Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sugar Connection

As far as food cravings go, I have always been more of a salt-n-savory craver than a sweets craver. I admit to being one of the few people who has not really been that interested in ice cream, unless it's really hot out. And while certain kinds of chocolate make me drool (notably Green & Black's Organic Dark Milk Chocolate), I have never considered myself a chocaholic. Even my husband is more chocolate-oriented than me.

That's not to say I haven't occasionally desired the odd plain-chocolate cake or licorice whip or whole-wheat brownies with drizzles of coffee icing or whatever. It's just that throughout my life I've usually wanted jerky, potato chips, cheese, mashed potatoes, ramen noodles, deviled eggs, gravy, and so forth, when I've been in a cravy mood.

But since I've had a baby, I've turned into a sweets-craver, too. I even started wanting ice cream (Häagen-Dazs's Caramel Cone). I ate half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips the other day! True, someone is literally sucking the life out of me round the clock, but this doesn't account for the change in my tastes, does it?

I recently heard a young woman talk about trying to keep her parents from giving her baby sweets when they're caring for her on weekdays, partly because she now feels like she is addicted to sugar herself and can't stop thinking about it. Reflecting on this later, I remembered an article I read a few years back that stated that when you crave sweets, it may mean you're tired, while if you crave salty things, it may mean you're simply hungry. I thought I could tell this to that other mother next time I saw her, as we were all discussing how exhausting it is taking care of a baby 24/7.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that this could account for my own sudden uncharacteristic sweets-wanting. Of course! I wanted salty stuff before, because I never weighed enough and never really ate enough on a regular basis, I figured that already--but now that I'm exhausted ALL the time, I crave the sugar.

So maybe it will go away in, oh, 18 years.

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