Over the last few months, I have virtually totally lost my sweet tooth. This also happened to my mother when she was in her thirties, and I could never understand it--how could you not want dessert? Now, suddenly, I'm just not interested. I'm not revolted, or anything; I'd just rather fill up on dinner.
Something that didn't happen to my mother is that I'm also losing my taste for processed carbohydrates; I've virtually stopped eating bread, and pasta and rice are falling farther and farther down the menu.
Of course, I should be thrilled--my body is naturally demanding one of those healthy diets I keep reading about. Except . . . there's something a trifle sad about never even wanting what used to be the best part of the meal.
Megan, you might want to ask your doc to check your glucosylated haemoglobin, ie, the proportion of the haemoglobin that has bound with glucose, a measure of your average blood sugar. What you're describing is more or less exactly the diet one would adopt to reduce wild swings in the blood sugar, say in type 2 diabetes mellitus. (The test is the HbA1c test.)
It sounds just possible that your body is adapting to less insulin sensitivity by reducing the urge to eat the things that would make your blood sugar swing. If so, which would be suggested by a higher-end A1c, you may be one of the people who has the gene (or gene complex) that those of us who have to adopt such a diet consciously apparently don't have.
I'm conscious of this recently because I have made the change after a borderline A1c (normal is <5.9 pct, mine is 6.2 pct, and pathology is assumed at >7.0 pct). After a few days, the missing foods weren't a problem; but in 5 months, I've lost around 38 lbs, or about 15 pct of my starting body weight.
One other thing: I recommend Gary Taubes book Good Calories, Bad Calories, which reviews a lot of the past literature on such topics.
RE: prior comment. I'm a type 1 diabetic and losing 38 pounds in five months (unless you were dieting strictly) along with an A1C of 6.2 sounds pretty much like diabetes. That's a lot of weight loss - over a pound a week. I assume whoever ordered your blood tests is aware of your weight loss. I'm not trying to be an amature doctor here.
Megan,
I have 32 sweet teeth. If you are really missing yours, perhaps I could become a sweet tooth donor. I doubt I would miss just one.
I understand about bread and pasta, but why is rice a "processed carbohydrate?"
MM wrote: Over the last few months, I have virtually totally lost my sweet tooth. This also happened to my mother when she was in her thirties
I am just a couple years younger than you and I've noticed that I often enjoy dinner more than desert these days. But the sweet tooth didn't vanish, it just responds to a narrower range of incentives, and I still enjoy a wide range of carboyhdrates.
I'd follow up on the blood-test advice, personally. It's possible your tastes are only going through a mid-life maturation but it wouldn't hurt to see if they need a bit more attention.
You didn't mention donuts. I do not buy donuts because I don't walk into donut stores, but if I am in a conference room and somebody wheels in a tray of donuts, I find them almost impossible to resist, whatever my interest in other foods, processed carbs or otherwise.
So, do you still enjoy a good donut?
I used to be a cereal and pasta junkie. Now I crave healthy fats - organic eggs, grass fed beef, my hemp milk/almond milk/kefir combo, coconut oil and olive oil. I suppose this is the result of getting into the habit, but it is a very satisfying diet regimine.
I never liked donuts, so I can't say I've noticed a change . . .
Quit drinking. Ever wonder why they serve so many cookies at AA meetings? Once you stop drinking, your taste for sweets will return. Sorry that the same thing happened to your mother; probably genetic.
Losing a sweet tooth is fine, as is giving up any other food you like. This is America, where anyone should feel free to experiment with any diet they like provided they don't spend all hours of the day telling everyone around them that what they're eating is poison in disguise.
When I got my first job I discovered that my colleagues, unlike my college buddies, did not want to go out for hot Thai or Indian food every night. They warned me that soon enough I would suffer from these things the next day, too. And indeed, I can feel stomach and digestive trouble from excessive heat now.
I can't even eat much sugar anymore because it upsets my stomach reliably. If I'm exercising I can get away with it, but otherwise I have to pay heavily for dessert.
Now I watch my children gobble piles of candy and I warn them they won't feel good afterwards. Of course, I'm wrong. Their fast burning little metabolisms can handle it. I'd feel bad, but they should just go ahead and enjoy it while they can.
It just happens as you get older. Your taste buds change too. That's why adults like bitter things like beer and sulfury things like brussels sprouts, asparagus, and cabbage much more than children do. Heck, I even like gin now.
Gene--rice is considered a "processed carbohydrate" because of the milling stripping off the outside, is my guess.
Think "brown" rice vs. white rice.
Doug, thanks for the thought; it's being watched pretty closely. The weight loss started after I adopted a low glycemic index diet; it's on purpose. Amazing change in my mood and energy level too.
Gene, the "processed" thing is primarily important because the greater the degree of processing, the faster your body can absorb it. One measure of this is glycemic index; white rice has a very high glycemic idnex.
I'm 45, and I can't say that I've lost mine. Wonderful stuff, dessert.
But it's also true that I've adapted much more to bitter tastes than when I was younger. I remember my parents putting out "Euphrates" brand sesame crackers when I was a kid, and trying one. It seemed to be gaggingly, throat-constrictingly flat-tasting, bitter, and dry, like a thin disk of compressed dirt. Now that sort of thing tastes just fine.
My father could only cook with the hottest of hot peppers when I was young. He was a really terrible cook. From 8 'til ~28, I wasn't a fan of spicy food. I'm getting a taste for it now (I'm 31), but maybe it was a mental thing.
My theory with bitter foods rests mostly on I now associate the bitter taste with good things (drinking alcohol and coffee), rather than bad things (mom forcing me to eat spinach). Anyone else feel the same way?
I also became far less picky in my teenage years when I started playing football and I needed to consume huge amounts of calories a day. I then became even less picky during college when I was forced to eat things because I was hungry and that was the only choice.
About a year ago I realized I dislike anything with corn syrup in it. Aftertaste is a big factor for my like/dislike of any food, and things with corn syrup have a kind of warm, insipid aftertaste that lingers. First I dropped fruit juice with corn syrup, then cookies with it, then pasta sauce and store-made bread, and now everything. I don't know if it's healthier, but I enjoy sweets more with the normal sugar.
I think corn syrup has a higher specific heat than other sugars, which might explain why drinks with cane sugar taste cooler than drinks with corn syrup.
Here's another diet idea: I love those classic Pepperidge Farm cookies in the upright bags, especially mint milanos; so I keep several bags of those around, and allow myself to eat as many as I want. They're so rich that one or two will satisfy my craving, and I'm never tempted to splurge. And again, no corn syrup in them.
Megan, is it the boringness of modern desserts?
I find myself uninterested in the typical dessert spread at the restaurants I go to. (Maybe I need new ones.) The tiramisu, chocolate MOAB, apple crisp and raspberry-drizzled cheesecake are just not getting it done.
Slightly off-topic, but with regard to lampwick's comment, does anybody with a chem/nutrition background know how different high-fructose corn syrup really is from sucrose (table sugar)?
As I understand it, sucrose is a glucose + fructose molecule bonded by dehydration synthesis; HFCS is free-standing glucose + fructose molecules in the same proportion. I understand that sweetness is inverse to the length of the chain, but is there really that much of a difference between 1 and 2 sugars? Is it metabolized that much faster? On the margins, how much difference does that make vs. the total sugar content?
Sounds like your having a St. Augustine moment. "Lord, let me refrain from sweets, but not yet."
MM -- didn't you recently profess you love of a particular kind of pasta? I seem to recall something along the lines of "they can pry my semolina from my cold, dead hands," but a spin through the archives reveals nothing. Perhaps I have you confused with some other blogger...
Chemist here, Ind. George, PhD using carbohydrates as starting materials for natural products synthesis. You're pretty much on target about the chemical composition. Sucrose is broken down into one molecule each of fructose and glucose - this happens in the gut, but acid conditions (such as inside a bottle of cola) cause the reaction to happen on standing. The rate depends on the time and temperature.
Sweetness is a much more complicated phenomenon. The simple chain-length correlation is broadly true, since the chemosensors in our tongues are biased toward the monosaccharides. But there are a lot of stereoisomers (molecular shapes) possible with sugars, even the monosaccharides, and they vary widely in perceived sweetness. Disaccharides are even more complex, since you have all the isomers of the two individual sugars, plus a wide range of theoretically possible linking arrangements. (In nature, though, only a few of these are common).
As for Lampwick's theory, I haven't been able to find the heat capacity values for equivalent solutions of sucrose and fructose/glucose mixtures, but I'd be very surprised if they were different enough to cause different sensations on the tongue for that reason alone. OTOH, I think it's quite possible that the two have somewhat different tastes and effects on other tastes, although I'd expect perception of those to vary widely between individuals.
I've gone back and forth about the idea that HFCS is a causative factor for obesity and diabetes, but currently I think that if we collectively consumed as much cane sugar, that'd we'd be in equivalent (bad) shape. It's worth noting, as an aside, that Good, All-Natural honey is very, very similar to the 55/45 HFCS mix used in soft drinks.
"I could never understand it--how could you not want dessert? ...I'd just rather fill up on dinner.
"
In your case, since it's a change, it makes sense to wonder, but let me assure you, some of us have always been like this.
Ms. McArdle,
I do hope everything is okay. You might want to mention this to your doctor at your next check-up. It's probably nothing, but there's no harm in checking.
As to the transition in food tastes, I recently saw something about it. People generally lose thousands of taste buds at certain periods in their life. The result is that bitter is less pronounced, sweet is less appealing, etc. There's actually a physiological change that leads to "adult" tastes versus "children's" tastes.
Two words - dark chocolate.
Those Euros really know how to get it done.
After having lived in Europe when I was younger and then returned recently for a few busienss trips I can't stand this sickeningly sweet crap for American kids that has more sugar and oil than actual chocolate in it...blah.
I don't know many adults who like the extremely sweet things that children like. Grown-up desserts tend to have more sophisticated flavor combinations, often including fruit, cheese, nuts, and alcohol. The cakey part is also a less prominent part of the whole, so that means less flour.
Late 20s or 30s seems like about the right time for the shift. It didn't happen to me all at once, but it definitely happened.
As a kid, I hated dark chocolate. Now it is my preference. Milk chocolate is just too sweet.
To me, chocolate is very bitter. Anyone else have this experience? I have to add cream and sugar to Swiss Miss to make the hot chocolate palatable.
I recently quit drinking (after 20 years as a solid drunk) and suddenly have regained my sweet tooth! I suppose I'm trying to replace all of the sugars I got from vodka and beer. Better for me, I suppose, but i'd better not wander too far from my sobriety or my gym. Begs the question: T'is it better to be thin and drunk or fat and sober?
Luke wrote: T'is it better to be thin and drunk or fat and sober?
Would depend, I suppose, on whether your liver or your heart is the organ you hate more. Albeit I expect cirhossis would be far more unpleasant than the heart attack.
I don't drink alcohol or coffee, so I can't speak to that explanation, but I definitely agree with the digestive aspects of souring on sweets. I'm not sure whether it's age or dietary changes (made because I was obese), but now that I'm at a healthy weight, all the sudden my stomach doesn't like sweets. I can't really eat cake anymore at all (especially icing, yuck); cookies are okay due to the bread-iness, but two is my max now. And I more strongly prefer semi-sweet to richer chocolates.
I do like natural sweets (orange juice, strawberries, grapes, etc.) a lot more than I used to, and I'm the opposite on carbs. I don't eat the processed stuff, but I LOVE whole wheat (or spinach) pasta and the grainiest bread I can find.
Now I don't feel quite so weird as the one who always orders soup or a second appetizer while everyone else is having dessert!
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