Saturday, February 09, 2008

sunday scribblings - fridge space

cartoon by Nik in LaNacion.com
Yes, I know, Ágatha...I've ruined the scene...But romantic dates give me such anxiety!!

What a strange prompt we have this week!
Instead of photographing the inside of my fridge (since I share it, it'd only be fair if I asked permission to the other users), I thought I'd consider food, just simple, plain food.
But there's nothing plain about food, is there? Why would we eat more or less according to our emotional variations if it wasn't relevant?

Just the other day, it occured to me how odd eating is. Have you thought about it? Basically, we take our hands, grab something foreign and we put it inside our bodies through an amazing process called digestion. And we do that several times a day! Think about it - we take something that we're not really sure what it's made of and we swallow it. Shouldn't this be enough to make us care about what we eat, to consider it carefully and choose healthy food only? Yet, we seem to be caught up with the taste of things and the comfort they give us when they're nicely settled in our stomachs (when it's the hips, that's a different story!).

And when we're engaged in the rollercoaster of our emotional natures, then we lose control of it altogether. The Gaturro on the cartoon overate because he was anxious. Personally, romance doesn't make me overeat, it's precisely the opposite. Love tends to substitute food when it's good enough. Who needs food when you're the next Romeo or Juliet, huh?

Stress and frustration, on the contrary, make me attack the fridge spaces full of good, satisfying things. Shouldn't love burn more energy than stress? It doesn't seem that way.
I never considered myself one to have food issues, but when I found myself buying lollipops and chocolate bars for rewards after boring classes and nibbling this and that constantly, I decided I wasn't immune to foodcraze.

More Fridge Spaces here.

28 comments:

Diane L said...

Why do you think chocolate is one of the basic food groups!! :-D

Anonymous said...

Whoa! the angle you put on eating in your second paragraph hit the gag reflex! Something foreign...something made of who knows what? EWwww. If it weren’t for this annoying signal I get from my stomach I’d avoid eating altogether after that... So, well, I guess that’s some good, graphic writing there, Devil!

About love and all: I think stress makes you want to bite, so you eat...anything. Love burns no calories so you don’t eat (the dating phase) complacency burns a ton of calories so you get fat (the marriage phase). ;-)

The Sunday Scribblings thing is very cool. I may sign up for that.

So thanks! For it all! You bring lots of cool stuff to the forefront. :-D

Anonymous said...

As a comfort-eater myself, I can attest to the fact that I eat far more frequently when my husband and I are fighting than when we're ooey-gooey in love. Of course, when we're not fighting, we also get more exercise (ahem...), so I guess that might be part of it too. Great insights!

Anonymous said...

I don't eat when I'm in love either. Which is why I need to find someone new soon, or I'm going to get very, very fat.

Anonymous said...

Love and food make the world go round. I remember when I worked in daycare trying to explain to a little four year old girl that a french fry WAS a potato. She simply would not believe me. And when I ever told her that a "bowel movement" was undigested food coming back out she looked at me like I was evil!

Devil Mood said...

Neith: I forgot to say I was eating chocolate cookies while scribbling this haha!

MissAlister: It's a raw, almost life-threatening experience, eating, when you think about it. lol You should do SS, it's fun :) You already got a very nice metaphor with the dating and the marrying hehe ;)

Hi Literary Prostitute (I always feel a bit rude calling you this lol)! But shouldn't the calory burning exercise get you hungrier? I guess it depends on the exercise ;)

Chalk Box: hehe you and me both!

Colleen: hahaha! That's so funny! Kids make the best stories. Thanks for sharing.

Violet said...

I love food dearly. it's hard to consider it foreign to the body, just feels so perfect. Food alters the brain chemistry, and causes good feelings, especially sugars and foods we like. Causes mood swings mostly., and apetite swings.mini bipolar episodes. which isn't such a good thing really.
I eat out of frustration and loose apetite when in love too.

Stephanie said...

I've wondered the same thing. Less about modern humans...more about primitive ones.

I think of the weirdest looking, or hardest-to-get-into (like a coconut) food item and think...how hungry was the person who first though, "Hey! I bet I can eat that!"

Why is it okay to eat some food in some cultures, but not in others.

Food is weird. Except chocolate. Chocolate is okay.

I love your posts. They make me think :)

Lucy said...

my favorite food groups-chocolate/chips/icecream/ for something green- SPInkleS!
nice post!

phish said...

you can eat eat in the dark :) i was always amazed about that. the fact that we put anything inside our bodies - and managing to live through it is fantastic as well.

just like we open up to experiences. people. situtaions. and get hurt in the process. and the we start eating again. whatever that looks good. sometimes in bed. sometimes with the frig door open. in the middle of the night. in the middle of a process.


and there will be a time when the toxins will not be digested. the body will repel it and we shall become what we eat.

till such time.

kimananda said...

It's an interesting idea that food is an unknown that we put into ourselves. But then again, the same can be said about breathing...do we really know what is in the air we breathe? Food is just one more way in which we are clearly all connected with the rest of the universe.

Anonymous said...

Chocolate not part of the food groups? Of course it is ... what is there instead??? Love your thought provoking post!

Unknown said...

devil, devil, devil, i would like to be a fly on the wall of your mind. you always make me think so much! i am caught up in the taste--will not tell you what is going in my body today!

i love the cartoon, and yes we can live off love. absolutely...

...and chocolate!!!!!!!

Novel

Anonymous said...

Whoever said Chocolate is unhealthy?

Lorena said...

i had to cut down on chocolate and bakery goods. over the holidays i had so much. now i'm ok. although i'm craving a cupcake! :)

and it is interesting how we do tend to eat whatever taste good without knowing whats really in it...hmm..

Devil Mood said...

Just Jen: Yes, M'am! Will do, obediently :)

Violet: I wouldn't dare to discuss food with you, girl ;) The fact is we really can't dissociate it from our moods and that we have to deal with.

Stephanie: lol I guess they must've been really hungry! And they needed the energy so they acquired a taste for the sweet foods (lots of energy) making us sugar addicts these days when we don't need so much energy anymore.
Thanks, glad you liked it.

Lucy: ahhh Ice cream is the best food group ever :)

Phish: You're starting to scare me there....I think it must be some kind of defense mechanism, the fact that we don't care about what we eat. As long as it's not poison, we'll eat anything because we need to.

Kim: Let's not go there, otherwise I'll stop breathing one of these days. haha That last sentence was probably the most Virgo thing you've ever said to me. Very nice :)

Redness: Thanks. Chocolate needs to go to the larger part of the food pyramid, the essentials :)

Novel: hehe that's an interesting image. I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I think love might have some nutritial value we know nothing about.

Gautami: It can't be. That's my scientific guarantee right here.

Lorena: We are insane hedonists ;) Have you noticed while cutting down that you think less of chocolate and sweets or is it the same? I think they're addictive, the more we have them, the more we crave..

pERiWinKle said...

Talking about fridges...once had this conversation with a friend about their fridge...and he asked:"why do we always go to the fridge to see what is inside, if we already know what is inside..then he said...they should make fridges with glass doors so that you can just look..without opening the door and wasting energy..."

it was just really funny...xx

Lorena said...

if i have one hershey chocolate kiss, i want 10 more!! but if i resist, i can do without, i think :)

Beatriz Macias said...

Love your post, yet I am craving some chocolate and a nice cup of coffee... I guess all loves are not created equal!

Devil Mood said...

Periwinkle: I have had that thought many years and I would definitely buy one of those glass door regrigerators, so clever :) Thanks for dropping by.

Lorena: Yes, I understand that very well :D

Beatriz: Hello! Ahh, who doesn't crave that? :)

Heather said...

Love your take on this week's theme! I'm surely an emotional eater, but it doesn't seem to matter which emotion I'm feeling... maybe I just love to eat! lol Great post!

Devil Mood said...

Heather: Thanks. That sounds like a very valid emotion, loving to eat. :)

Tumblewords: said...

Neat post! Food and eating are somewhat strange - perhaps they are just fragments of emotion!

Devil Mood said...

Tumblewords: That's a fantastic concept!! :)

Niall young said...

Have you ever heard of the phrase " you are what you eat"?.

Chocolate is a 'Pan-nutrient'..it goes with everything.Did you know authentic Mexican chille con carne has chocolate in ....chocolate and cheese sandwiches(OK..maybe chocolate as a spread)...Chocolate liqueurs..chocolate covered ants/scorpions...I could go on!...and the all time favourite...chocolate body paint!

Devil Mood said...

Niall: A pan-nutrient, that's fantastic! Chocolate is good but those suggestions are a bit exaggerated for my taste, except perhaps the last one :)

anthonynorth said...

Now THAT was food for thought. Good piece.

Devil Mood said...

Thanks Anthony!