We all have a favorite food, whether it\u2019s pasta, steak, or something sweet. And yes, it tastes good! But did you know that the foods you enjoy most can also have a big impact on your health?<\/p>\n
Have you ever heard of vitamin P?<\/p>\n
P stands for pleasure foods! Foods that make you happy! Foods that don\u2019t just satisfy your taste buds. They can boost your body and your mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you’re not getting any kind of mental satisfaction, you’re probably not going to be very satisfied with your diet overall. And often that leads to things like sneak eating or binge eating or emotional eating,\u201d said Megan Ware, Registered Dietitian.<\/p>\n
For example, instead of a boring salad, build a power bowl: brown rice, black beans, chicken, guacamole, and salsa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a big difference between that and that boring desk salad. So, I\u2019m going to get pleasure out of eating that lunch,\u201d explained Ware.<\/p>\n
Nuts, seeds, and nut butter also give your brain the healthy fats it craves.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re going to get a lot of satisfaction out of eating something like an apple with cashews versus just having fruit by itself,\u201d said Ware.<\/p>\n
An NIH review of 119 studies found more than half showed a positive link between food enjoyment and healthier diet outcomes. And here\u2019s why: experts say foods you love can activate the brain\u2019s dopamine reward system, making healthy eating more sustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you’re like, you know what, dessert sounds good right now you’re eating it in kind of a controlled environment,\u201d explained Ware.<\/p>\n
While there are many types of diets, remember that enjoying foods you eat can also help your health.<\/p>\n
Experts say there\u2019s a big difference between pleasure eating and emotional eating. Pleasure eating is about enjoying your food. Emotional eating happens when you feel out of control or turn to food for comfort. The bottom line? Finding joy in what you eat can actually be part of a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We all have a favorite food, whether it\u2019s pasta, steak, or something sweet. And yes, it tastes good!…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":361299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[8378,38133,210,25143,8376,1182,2830,101476,25144,67,132,68,101477],"class_list":{"0":"post-361298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-berks","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-lehighvalley","12":"tag-life-lessons","13":"tag-nutrition","14":"tag-pennsylvania","15":"tag-poconos-coal","16":"tag-southeastern-pa","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-western-newjersey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115506335186207735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}