Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Redefining our idea of Desserts

The other day, I read an interesting take on desserts.  When we get right down to it, we know desserts are something that should be a treat...a "once in a while"... a "special occasion" (never mind that we seem to be able to justify special occasion at any given moment).

But what if we expanded our definition of dessert to include things like french fries, chips, popcorn, along with all the traditional sweets.  How would it change your behavior if you stopping making dessert be time dependent (something nutritionally void containing unnecessary calories that comes only at the end of the meal) and started thinking about anything that meets the dessert criteria (nutritionally void containing unnecessary calories) that you eat at any point throughout the day?

And then, you only allow yourself one dessert a day.

All of the sudden, it may mean the hummus and celery looks like a much better option because you don't want to squander you dessert for the day on the bag of plain chips at the end of the Subway counter.  If you only get one dessert a day, don't you think you would be a little more stingy/selective with what you choose?  I do.

But we don't think about chips, nuts, popcorn, etc. as dessert.  We justify eating them because we've been taught if you're buying a sandwich, you need the chips to round out the meal --when in actuality, all we're rounding out is our physique.

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