Saving the Best for Last
I could tell with one glance what her favorite dinner item was.
I cooked a very simple dinner tonight since my preparation time was broken up by chauffeuring duties for sports practices. Dinner included grilled chicken and potatoes and arugula salad with a lemon dressing. I followed a recipe but the dressing was a little tart, not our favorite item, despite the fact that most of us like arugula. At one point in the dinner, I looked at Annie’s plate and realized that her favorite part of the dinner was the potatoes, since she follows the “save the best for last” method of eating.
So, that observation got me thinking about how often the rest of us follow that philosophy too, and how that could be hurting our diets. How often do we shovel in the healthy stuff so that we can get to dessert? I know kids certainly follow that approach, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many adults do that as well.
I wonder if by delaying gratification, we build up a much greater appetite for the stuff we like, eating more than we would if we ate it first. And do we eat more in general because we feel we should “earn” the dessert?
I just wonder if we ate the part we liked first, and stopped our appetite in its tracks, if we would be satisfied by less of our favorite food item, whether it’s the potatoes or the dessert. And then we could proceed to eat a reasonable portion of the rest. What do you think?
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There are two sides to this. I kind of go along with Annie – eat what you don’t like first and save the best tasting for the end. However, I know people who take that old saying, ‘life is short, eat dessert first!’ very literally! Actually, if you opt for the second option, eat the dessert a full 20 minutes before the meal. It takes about that long for the brain to register satiation and this could really help you to eat less when you sit down to dinner.