Cravings & The Elimination Diet

Dated: February 16th, 2009

In my recent learnings about Yoga and also Buddhism, a theme that has come up a lot is craving and aversion, and how through these two states we create a lot of suffering for ourselves.

I recently experimented with these states through a long overdue "elimination diet."

The Process:

In the diet, you test your own body's sensitivity to certain foods by eliminating those items for 2-3 weeks, and then adding them back in one at a time to test your body's reaction (essentially you eat fruit, vegetables, nuts and rice).

The rationale being that you don't notice how food affects your body when there is a constant, low level of a substance (say, wheat, or sugar) in your body, but the reaction (say, fatigue, or sinus congestion) will be more pronounced after cleansing.

Besides informing me that wheat, eggs, dairy and sugar all cause me to become lethargic, moody and bloated (never mind the mucousy, stale, almost rotten feeling in my mouth and at the back of my throat that I never even noticed because I was so used to it!), the diet was an interesting experience in observing my patterns associated with food.

4 Conclusions:

1. Smell vs. Taste:

Living in Chiang Mai, and I am often exposed to a multitude of delicious smells, especially when wandering the many markets.

There is one lady at the Sunday night market who cooks these waffles that smell amazing.

Every time I walk by, I get a craving for one (based on the smell) and every time I eat it, I'm disappointed (the dilemma of Thai baked goods - look and smell great, don't taste that good).

During the diet however, I would go and stand to the side of her stall, and just smell for a minute or two.... mmmm waffles.... and then keep walking. I found myself quite satisfied. Just smelling was enjoyable, I didn't need to follow the automatic reactive pattern of eating.

2. Taste vs. Expectation:

As with the waffles, I am often disappointed when I eat things that I have expected to be really good and aren't.

This stems from my expectation of how I think it's going to taste based on how it looks, or similar things I've had in the past.

The thinking often gets so salient, that I don't even taste the food itself, I am simply "satisfied" because I am eating whatever it is, and my mind says "yes, good, chocolate cake".

When I eat, I am often so distracted by thinking about something else, talking to someone, walking, looking at things, tripping over myself because I am eating and talking and walking and looking at things all at the same time....that I'm not present to the act of eating, and don't even enjoy the flavor.

3. Food as Love:

In my family, when you love someone, you either cook for them, or take them out to dinner.

So naturally, I have come to associate food with love (and reward/special occasion) and was surprised at how often emotions are my reason for eating (I know this seems like an obvious one "eat your feelings, blah blah" but it's more subtly pervasive than that, when I'm feeling bad, it's how I show myself love, too).

This one will take a little longer to get to the bottom of...

4. Pleasure vs. Nourishment:

One of the most amazing things about the diet was this new kind of energy that came up in me.

An energy that I'd never felt before. Not caffeine (coffee was also not allowed during the diet - gasp!), not sugar and not short-lived, surface energy... but a more subtle, deep, enduring energy that I know came from the food I was eating, and made me feel so healthy and alive.

Desserts and coffee and bread and cheese may all be delicious, and I'm such a foodie I don't think I'll ever give them up completely, but now that I've felt how nourishing and life-giving certain foods are for me, it's a different kind of choice I make to eat the ones that aren't.