Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Easy Way To Give Up Sugar Or Salt Cravings


I just learned something that is so cool and amazing that it prompted me to immediately jump up and post this and Boris' painting, Kiss My Hand, is the perfect illustration for it!

Here it is: You know how when you are trying to clean up your diet and eat foods with less salt, sugar, etc. that you might experience the cleaner food as too tasteless? Well, help is on the way. It turns out that "your tastebuds are made up of 50 to 150 receptor cells that live for only 1 to 2 weeks and then are replaced by new receptors. So after eating a cleaner diet for 2 weeks, you'll not only begin to taste and enjoy more subtle (cleaner and more natural!) flavors, you'll also have less of a craving for salt" and sugar. (Adapted from "The Salt Solution" by Heather K. Jones, RD)

This has always been my experience with my post-holiday splurging adjustments, but now I know why. It helps to know that there is a very definite scientific reason why after a week or so I finally give up my cravings for the sugar or salt that I've become addicted to. Two weeks is nothing!