I know I've mentioned on here before that I know food shouldn't be connected to emotions: that a cookie shaped like a heart really doesn't mean "I love you."
BUT
This is a very hard rationale to rationalize.
I mean who's mood doesn't lift at least just a smidgen after walking into a candy store? All those bright colors and fun shapes promising sweet, sweet delight? How can you not just want to kick back into a sugar induced coma of pleasure right then and there?
Or what about a bakery? What is it about icing, that malleable toothachingly delicious substance that comes in almost any flavor or color and makes such delightful little mounds and flowers and teddy bears and letters and puppy noses and kitten toes and bumble bees and you get the idea.
And hell, let's face it; just seeing a plain old tub of the stuff brings a smile to my face.
And don't get me started on gourmet desserts like cheesecake or gelatto that are meant to be eaten slowly and induce the type of moaning in groan adults that make it seem like they truly are doing something positively sinful with their fork (or spoon).
So what am I supposed to think? I mean, by that rationale, doesn't food bring joy? Doesn't chocolate send happy chemicals to our brains? Isn't sugar addictive for that very reason?
I guess the real problem is when it becomes synonymous with joy, as if the simple consumption will bring us happiness no matter what the issue. Or rather, to be more accurate, when we turn to food to comfort us for things it just cannot comfort us with.
That is a problem.
But, if you can draw the line and realize the difference, realize that, yeah, I don't need to have cake to celebrate my birthday, that I just want it god damn it, then what's wrong with that?
That's fine, right.
But I guess the whole thing is a little strange: This whole idea of eating joy.
It's like someone gives you a lovely little iced cookie in the shape of a teddy bear, and you look at that little teddy bear cookie, and his icing face stares back up at you, forever smiling, forever joyful, and it makes you so happy that you in that moment decide that instead of letting his little chocolaty face stay that way; that instead of putting him on display; that instead of simply taking a mental picture so that you may carry that adorable bit of happiness with you mentally; that you are going to devour his joyful little soul by biting off his head.
I mean.
What's up with that?
BUT
This is a very hard rationale to rationalize.
I mean who's mood doesn't lift at least just a smidgen after walking into a candy store? All those bright colors and fun shapes promising sweet, sweet delight? How can you not just want to kick back into a sugar induced coma of pleasure right then and there?
Or what about a bakery? What is it about icing, that malleable toothachingly delicious substance that comes in almost any flavor or color and makes such delightful little mounds and flowers and teddy bears and letters and puppy noses and kitten toes and bumble bees and you get the idea.
And hell, let's face it; just seeing a plain old tub of the stuff brings a smile to my face.
And don't get me started on gourmet desserts like cheesecake or gelatto that are meant to be eaten slowly and induce the type of moaning in groan adults that make it seem like they truly are doing something positively sinful with their fork (or spoon).
So what am I supposed to think? I mean, by that rationale, doesn't food bring joy? Doesn't chocolate send happy chemicals to our brains? Isn't sugar addictive for that very reason?
I guess the real problem is when it becomes synonymous with joy, as if the simple consumption will bring us happiness no matter what the issue. Or rather, to be more accurate, when we turn to food to comfort us for things it just cannot comfort us with.
That is a problem.
But, if you can draw the line and realize the difference, realize that, yeah, I don't need to have cake to celebrate my birthday, that I just want it god damn it, then what's wrong with that?
That's fine, right.
But I guess the whole thing is a little strange: This whole idea of eating joy.
It's like someone gives you a lovely little iced cookie in the shape of a teddy bear, and you look at that little teddy bear cookie, and his icing face stares back up at you, forever smiling, forever joyful, and it makes you so happy that you in that moment decide that instead of letting his little chocolaty face stay that way; that instead of putting him on display; that instead of simply taking a mental picture so that you may carry that adorable bit of happiness with you mentally; that you are going to devour his joyful little soul by biting off his head.
I mean.
What's up with that?
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