In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert, "I am a better person when I have less on my plate."

We are now half way through September.  Pumpkins and apples are filling supermarket shelves, leaves are beginning to turn on us in the north, busses are clogging the streets and evenings are coming closer to the dawn of the day.  Sweater weather is just around the corner for fall is ten days away.

I don't know about you, but fall is my favorite season; not only because of warm socks, cool air and beautiful sunsets, but because of the food~  Apple pie, pumpkin bread, roast squash and sweet potatoes, onion soup, garlic and sausage pasta, corn chowder, lasagna, sage roast chicken, rosemary roast pork, beef wellington, baked fish over wild rice, turkey with all the fixin's... warm, aromatic, sweet and savory foods that nourish the body and the soul.  Can a food be better received by the body if we feel love for the food we eat?

Let's go back to stress for a minute.  Stress, as you recall, is a reaction that happens within the brain; a reaction do danger or threat; a total body response committed to 'fight or flight'.  The brain tells the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline which spikes heart rate, increases blood pressure, and spikes blood sugar.  The hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland to signal the adrenal cortex to produce the stress hormone cortisol which maintains high blood sugar and blood pressure until the brain signals the danger has past or the threat is no longer.   Anyone can become unknowingly addicted to stress because of the rush, the surge of blood sugar and the high from adrenaline.  Ultimately, after the blood sugar surge, blood sugar plummets signaling a ravenous craving for food.

What does that have to do with the nourishment of soul food?  Food that we feel nostalgic about offers the opposite of stress.  Within the pie is a memory of mom rolling out the dough or your younger self splashing sugar on the apples;  a fond connection to the food occurs which produces a plethora of happy hormones; serotonin, phenylethamine and ghrelin to mane a few.  Happy hormones signal hunger, slow the heart rate, reduce pain, clear the mind, and allow us to perceive our surroundings as safe.  The feelings 'safety' and 'content' cause the body to relax, requiring less energy, less fuel, less food.  The memory is nourishing.  Happiness is nourishing.  Safety is nourishing.  If we are nourished by our surroundings and our perception of the world and our connection to it, food becomes less the main course and more the condiment to the meal.  

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” (Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast).  I am sure he remembered to wash his hands.

Anna~