Why We Eat Junk Food & Sugar

Recently I've been thinking a lot about pleasure. Spring just says "pleasure." We have many opportunities to appreciate the cool mornings, warm afternoons, beautiful fragrant flowers, new growth, robin and other bird songs. We also get to enjoy chaotic weather and storms - lightning that lights up the sky in powerful ways, clouds that grow meanacing and dark, rain that beats down with a vengeance. All these things are awe inspiring. The power of nature is something to behold.

Spring invites us to enjoy our senses - sight, smell, taste, touch, sound, and the 6th sense that to me feels like a tea bag steeping. The flavor and body of the tea develops imperceptably. There's an added richness and fullness that's hard to describe. Do we accept the invitation to notice and enjoy spring?

We live such fast-pace lives that we miss many opportunities to enjoy everything around us. Our senses can become numbed because they aren't called upon to hunt, gather, and navigate through the day. We end up being pleasure deficient.

So what do we do? We've come to believe that the fastest way to get pleasure NOW, is to eat something. So we get up from our computers and head to the vending machines looking for a quick pleasure fix to satisfy our senses. A candy bar, soda pop, or something salty can quickly "fix" us.

But fortunately, so can a piece of fresh fruit! Unlike junk food, you truly can experience a piece of fruit with all of your senses - enjoy the color, smell the sweetness fragrance, feel the plumpness, and taste the tart or sweet juices. Refreshing, satisfying, and amazingly good for you.

Next time you need a pleasure rush, eat a piece of fruit--especially fruit that's grown locally because that fruit will be the freshest, sweetest, and most satisfying.