It wasn’t until I had my kids that I realized what I was eating was making me sick and contributing to their frequent illnesses. Much of the blame was due to the ultra-processed foods we were eating.

For me, it started in childhood with the sweet cereals I had for breakfast. It continued in high school and college when I worked — and ate at —  fast food restaurants. I craved the salty, saucy taste of the burgers, fries, and pizza.

It turns out there’s something to those cravings. According to Dr. Mark Hyman in the article How to Break Free from Food Addiction “Ultra-processed foods can trigger addictive-like behaviors — much like drugs, alcohol, or nicotine.” Food manufacturers use fat, sugar, salt, MSG, caffeine, and other additives and process them to intensify their effects. The end result is “they work together to hijack your brain’s reward system, making these foods nearly impossible to resist.” 

In the food industry, that term is called “bliss point engineering.” Some of these most addictive foods include pizza, chips, French fries, ice cream, regular soda, cheese, and the like.

Reawakening Series 

Today, we’re going to explore how to reawaken our taste buds to Whole Foods. This blog is part of our summer-long series on the theme of reawakening, and, as usual for Spaces of Grace, we’ll be exploring topics related to the body, soul, and spirit. 

Reawaken Your Taste Buds

How can we retrain our taste buds to the taste of real food? The following are suggestions of things we’ve tried. We’re not saying you can never have your favorite treats again. Simpoly start by picking one of the following ways to start weaning yourself off of ultra-processed food.  

1. Buy fresh (local when possible) fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat. Shop farmers markets in your community for the best choices that haven’t been shipped for days across multiple states.

2. Cook at home. Meals can be simple. For example, add a chuck roast to a crockpot with 1/2 cup water or red wine, chopped potatoes, carrots, onions, and green beans. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic, and thyme to make a flavorful, easy meal. 

3. Focus on flavor with fresh and dried herbs and spices. My favorites: basil, garlic, ginger, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsely, cumin, cilantro, turmeric, sea salt, pepper, vanilla, oregano. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime to your cooking. 

4. Drink water, hot tea, and sun tea you make with fresh or dried herbs. For sun tea, use a good-sized handful of your favorite fresh herbs like lemon balm, lemon verbena, holy basil, and/or chamomile. Rinse the herbs and add them to a 1/2-gallon glass jar filled with water and set in the sun. Leave it all day. Alternatively, use 3 or 4 teabags from your favorite herbal tea and steep them in the glass jar all day.

5. Use extra-virgin olive oil for homemade salad dressing and cooking (at temperatures under 400 degrees). 

6. Try growing one potted herb. Choose your favorite flavor. Some suggestions include lemon balm, lemon verbena, rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley. 

7. If you’re all in, try a food detox. You can purchase Dr. Hyman’s book 10-Day Detox Diet book or check to see if your library carries it. 

8. Invest in the best ingredients you can afford to buy: butter and milk from grass-fed cows, real vanilla, organic bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, and heirloom tomatoes, for example. I didn’t even realize tomatoes had flavor until I ate an heirloom tomato about 5 years ago!

Need Some Recipe Ideas?

For a few recipe ideas to get you started, here is a free recipe ebooklet written by foodie Sarah Lewis. We’d love to hear if you try any of the recipes, or feel free to share any of your tips below.