There has been a lot of talk going on about sugar over the last 5 or so years. The topic of sugar is coming up everywhere in the world. From a Canadian Senate committee urging to introduce a sugar tax in hopes to combat obesity, to the WHO calling on all countries to reduce their sugar intake from 10% to 5% of their daily energy intake. Sugar has been, and is going to become, more and more of a hot topic nationwide.
As I was having dinner with my husband last night, the topic of desensitization came up. We both agreed that the world is becoming more and more desensitized in so many different areas. From food, to porn, to the violence in movies, the more we get, the more we want and the more we actually need to feel satiated.
Playboy started off as a magazine that featured pin-up girls who were semi-nude. The shots of them were usually tasteful and left the readers to have their imagination to fill in the blanks. The pictures taken in 1953 continued to escalate in provocativeness as the years went on. From the 70's to the 2000's, Playboy became a completely different magazine than when it first came out. The more men saw, the more men wanted and the more men needed to feel satiated.
Models started showing more than just a perky set of (natural) breasts paired with a sexy come hither look on their face. Now they showed full frontal nudity, all the woman had implants and the models became less classy in their appearance, poses, demeanours and the magazine went from something that was supposed to portray models and actors who were sexy and sophisticated to a magazine that leant itself to being cheap and tasteless.
I'm not the only one who thinks so either. In 2016 Playboy announced that they will no longer be showing full frontal nudity anymore. They realized that people can go on the internet and find whatever they want. They want to provide something different for readers and to go back to what the original model for the magazine was.
The way people have become desensitized to pornography is the exact reflection on how they have gotten desensitized to food and the way that food should actually taste. The more sugar we consume, the more sugar we want and the more sugar we need for us to feel like a food tastes good. Sugar has become the new porn.
Sugar is in almost everything you buy that's packaged nowadays. It's not just in candy, chocolate bars and ice cream, it's in foods that masquerade as being healthy such as yogurts, breakfast cereals, protein or energy bars, breads, pasta sauces and many other products that so many of us consume on a daily basis believing that we're making the right choices.
Just like we have become desensitized to porn or to the violence we see in movies, the world has become desensitized to what real food actually tastes like because of the amount of sugar and processing that has gone into the foods we are consuming every day.
People don't want to eat clean because they believe eating clean is boring or that the food doesn't taste good. The fact of the matter is that real food doesn't taste good to them because their tastebuds have become desensitized to the way food is actually supposed to taste.
The more processed foods you eat, the more sugar you consume and the more poor quality oils that you choose to allow into the food you have, the more unsatisfied with food you'll become when you have the real deal. Food won't taste good to you because you've trained your tastebuds and your mind to need more than what real food tastes like and the only way you become satiated is with fake food.
The more I see the effects of sugar and the way people consume food today, the more I'm convinced that sugar is the new porn.
So how can you change the way you see food and the way it actually tastes if you're realizing that you have become desensitized to real food?
- Start to cut back on your intake of sugar in all of it's forms, but especially refined sugars. If it's not fruit or food that naturally contains sugar, steer clear. Do this for a couple months and really see how your tastes start to adapt to not having or wanting so much.
- Read food labels and ingredient lists. What is actually going into the food you are eating? Read the labels to make sure there aren't hidden sugars or artificial sweeteners inside. Anything that you can't pronounce or don't know what it is, why are you eating it?
- Reduce your intake of anything that contains hydrogenated fats or foods high in sodium. Anything over 10% sodium is usually not the best food choice because it's been processed or full of preservatives, nitrates and additives.
- Realize that the more sugar and processed foods you consume, the less real food is going to taste good to you. Your tastebuds will adjust to the food you feed yourself over time. The longer you go without fake foods, the less they will appeal to you. Give your body time to adjust to not having the insulin spikes and hormone responses that you get when you consume high amounts of sugar. Let the body come back to homeostasis.
- Educate yourself on all the different names sugar has, that way when you read ingredient lists you'll know if a particular food has high amounts of sugar or is full of possible hidden sugars. Below is a list of all the different names sugar has.
Photo from: http://nicolejardim.com/sugar-fertility/
How much sugar are you consuming everyday and does the taste of real, pure food taste boring to you? Have you become desensitized to real food?