Gateway Foods: The Slippery Slope of 'Just a Bite'by
Mark Sisson Recently by Mark Sisson: Primal Experiment: Intentional Power Outage
The holidays are coming and with them the food. Maybe with Halloween come and gone, the season is already upon you in your social/work/family circles. Beyond the actual meals themselves, there are the umpteen parties, open houses, potlucks, lunches, brunches, happy hours, coffee hours, bake sales, soup suppers, and bazaars – as well as the continual conveyer belt of office/shop/home display of every sweet and savory (mostly sweet) treat known to humankind. As fun as it all is, the holidays can be a seasonal equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle – a festively decorated abyss where good intentions get swallowed along with the latest Martha Stewart recipe. We Primal types bring both common sense and the reasonable 80/20 Principle to the holiday season (as any other occasion). We partake moderately and selectively. We use ingenuity and well cultivated Primal taste to create (or adapt) our own choice holiday delicacies. In short, we have no problem enjoying the party. We’re just rarely the ones with the proverbial lampshade on our heads at the end of the buffet table, so to speak. We can enjoy our favorite dishes without chucking every goal and standard we have for our health. Nonetheless, even those of us with the most stalwart wills and number of years under our Primal belts wisely steer clear of a few foods out of sheer sensibility.
Most of us have at least one. I’m talking about those foods you know in your heart of hearts (and maybe hard experience) can send you down a slippery slope. Maybe it’s the taste, the plain sugar rush, or the emotional association. Whatever the source of temptation, it’s a Pandora’s Box better left undisturbed. I’ve been Primal so long that I don’t get conventional cravings much. Even when I indulge and have a few bites of really good pie or bread once in a while, I’m no worse for the wear. When I’m done with the piece, I’m done. That was delicious. Case closed. Some foods, however, are more problematic. For me, it’s Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream. (Yes, there it is.) Ice cream was a relic of my extreme training days, and there’s just something about Cherry Garcia. A little too easily turns into a lot. I find it’s just better to stay away. Is your mind wandering to any particular foods now? It seems the holidays are a common time for their appearance – or maybe omnipresence. They’re the foods that once tasted, beckon you to keep coming back. (You can just hear that apple strudel calling you….) More than just good, more than just run of the mill tempting, they’re downright precipitous. November 17, 2011 Copyright © 2011 Mark's Daily Apple
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