I never thought I had a sweet tooth, because I never craved sweets or desserts (except for chocolate, and then only at PMS/TOM).
Ordinarily my "cravings' are for "real meal" foods like General Tso's chicken, sweet and sour pork, fried rice, barbecue, kettle cooked Maui onion potato chips (the only potato chip I like), garlic bread...
I also didn't like salty foods like pretzels or chiops (with a few exceptions like the kettle cooked chips).
Then I read the Book, "The End of Overeating," by David Kessler in which he talks about an addiction like response (he calls it conditioned hypereating) to the combination of salt, fat, and sugar (or carbs that quickly convert to sugar like potato chips), and I realized that virtually all of my binge-trigger foods contained that deadly combination of hidden salts and sugars.
I didn't like salty foods unless they were also fatty and sweet. I didn't like sugar foods, unless they were fatty and salty. I didn't like fatty foods unless they were sugary and salty.
Most of the combinations were more savory than sweet (or so I thought) until I really started examining how much sugar is "hidden" in foods like barbecue sauces.
Cognitively, I knew that these sauces I liked so much contained a great deal of sugar, but I rationalized eating them, because I thought on some level, "It's got to be better than eating a snickers bar, right?"
Mostly that's been true (but just barely), but in some cases the snickers bar would have been the better choice.
When I eat the salty, sweet, creamy/buttery (fatty) combination, I just have no off switch. I will eat until I'm in pain, and often still feel "hungry" enough to keep eating.
Knowing this is making weight loss easier, but these foods to me, really are like an addictive drug. I can eat them in moderation no more than a heroine addict can use heroine in moderation.
Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather have a food problem than a drug problem, if only because it's a slightly safer addiction, and not illegal (The not illegal part probably plays a greater role than I realize, I'm a law-abiding girl by nature. Although if they outlawed eggplant in sweet garlic sauce, I'd have to find a black market supplier).
I still feel that I can learn to eat some of these foods in moderation someday, but I could be wrong. I still probably will have a trigger food now and again, but for me "moderation" is going to be two or three times a year, not every day or even every week, and probably not even every month.
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