Food For Thought with Kat | Instant instincts

Gut intuition, primal instinct, intuitive eating — have we lost these innate skills and these abilities when it comes to eating? We no longer need to dedicate our entire day to growing, reaping and processing our own food as they did in the pioneer days (thank goodness, since my thumb is anything but green). The world seems to be spinning faster and we are all so very busy, but in all the hustle and bustle, we seem to have lost one of our most basic instincts of all: how to nourish ourselves. Living in a fast-paced world where most things can either be sent or delivered to us within a few moments or few days’ notice, it seems as though our survival instincts have dwindled beyond repair.

We depend on others for survival so much so that we have become vulnerable. Faced with a missing link in the supply chain, such as the one that COVID provided, and our lack is proven. Many of us don’t have the capacity to obtain all of the items on which we have come to rely without the help of others (thank you, farmers and transporters!).



During a quick trip to the supermarket just the other day, my mom loaded her dog in the car and left the windows down slightly for air while she dashed into the store. Another dash into the post office and one more to the town recycling center and my mom returned home..

..to an empty car and no pooch.

A 24-hour search ensued. Flyers were plastered locally and Facebook shares alerted friends and strangers alike to the fact that this little 40-pound dog, just over a year old — was on her own in the freezing cold. “She’ll make her way home,” people promised me.

She was miles from home, but surely she could find her way, right? At 4:30 a.m. Pacific time, the calls started.

They had seen her by a road not too far from home. Another sighting even closer to home ..

. the calls kept coming, indicating that she was, in fact, making her way home. But by the time my mom found her, a day after she had jumped out of the car window, she had returned to almost exactly where she thinks the dog had exited the car: the town dump.

She had turned around and was going the opposite direction from home! Regardless of her instincts (or lack thereof), she is home and safe and I am eternally grateful to Sally Winchester who was the best search partner to my mom, and a town full of wonderful people who called and sent messages, trying to help bring her home. Maybe it’s a fluke that Sabrina didn’t get where she was heading and turned around, but it seems that many of us have lost our way when it comes to eating. Have we forgotten how to make food choices? We know that, as babies, we are naturally drawn to sweeter foods, an instinct that makes sense, since human breast milk is fairly sweet, or so I’m told.

As we get older, we naturally age out of these sweet preferences in favor of more savory tastes (or are supposed to, anyhow). It also makes sense that we, as humans, are drawn to more calorie-dense foods, those that contain higher levels of fat and sugar. When food wasn’t so prolifically available, we had to make our meals count.

Rather than counting calories and fat macros, we sought out foods that would keep us going for longer, and would aid our life-saving fat stores. In a land littered with an abundance of calorie-dense (yet not nutrient-dense) foods, we still choose foods that pack a caloric punch, even when we don’t need to. So, is it a primal instinct to grab for the Big Mac over the kale salad? Perhaps.

There are several factors working together here: the food industry’s successful attempts to get us addicted to their fare, and our instinct to seek out the more calorically rich foods. I like to think that our body will tell us what we need to know if we would just listen. Most alerts that our body sends out mean something.

Thirsty? We might be dehydrated. Crave salt? Perhaps we need salt or other electrolytes. Tired? We need sleep! In a study years ago, a group of sheep were made devoid of phosphorus.

They were then offered food in two flavors: coconut and maple, one of which was fortified with phosphorus. The sheep gravitated to the flavor that was laced with phosphorus. To maintain that it wasn’t just beginners’ luck, or a preference for coconut flavored food, the phosphorus was switched to the alternate flavor.

Guess what? The sheep switched to the flavor that now contained the nutrient they needed! They instinctively sought out the nutrient they so desperately needed! Humans may well be similar, but most of us live in too much noise to know. We have supplements and drinks that cover up the fact we are perpetually sleep-deprived. We have medications that cover up symptoms.

Heck, we even have shots that cover up the fact that we are aging! What would happen if we took the time to actually listen to our bods? Perhaps it’s partly because these manufactured foods are driving our instincts off the cliff. Food textures can control our palette. Combos of fat, sugar and salt can drive our cravings.

Even crunch intensity is a tool in the food companies’ arsenal. The crunchier the chip, the fresher we think it is (the same could be said for apples, but who’s eating apples nowadays?) What can we do? It’s amazing how much we can get away with when we are moderate most of the time. Dinners out and some Halloween candy are inevitable, at least in a life well-lived.

Thanksgiving is coming up and as I told one very surprised client the other day, “Don’t skip the pie ...

just make sure it’s a good one!” Try these tips for getting your intuition back when it comes to eating. It never ceases to amaze me when I see people plug their kids into a screen at dinner. We see it with adults at restaurants as well.

We eat more when we are on screens or doing something other than eating when we eat. Focusing on the task at hand during a meal may seem counterintuitive, but it will leave us having eaten the perfect amount for our hunger levels. We may eat more slowly when we focus on what we are doing.

It takes 20 minutes to register that we feel full (something to do with messages between the brain and gut), so eat slowly enough to take up that 20 minutes or we may find ourselves overly full. Take a minute before reaching for seconds. If we actually survey our body, we may realize that we are no longer hungry in our bellies.

“Are you hungry in your belly or in your mind?” my husband asked our 4-year-old. “Ummmm. In my mind!” he chirped.

This makes sense to me, since I still have to ask myself where my hunger comes from. Stress-eating may be unavoidable, but one thing that helps dispel it is knowing why we’re eating. I prefer eating on small plates with a small fork.

Forks today facilitate some major heavy lifting – have you seen how big they’ve gotten? Fork size aside, making sure we have lots of stuff to fill us up including protein, fibrous grains and veggies in addition to a healthy fat like omega-3s or olive oil helps satiate us. It also helps keep us full longer. I ask all my clients to journal, not only because it helps me to get an idea of what they’re eating, but because it holds us accountable for the food we put in our body.

If you are experiencing a health symptom or food allergy, a food journal can also serve as a roadmap to help connect the symptoms to the foods you choose. Knowing that you’re going to have to write down that Big Mac later just might help sponsor better choices. This tofu parm may be fried, but steering clear of additives, dough conditioners and inflammatory oils like those used in fried foods at fast food chains and restaurants alike makes all the difference.

Tuning out most of the noise (or ultra-processed foods) works wonders. Our instincts just might return, if we let them. 1 block tofu, excess water squeezed out White flour Italian seasoning Salt Pepper 2 eggs beaten 1 to 11⁄2 cup Panko bread crumbs Avocado oil Marinara sauce, prepared Shredded mozzarella Parmesan, grated or shredded Cut tofu into three sheets widthwise, and then diagonally so you have 6 large, thin triangles.

Heat cast iron or nonstick pan. Dredge tofu triangles through flour and then egg, finishing with panko breading. Add oil to pan, heat.

Add tofu, frying on both sides until crispy and golden. Remove and place on rack, topping with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes until cheese is melted.

Then add Parmesan and broil for another 30 to 60 seconds or until golden brown. Serve over your favorite pasta or spaghetti squash!.