The Great Swedish Fish Suckers Experiment: How To Savor Food To Discover Taste Preferences and Elicit Memories

Yesterday at 6:30 p.m., after graduating from my Second Master Practitioner Program Level Series in NLP, I was in the Manhattan Port of Authority getting ready to board my bus for the long trip home. Overcome by pangs of hunger, I jumped into Au Bon Pain and purchased a small portion of Southwestern Vegetable Soup and ate 1/2 a whole grain breadstick with some Smart Beat butter spread on it.

After finishing my snack, I noticed that I was still hungry. As I ascended the escalator, The Sweet Shoppe Candy Store caught my eye and I decided to stop in and try some of their goodies. I perused each of the candy bins, imagining tasting each of the candy and confectionary delights, one at a time. After walking around each of the bins for a few minutes, I filled a small bag with several samples of different candies.

Among them 1 of each dark and milk chocolate covered almonds, 4 chocolate covered raspberry jellies, a few tangerine jelly beans, a couple of candy corns and about 6 different big fat red juicy swedish fish. I also got a bag of candy coated peanuts known as Boston Baked Beans for my husband, Angel. I paid for my purchases and left, heading for the bus depot.

As I rode the escalator, I opened the bag and pulled out the one dark chocolate covered almond. I popped it in my mouth and slowly savored the melting rich dark chocolaty goodness. It was delightful. That gave me an idea.

I decided to do an experiment in seeing how small a bite I could take and still maintain a high satisfaction threshold.

The Great Swedish Fish Suckers' Experiment

As I stood on the platform, I reached into the bag again and pulled out one of the Swedish Fish.

I took a ¼” bite off of my Swedish Fish. As soon as it hit my tongue, I was struck by its spicy, chemical like flavor, it also tasted a bit like the inside of a box, not too pleasant I noted.

Deciding to give it a fair chance, I looked up at the clock and challenged myself to keep that little mini morsel in my mouth for a full five minutes.

After slowly moving the rubbery little morsel from my left check to my right and toying with it on different parts of my tongue, I anxiously checked the time. Only one minute had passed. I resolved to keep to my challenge of the full five minutes and turned away from the clock, re-focusing on the morsel.

The flavor began to change. It seemed that there were several layers of flavors encapsulated in this little bit of candy.

Moving my attention away from the clock, I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on the metamorphosis occuring in my mouth. To my surprise, I recognized a familiar flavor as it came to my memory.

It was the taste of Luden’s Cherry Cough Drops, a real blast from the past. As that memory came to light, my gradually diminishing morsel of Swedish Fish was beginning to explode with a rich full bodied taste of cherry goodness as memories of my Grammy flooded my brain. All of a sudden I was transported back  to a time when I was a young girl staying at my Grammy's house for the weekend. I had a bit of a cough and a cold. Grammy always had Luden's cough drops on hand to soothe me when I was sick.

After that brief memory was savored and began to dissipate, the taste of the fish began to annoy me. I wanted to get it out of my mouth. It seemed to have become irritatingly rubbery and the flavor of the cherry was now piercing and overwhelmingly sweet.

I also noticed that I felt that I had eaten a 10 pound bag of the candy. I was amazed to notice that I actually felt overstuffed.

In reality I had only eaten a light meal of soup and a breadstick and a ¼" piece of a Swedish Fish.
The clock stuck the end of my five minute experiment as the last of my fish dissolved down my throat.

You may ask yourself why would anyone want to do such a silly thing?

I did it, because in the past I’ve always loved Swedish Fish candy. I could never get enough of them, popping them into my mouth and chewing on them wildly and voraciously.

I suppose you could say it was like an addiction. I’ve had that relationship with many foods for many years. Thanks to Intuitive Eating and Emotional Freedom Technique I can say that is now very much in my past.

Here’s the reason why I did this and shared it with you.

The big takeaway here was that I noticed that it wasn’t the food that was appealing. It was the memory of it. Sure there were bursts of yummy cherry goodness embedded in the experience but that is not what held me captivated. It was the memories attached to it.

When I took the time to slow down, really slow down and pay attention to my response to the food, I became aware of flavor nuances that I never knew existed, some wonderful, some irritating. 

This was a fascinating experiment. I think the most exciting thing that I noticed was that when I allowed that candy to slowly dissolve in my mouth instead of chomping away at it, my body registered an incredible degree of satisfaction and fullness. By the time that I boarded that bus after dissolving that candy in my mouth for 5 minutes, I felt as though I had eaten a full Thanksgiving meal. After I registered that fullness, I also remembered doing this same experiment once with a pretzel nugget. My assumption is that the reason for the sense of fullness is due to the increased saliva production. Anyway no matter what the reason, I was super satisfied after having that one piece of candy or pretzel.

If you are intrigued by this experiment and want more ways of being able to reclaim your power over all foods and make peace with yourself around eating, then you may want to join my next Losing Weight without Dieting Program. In the new upcoming program session series beginning April 17, you will learn to eat what you love and lose weight slowly and naturally. It's a great opportunity to challenge some of your old beliefs around food and your body.

How about you? Are you up for The Great Swedish Fish Suckers' Experiment? Ready to challenge yourself with food? I invite you to take a new look at some old faves. Choose a candy, snack food or confection that you have binged on in the past. Take a small bite of it and just let it slowly melt in your mouth. I used 5 minutes as my benchmark. You adjust this as you see fit.

Let me know how it works for you. Leave me a comment and tell me all about your experience.

Comments

[jewel]

dear andrea, wow! that blog on sweedish fish was very interesting. i found the same experience. they do taste chemically. i can't tell you how much you have helped me! you are just soooo wonderful. the time you take to really look at food and they what and whys of it. i hope you have writen a book. i'd love to buy it. thanks, please let me know if i can help you. sincerely, jewel