Now I’m not a doctor, so don’t take this as medical advice. In fact, you should question everything that I say.
I was a fat kid. It didn’t help that I had an addiction to Hostess Fruit Pies, cakes, donuts and most everything they sold. I had plenty of carbs. I loved PB&J and so sweet was neat for me.
Part of this was that I lived close to a Hostess factory and they had incredibly cheap food and bread. So when you went there for bread, they had other cheap things. It really was quite irresistible for a kid.
Now of course I ate fruits and vegetables, but this story isn’t about that ok? The problem here is that even though I was an active kid, I was also a hungry one. I ate all the time. I am not sure why I felt so compelled to eat, it just seemed that I needed it.
Years pass and I start to enter puberty and my body starts to change. At the same time, years of eating these sugary snacks have left my taste-buds bored. Yes they were still delicious but you overeat anything and you get tired of it.
So I stopped eating the Hostess food and sweet things in general. I never could stand the acidic taste of soda, and I always drank water for all of my life. A year or so later I tried to eat a Hostess food that I used to love and I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t believe how overpowering sweet it was. How could I ever eat that?
I once asked a doctor if peoples taste change as they grow older and she said yes. It seemed that I had overdosed on pastries in my youth and so this set the stage for my life.
Now I am not going to claim that I haven’t enjoyed pastries and the bakery aisle at times. I don’t deny myself that. But I tended to only get one item and then not eat it for awhile. When I was younger I used to have various candies in my food pantry. Then I outgrew that and didn’t buy them anymore. Now even though I love chocolate, I haven’t had it in a very long time. The most I allow myself is almond milk vegan chocolate milk, which is enough for me.
I think the lesson here is that when you overdose on something, you eventually realize that you don’t like it anymore. My doctor who I talked about my sugar cravings with said that as a kid her parents owned a candy store. I was like wow that is every kids dream. She said that now she doesn’t eat sugar other than chocolate occasionally.
Another data point here. My grandmother was from Italy and it is normal to have a little wine in the morning with their coffee. She had perhaps a small pour maybe a tablespoon? She asked if I would like to try it. I tried it and hated it. It was port wine and for me it tasted terrible. As a kid later I got into my grandpas beer (too young to read I was thirsty and thought it was 7-up) and tried one and he was very mad but I hated the taste of it. I tried a little and then couldn’t drink any meaningful amount.
Why am I sharing this? After trying alcohol the taste never appealed to me. So when friends in high school would invite me to parties with alcohol I didn’t want to go. I never wanted it because it was never forbidden. I think we crave things that we think are forbidden because of FOMO. I never wanted anything to do with drugs, and sugar because it didn’t make me feel good it made me feel bad.
Being healthy I think is just realizing that things that made you feel bad, are generally bad for you.