Intense foods

Rich pudding, ice cream covered in syrup and whipped creme with salty nuts, troughs of macaroni and cheese. These are all binge foods. When we binge, we crave intensity, but due to chronic deprivation, we demand enormous quantities.

Did you know that once you practice the hunger and fullness method of eating, and are in tune with your tastes, you will still crave intense foods? But you'll become even more discerning, discriminating, and picky than you were when you were overeating.

Busy normal eaters can go for long periods of time without eating. They just don't get around to it. But when they do eat, a salad with low-fat dressing and a diet pop just won't do.

They might wait until 3 pm to eat lunch, but then they chow down on some leftover steak seasoned with just the right amount of salt, warmed up just a tad in the microwave, a side of crunchy potato chips, a salad drizzled with oil and vinegar, and a tiny, intense square of homemade fudge for dessert.

Now that's what I call a meal. I want salt, fat, meat, crunch, rich. Intense foods.

Interestingly, I eat "healthy." That is, I avoid fake, manufactured, and processed foods when possible, and I avoid partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. I avoid refined white flour and corn syrup.

But intensity? That I don't avoid. Do you crave intensity when you binge? It's no wonder, because while you're on the dieting side of the roller coaster, you're probably eating dull, bland foods.

Get off the diet roller coaster. Find out what you really like. Learn to save up your hunger, and then focus in on your cravings for intense flavors, textures, colors. Aim to stimulate different parts of your taste buds. Look for crunch, smell, softness, consistency, salty, rich...whatever you crave.

Savor every bite. Then stop eating before you get too full. Eating when full only ruins the experience. The meal is over. Now wait, and do it all over again at the next meal. Sound like fun? It is, and you can live this way. In fact, you can live well this way.

And the joke on all of us is that the food will be so satisfying, so flavorful, so intense, that you'll only need a little bit to be a happy camper. Your body will love this, and will reward you.