Northern Apex

You know, I couldn't really blog about this until I had a good handle on it. I guess it's no secret that food is my weakness - "Hi, my name is Steve, and I'm a cheese-o-holic". When I'm stressed or bored or unhappy, I eat too much. I cope with stress with food. Did you know the book that Overeaters Anonymous uses is the same blue book that AA uses? There is a reason for that - food, people, is a drug.

I think everyone has experienced what I'm talking about at some point in their lives, at least briefly. Everyone has their comfort foods, I'm sure. Do you know there have been times in my life I wished I drank to handle stress instead of ate? What I'm really curious about is the physiological effect of food on the human brain. Food can have some enormously powerful effects - chili for instance, eaten before bedtime, always makes me have amazing dreams, often involving my Mom. A little over a week ago, on a Friday night, I was in Walmart picking up a chamois cloth. I went through the food section and grabbed a can of chili - I can't remember the brand. I say I have a handle on this because I think the link between stress and eating is broken for me now because I'm eating really sparingly the past 2 months and even when I do stress eat, it is pretty minor.

Anyways, I ate this can of chili and dreamt all night of my Mom - and for that 7 hours, she was alive again. I really have no experience with drugs but I'm quite sure there is nothing out there that can make me as happy as I was waking up from that night's sleep . . . Heaven in a can of chili, that's powerful stuff. This is not unusual for me, and it is always something that has beans in it - like chili or a burrito. I've been researching on what causes this, and have found I am certainly not unique - there are even websites that tell you what to eat to achieve a particular dream - but I haven't seen anything about a bean/lost loved one connection. Does anyone else out there have a story about how food affected their dreams?