Jun 01

But You Keep Doing It Anyway

On Sunday, after a long day of work, I went to a friend’s house for dinner and some relaxing conversation. For convenience sake, she bought a package of “Beef Enchiladas” from Costco. After 40 minutes in the convection oven, the “food” was ready to eat.

It was disgusting. Everything about it was disgusting. From the instant the food hit my tongue I thought it was disgusting - and I cleaned my plate anyway.

For starters, the sodium content was out of sight - 610 grams per serving. It was so salty I almost couldn’t eat it…almost. The stuff also looked horrible. Seriously, we could picture precisely how it’s made.

Enormous grinders, salt dumpers and mixing contraptions churn the goop. A giant, loud pump plops it into the plastic containers from long, black, industrial rubber hoses that hang from an immense, v-shaped vat suspended from the factory ceiling. What leaks onto the cement floor is rinsed away by high pressure hoses into once-white floor drains. We joked about it even more, but some of what we said should not be written down.

“We really shouldn’t be eating this; it’s horrible,” we both said as we kept eating.

When you get heartburn two bites into a food, it really is time to stop eating. The body is sending a signal to stop eating. “Don’t pop a pill and keep eating - stop eating!” it says. That’s what heartburn tells us. Stop eating! We kept eating.

Half an hour later, I had problems like more heartburn, an uncomfortable gurgling feeling and gas. I know, I shouldn’t write about gas, but there’s an important point to this. Oh yeah, at 3:00 a.m. I was in the bathroom - for half an hour.

Okay, let’s look at what happened. From the very first bite I didn’t like what I was eating. And I kept going anyway. Now, we’re not talking about a new experience. This was prepackaged food that I didn’t like. There was no reason to continue eating it, except that I didn’t pay attention to the many messages intent on protecting my better interests. It wasn’t as though the food might magically transform into five-star cuisine. I didn’t need more experience with it. I’d had this experience many times before. This food looked bad. It tasted bad. It was bad for me - and I kept eating it anyway. What do you suppose that is about?

Think about it…it looked bad. My eyes read the situation and triggered hesitation. It tasted bad. My tongue triggered a wince and frown, not the sort of response that says, “Oh yeah baby, keep going. This is good for you.” My stomach, or whatever part of me causes heartburn, instantly signaled a mismatch between the food and intestinal happiness. I had three signals - but wait! We talked about how awful the food was - and I kept eating it anyway.

So, I had - count them - 1 2 3 4 - four signals that what I was eating was neither enjoyable, nor likely to benefit me in the long run… and kept right on eating.

This is the height of ignorance. And, just to prove my point, my stomach and one other body system showed me at 3:00 a.m. (which must have been when they figured they could FINALY get my attention) in very unpleasant ways that the food was bad for me. If I had only paid attention to the early signals…

Where are you ignoring the signals - and E-V-I-D-E-N-C-E - that something is not good for you, and you should stop doing it?

Uncategorized