That feel-good feeling you get after eating food can be caused from a array of other reactions going on both internally and externally, simultaneously. Senses including smell, taste and sight play a considerable role, as well as more biological factors including happy brain chemical stimulants. Here are a series of factors that contribute to that feel-good post food feeling!
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD TASTES & SMELLS GOOD
Deliciousness is both ingrained and learned, both personal and universal. The cells on our taste buds have chemical receptors attuned to the five basic tastes—bitter, sweet, sour, salt and umami, also known as savoury. Retronasal olfaction produces a unique sense—neither smell nor taste alone but a hybrid that we call flavour. Our flavour preferences take shape over a lifetime, beginning while we are still in the womb.
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD LOOKS GOOD
Beautifully presented food feels good. Food placed with care and love on a plate is inviting. The preparation of food affects how that food tastes. A block of cheese with sharp edges tastes sharper and better than one with round corners.
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD IS EASY TO DIGEST
Just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, food has to feel just right, not too hot or too cold, not too big or too small, not too dry or too moist.
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD REMINDS US OF HAPPY, SECURE & COMFORTING TIMES
We’re attracted to foods that we associate with a positive social memory. I recall afternoon tea and cake with my grandmother at her kitchen table. The good news is that we are continually creating new social memories so we can learn to like new foods, ones we didn’t grow up with or didn’t like. Don’t you just love butter since Julia Child’s showed us how to use butter with abandon? “With enough butter anything is good”. Fat tastes so good because we associate it with comfort and naughtiness, it helps marry flavours together while cooking and it prolongs the release of other flavours in our mouth and gives us a feel good ‘mouthfeel’.
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD STIMULATES OUR HAPPY BRAIN CHEMICALS
Food can have a ‘very rapid effect’ on one’s mood, memory and general cognitive function for the better or worse. Research from the University of NSW showed that only five days of exposure to a junk food diet impaired the memory of rats. Also when we eat a lot of and a combination of highly processed fats, sugar and refined salt it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble a drug addiction. If we tune into the cues of satisfaction and fullness, i.e. eat mindfully, we will feel satiated and content. Though this can only happen with eating a whole food, nutrient dense diet.
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD IS NUTRIENT DENSE, HEALING & WHAT WE HAVE EVOLVED TO EAT
Our anatomy and physiology dictate this. A modern hunter-gatherer, which is what we are, is meant to eat a diet rich in fresh, whole foods. Vegetables, fresh and cultured (lacto-fermented), whole fats and proteins from healthy pastured or grass fed animals, wild fish and seafood, some well-prepared (activated or soaked) nuts and seeds, seasonal fruit and whole, unprocessed, cultured (rich in probiotics) dairy.
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD COMES FROM HEALTHY, HAPPY PLANTS & ANIMALS
Farming that encourages valuable, rich, nutritious soil to grow our food is full of life and full of nutrients. Anything that doesn’t support this doesn’t support our health. That is how we know what to eat. So let’s support and buy our food from farmers that support this natural system, one that works and flows with nature, the health of our animals, plants, environment, seasons and climate. Eat seasonally, eat locally (to the best of your ability) but most importantly eat fresh, whole, unprocessed food.
FOOD THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD COMES FROM DEVELOPING A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD
Get to know your thoughts about food. Are they your thoughts or your parents, friends, peers, society? Break your addictions to food that only give you a temporary fix. Think about what you will gain not what you will lose. Take time with it by preparing it well to aid digestion and enhance nutrition. Chew food slowly and savour it. Respect food. Have gratitude for food. Love food. Enjoy food.
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