistake of getting some shea butter liquid soap, not noticing "honey-citrus" on the label. It smells bad, but I'm too cheap to throw it out.

Pizza has long smelled like a wet dog, which is unpleasant but tolerable, but today the pizza in the break room smelled disgusting. So did the burnt toast. Has anyone else had this experience? I never imagined I'd prefer steak tartar to pizza, but steak tartar looks, smells and tastes great to me. A bonus: I've never eaten anything that sat so easily on my stomach. I get full, but it's like there's nothing in my stomach.

Steak tartar and salad with Doreen's dressing. Recipes from 500 Paleo Recipes and 500 Low-Carb Recipes, respectively, by Dana Carpender.

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Galina L. said…
I got unused to several foods to the point that I stopped perceiving it as eatable items. Tosts, cookies, candies and cakes are in that category, but pizza in a lunch room smells nice. I even not tempted to eat cripes I make for my husband from time to time. My polefitness studio is the next door to a Subway, and I got sick and tired to smell their very particular stink even though it should be the same smell as of pizza.
May 13, 2014
Lori Miller said…
The only smell I've noticed from Subway is baking bread. I can see how that wouldn't smell like food.
May 13, 2014
tess said…
the smell of frying you get outside certain businesses has a peculiar reaction in me -- i want to go WASH MY FACE! :-)
May 13, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Not a bad idea if you sense greasy ash.
May 13, 2014
Galina L. said…
The smell comes from cheese covered sandwiches being quickly baked at high temperature in an oven. Inside our studio it turns into the wet dog smell.
May 13, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Wet dog and fresh sweat? I hope they have good ventilation at the studio.
May 13, 2014
Lowcarb team member said…
Well, I still like the smell of pizza cooked with an almond flour low carb base.

I agree there are lots of smells 'out there' that when walking past I try not to breath in ...always fail...and then have a coughing fit! Oh well!

I currently have a wonderful smell coming from our kitchen coffee perculating ...any one for a cup?

Take Care

All the best Jan
May 13, 2014
Lori Miller said…
At higher end Italian restaurants I've been to where they must have made some bread/tomato sauce/cheese combination for other customers, I don't remember anything smelling off.

I like the smell of coffee, though. I never liked coffee until I started LC, then I craved it.
May 13, 2014
Galina L. said…
Coffee smells great. I feel tempted when I smell pizza, but not to the point to bother myself with making my own. LCarbing had a negative effect on my cooking enthusiasm - I mostly opt for no fuss options nowadays.
May 14, 2014
Rick Gladney said…
I'm very interested in this steak tar tar. I never thought about that before. With a raw egg on top? I might need someone to talk me into that. I'll try to look up the recipe. Pizza Hut has always smelled like wet dog to me. I still ate it, usually when someone else was buying. Pizza in general does not have that same smell though. I call the food aversion thing that we all apparently experience, carbaphobia. I experienced it much more acutely while previously on the Adkins Diet. Paleo seems to be much more refined and effective and I have not had quite the same stomach turning revulsion to the smell of French fries and fresh baked bread. I still have a mild aversion, and willpower to completely avoid the foods not good for me but I think it comes from a much healthier place mentally. Ten years ago when I was on Adkins, I coined the phrase carbaphobia. As far as I'm concerned it is a real phobia. I experienced an aversion to all starchy and sweet carbs so powerful it would effect my mental and physical state to such a degree I became worried that I might be suffering from an eating disorder simular to anorexia. I'm glad the more balanced approach of paleo has allowed me to avoid those same pitfalls. I would give the advice that if you do experience overwhelming panic at the site of bread like I sometimes did, you should try to find more of a balanced approach. Part of my problem, I know now was trying to lose weight as fast a possible. Obsessing over every carb. You shouldn't do that. It's definitely not healthy. Thanks for the menu tips. How does raw steak taste and what are your favorite cuts? I'm interested but a little chicken, ha ha.
May 17, 2014
Lori Miller said…
That's interesting about carbophobia. It sounds like you were pushing yourself to be perfect on Atkins, and I agree it's not good to put so much pressure on yourself. Hence, my defense of fast food in another post.

I don't think I have carbophobia, though. Even though wheat gives me acid reflux, allergy symptoms and an upset stomach, I don't panic at the sight of it; too much broccoli upsets my stomach, but I still eat a little of it now and then. As for french fries, they don't taste good to me anymore and don't sit well on my stomach. I'm not tempted to eat them.

I used about six ounces of chuck roast or rump roast with plenty of marbling to make the steak tartar. I get my beef from a ranch that raises its livestock traditionally (they feed the cattle corn and grass, but not antibiotics) and uses a mobile slaughtering unit. The cattle live and die in a relatively clean environment. I wouldn't eat raw CAFO meat and wouldn't eat raw hamburger from anywhere unless I ground it myself. Same with the egg yolk--I buy free range eggs and wouldn't eat a raw egg from a CAFO because chicken CAFOs are crowded and filthy.

Once you dice the meat (using a big, sharp knife), you add some spices to it, knead it like meatloaf, make a depression in the center and add the egg yolk. The meat tastes like it smells; the egg yolk tastes like the yolk of a lightly fried egg.
May 17, 2014
Rick Gladney said…
Question. The only store around here that sells organic meat is Publix. It's marked antibiotic free and grass feed. Do you think that would be ok? It's very expensive and I cook the ribeye I buy from my IGA so rare it might as well be tar tar and never had any problems. I'm tempted not to buy the organic and just use regular. I'm not that worried because I also buy regular ground beef and basically cook it the same way. Over the grill for a couple of minutes with a very large partially uncooked center and never had a problem. Been doing it all my life. I know it's a bad habit and down right dangerous, but it's just so damn good, I can't help it. In some regards I'm kind of, shall we say, nonchalant about government standards. Thank you for your input, I definitely appreciate it.
May 17, 2014
Lori Miller said…
As long as you don't have a compromised immune system and you're basically eating the meat raw anyway, why not?
May 17, 2014
Rick Gladney said…
Thanks. I'll report back my findings.
May 19, 2014
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