Are we conditioning our palate to eat junk & unhealthy food?
Well the answer is YES! As a result of our fast-paced lifestyle, we often resort to packaged, pre-prepared, ready to eat meals, take away etc. from supermarkets and restaurants, eateries without realizing the harmful effects on our health. We are so in a rush that we have no time to prepare homemade foods anymore, or at least we think we don’t. But preparing healthy foods can be simple with a little planning and organization and it’s not as time-consuming as some would think.
With the overflow of processed foods now on grocery stores we’ve become conditioned to eating junk and unhealthy foods causing us to suffer from what some experts call “taste inflation”.
So, what is taste inflation? It is simply when our taste buds get desensitized to subtle flavours because of an overdose of sugar, salt and MSG found in most if not all processed foods. The net result is that our sense of taste can no longer detect and appreciate the simple flavours of natural food and we become taste numb. So why is this bad?
So Why Is Taste Inflation Bad?
We’ll what we don’t realize is that in order for food to be made tastier a number of flavour enhancers get added to tingle & stimulate our taste buds. Excessive & prolonged intake of these chemicals are believed to cause diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, strokes.
While the high sugars cause obesity & diabetes, they are also responsible for making the body acidic, leading to osteoporosis & a host of other complications. Let’s not forget the excess salt and its relation to hypertension.
The Good News is that You Can Adjust Your Taste Buds & here’s how:
- Start Gradually: Focus on one thing at a time:
- Use natural sweeteners instead of artificial ones
- Mix equal quantities of brown & white rice
- Use half the portion of salt you usually add
- Increase the portion of vegetables in your plate
- Get Healthy Substitutes: Don’t start eliminating things all together, find healthy substitutes
- Swap your morning tea/ coffee with a cup of hot water & lime
- Have a square of 70% & over dark chocolate instead of the regular one
- Choose homemade kale chips over the processed ones
- Invest in a juicer if you like sipping on juices
- Give Yourself Time
- A habit is built in 21 days, that’s how long you have. So, don’t give up on foods you dislike in the very first go, try it again and again and you might just get used to it.