What Food Does Your Palate Crave? Healthy or Junk?

After years of presenting continuing education courses to fitness professionals, we often talk about the palate. When presenting, I find the topic of food as the most interesting, but challenging as everyone has their own opinion on how to eat.

Many fitness professionals eat healthy and can’t understand why their clients choose a certain type of food. As the presenter, I replied, “Please raise your hand if you have an extremely clean and healthy diet.” Everyone raised his or her hand. I then said, “How many of you can taste the chemicals when you eat something “bad” such as diet coke or something processed like chips and candy.”

Most raised their hand (because still many fitness professionals slug diet pop because there are no calories). The one vegan lady in the class nodded her head in agreement and said, “Oh my god, you’re right. I can even tell the difference between homemade and store bought almond milk. I never buy the store stuff.”

I replied, “So if you can taste every chemical-laden food. What do you think your clients taste? If their palate is bombarded with sugary and poor-fat foods, no wonder why they think a salad is the most boring meal on earth. It has no taste or satiety that the brain is craving unless its covered with croutons, cheese and milk-based dressings. This means it’s time for palate change.”

How do I change my palate? There are many strategies and methods to doing this. On average, a taste bud’s life span is 10 to 11 days. Taste buds do not die. The cells regenerate. This is noticeable after burning your tongue where it takes several days to gain your original taste. The best option is adopt a gradual change. Very few people can drastically switch from an unhealthy to a healthy diet.

I coach an “Add, Replace, Eliminate” method. This means adding fruits and vegetables to the diet without changing anything. An example would be adding vegetables to your pasta or burger. The next step would be to replace. Are there are healthier versions of what you eat? The final step is to eliminate. This means eliminating things that no longer serve your highest good. This does not mean you can’t ever eat cheese and chocolate again, but it depends on where you are at mentally and physically in your present stage of life.

Some people who have adverse health effects from dairy choose to eliminate dairy completely or eat it on occasion. No coach or person can choose your lifestyle. It is up to you on how you want to live your life.

I will share a personal example of how my palate reacts to coffee. For many years, I bounced between drinking only coffee and tea. I moved to Seattle as only a tea-drinker, but eventually got caught up in the espresso lifestyle. After two and a half years of drinking coffee, I became Reiki certified and my physiology began to change. I felt uplifted and vibrant. Along with this change, I noticed effects from coffee. My stomach burned and I developed heartburn. The coffee jitters became worse along with my breath.

I only noticed these problems when I consumed coffee. Some days I switched to drinking chai tea bags and the symptoms went away. For a couple weeks, I bounced between coffee and tea. I knew it was time to eliminate coffee since my symptoms returned.

I will continue this story in another blog, but this is an example of how eliminating a food served my highest good and health.