How do you cope with "the munchies"?

I do what Daphne does. I drown out a hankering. I read somewhere that sometimes when we feel peckish, really we are thirsty.
While north I discovered regular chocolate bars are about $5. Good chocolate is ridiculous! With food insecurity, I would rather save that $5 and give it to the community food center who feed a lot of people. I just don't do it, but I do keep sun dried mango on hand.

Those northern prices really curbed my sweet tooth cravings (plus I have less teeth these days mainly from overbite grinding)

anyway, I make sure I have fruit and raw veg ready to eat, and nuts, or I go outdoors and go snacking on everything including weeds.

But teas are really great, and I also make a couple of daily drinks -- marmite with simmering hot water for many vitamin B's and salt, and magnesium citrate with juice, dehydrated fruit, 1/4 tsp of honey, or ground citrus rind (to mask the industrial citrate taste) I don't usually drink them both at once, but make them together from one pan of water.

I also make sure I drink a gallon of good water daily (down to one coffee or none, another ridiculously priced northern item). My son does too: a gallon before his second coffee.

Thanks for all the good ideas!

Rad Anthony wrote:. Anything I eat is fuel.

I think this is actually quite key. Turning it round slightly - if it isn't nutritious - containing good food value in the form of vitamins, minerals or fibre - then it oughent to be eaten unless I really need calories (which I don't much!).

I had quite a good week last week by focusing on keeping busy and getting the chores at the shop done so I could get home. Having the side benefit of getting home a bit quicker too, except Thursday was a long day due to a rather late big grocery delivery.

I agree about water. I think that water tastes sweet, and when we eat fruit then we are getting water with a little sugar. So sweet cravings are very often a sign to drink (or eat fruit).

It’s possible that the sugar could lead to not feeling thirsty, not drinking enough and as a result being tired and chronically dehydrated and relying on the stimulation of sugar.

As for my sweet foods now, they are usually fruit (including dates, which are high in fiber), dark chocolate, sweet potato, and occasionally—on a very special occasion—maple syrup. I don’t really even like maple syrup anymore. A sort of dessert I like to make is plain unsweetened whipped cream with some berries, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, and maybe a few chocolate shavings. Acorns are good with it too.

My issue is often eating a tiny amount of something, not getting enough (caloric) nourishment and then getting tired and having to go back. And when you are tired is not the best time to put together a meal. Good fried beans with green vegetables (especially nettles) in the morning can be a very nourishing meal that lasts a while and does not take long to cook (well, it does, but if you have cooked the beans then it doesn’t take long.)

I say as I procrastinate about going out to dig ramps…

Something which I am leaning towards that quite a few previous posts have hinted at, is to stuff a craving with healthy nourishing whole food that will last most of the day. I think that many wayward cravings and addictions have to do with forgetting how to nourish ourselves properly. Or not knowing how due to lack of ecological foraging/gardening knowledge.

Often stress also decreases appetite at the same time as making you tired (like the stress of closing up the shop). A healthy appetite wants a bowl of beans and vegetables, something flavorful, good and dense with nutrition… a poor stressed appetite wants little snacks and sugary things and not too much of any of it at a time—because it wants fast, easily accessible energy for dealing with threats. You can see how being in this state chronically would leave us undernourished and oversweetened.

It's called the Dorito Effect.  I read a book about it a couple of years ago. It led me to seek the best-tasting chicken (Barred Rock), strawberries (Mara de Bois), and potatoes (Maya Gold). Unfortunately, the potatoes are not available in the US, but Papa Cacho is a delicious alternative.

Is it possible that you need electrolytes?

For various reasons I'm in the throes of completely re-figuring out what I need to eat, and when, and how much, etc.

I'm finding the information in this video VERY helpful!

Kevin Olson wrote:Another tactic of mine is (as was mentioned up thread) to have a cup of coffee (or tea, if you prefer - pick your poison!).  I mostly drink coffee, though I have been drinking green tea most every day for the EGCG, which is supposed to help with autophagy; I dunno if it works, but that's the rumor.  Since people in Asia have drinking it since time out of mind, I doubt it will hurt me, in any case.

To this, add a generous dollop of heavy whipping cream.  Don't be shy about it.

The heavy cream provides some good fats, with a bit of metabolic staying power, but without much impact on blood sugar, and the little bump of caffeine is a pick-me-up and mental re-focusser (at least for me, your mileage may indeed vary).  I don't imagine there's much caffeine in the coffee I usually drink; it's arabica, and dark roasted, both of which tend to be lower in caffeine.  Empirically, I know that other coffee offers more of a jolt - I had some old Cafe Bustelo around, made myself a cup a few weeks ago, and felt pretty jittery afterwards.

Anyway, adding some heavy cream to coffee is another of my go-tos, now so ingrained by force of habit that I hardly think about it.  I used to only drink my coffee black, but found that having a cup or two with heavy cream in the AM helped me to make it without snacking until lunch time.  Now, I just do it habitually.  I buy heavy cream by the quart, which lasts me for a couple of weeks, or a bit less.  The fat calories also help me to maintain body weight while on my particular brand of low-carb diet, which can be a challenge.

1 - It's not just a rumor; there are hundreds of studies on green tea and EGCG. I did a small research paper on it for school (nutrition degree). Consuming the whole leaf is always better, but as a tea it is definitely useful, and as a tea it's better than a capsule of just one constituent of the tea (EGCG). The more "whole" of any food, the better. I ordered a high quality matcha in order to consume the whole leaf (it's basically finely ground tea leaves) but it's kinda disgusting (to me, I cringe at bitter), so I mix it with sugar & lemon juice for a nice refreshing iced tea lemonade. Or, you could have your tea the Chinese way: Put the leaves right in your mug and when one finds its way to your mouth, just eat it.

2 - Heavy cream: do you also eat food for breakfast or is that coffee you described your only breakfast? Not judging, just curious, in fact, I don't *really* care, lol, my point is that fats & protein help us feel full, so for the OP (if you're reading), I know I can feel the difference if I eat fat & protein for breakfast versus a breakfast of just carbs (this applies to any meal). If I eat something that includes fat & protein I feel fuller and don't need to eat until the usual human timeframe of about 5 hours later. If I eat a small meal of mostly carbs (like people who have a donut or a bagel or cereal) I soon start feeling like I need more food.

So make sure every meal has a serving of fat and a serving of protein. Don't be afraid of them; making breakfast the biggest meal is a great strategy that many people use.

I've been classed as obese for the best part of 20 years, not massive but carrying an extra 15kg or so at all times. It puts extra pressure on my already dodgy knees and is a contributing factor for my sleep apnea (although not the cause). This is to say, I'm pretty motivated to lose some weight, and have tried some diets that worked for a while but were not sustainable for various reasons

Most recently, I've started on a GLP-1 inhibitor for weight loss (Mounjaro), and the impact is fascinating. It modifies the effect of some gut hormones that regulate appetite and satiation. I'm fairly new to this, but even from early on the impact was stark. It flipped a switch in me, and the food noise around snacks was just gone. Completely. I was a habitual snacker, and as a food lover enjoy good meals.

The food enjoyment is still there, but it is so much easier to listen to what my body is telling me about how much I need and how full I'm feeling. My main meal size has reduced by about 1/3, and with the snacking gone, I've already lost a bit of weight. But it feels easy - there is no inner battle, anxiety, meticulous planning of meals etc... I was worried starting this that it would impact my energy levels with my blood sugar tanking during the day, but I haven't had that at all - if anything the post meal crash has gone.

All this is to say that the battle against food noise is real - your body is literally fighting your brain's desire to eat well and avoid snacks by flooding you with hormones. It's not fair, it's not fun, and it's not equal for everyone.

I wonder where bitters tie into this?

Here is a good article: https://www.herbcraft.org/writings/bitters

And there’s also an old thread here. https://permies.com/t/152964/Daily-Digestive-Bitters-DDB-Formula

I was feeling nauseous at one point and tasted some turtlehead to investigate their medicinal properties. Fortunately they were a lovely bitter and so I ate some more and stopped feeling nauseous.

All these bitters are a little different too. Different people at different times might like gentian, or dandelion, burdock, turtlehead, calamus, etc.

Thank you M Ljin. From your first link:

Bitters tend to be grounding, helping to strengthen one’s connection to instinct. They help to shift people from intellectual “brain” energy (which looks at things, takes them apart, and sees the pieces) to gut energy (which reacts to things instinctually, independent of intellectual consideration).

So bitters may help to quiet that little voice that says I need something (when I don't). Definitely worth me investigating further....

Hopefully!

I wrote this above:

Often stress also decreases appetite at the same time as making you tired (like the stress of closing up the shop). A healthy appetite wants a bowl of beans and vegetables, something flavorful, good and dense with nutrition… a poor stressed appetite wants little snacks and sugary things and not too much of any of it at a time—because it wants fast, easily accessible energy for dealing with threats.

And wanted to elaborate by mentioning that so many of the cold bitters (such as water-horehound, turtlehead, motherwort, lettuce, etc., as opposed to warming bitters: calamus, burdock, conifers, etc.) are sedative in some way. Not sedative like a sleeping pill, but relaxing. I felt this while nibbling on the turtlehead leaves—it felt very peaceful sitting out in the thicket with the plant. My appetite changed for the better and I had a desire for a healthy soup—I made a little from acorns and vegetables. I also notice that bitters seem to increase the desire for water as opposed to snacks.

So it seems like there is this whole systemic workings of bitters, stress, and appetite. A stressed out person can’t tolerate bitter flavors—not because the bitters make them stressed, but because tasting the bitter means facing the limits to their ability to control the world, releasing control, accepting the present moment, and beginning to digest.