Salty and sweet taste, control your diet and don't eat too much

Text/Natsume Saiko (Japanese writer)

★Salty

The combination of sweet and salty tastes can further enhance our sense of satisfaction. In the Eastern philosophy of diet and health, sugar represents the negative force that relaxes the body, while salt represents the positive force that makes the body tense. Good health is based on the balance and harmony of the negative and positive forces.

For those who feel like something is missing even after eating a lot of rice, adding some sweet and salty foods will help them stop eating when they have eaten the right amount.

Examples of this type of food include: sesame salt made with natural salt; shiso leaves pickled with plums; seasoning that is dried and ground into powder and can be used as a side dish for rice; mushrooms stewed in soy sauce; salted seaweed; pickles such as plums; spiced vegetables pickled in miso; kelp stewed in soy sauce and sugar, etc.

Sour taste

Although infants and young children like the three taste sensations of sweetness, saltiness and umami, they are not very accepting of sourness and bitterness. This is because sour and bitter tastes represent danger signals that remind us of decay and poison, respectively.

However, foods with a strong "sour taste that is not caused by spoilage" or "bitter taste that is not caused by poison" have a powerful effect like medicine in helping us adjust our body condition. They all contain substances that aid digestion, which is a common feature of this type of food.

During pregnancy, many people want to eat sour food for no reason. This is because the body is seeking the unique effect of sour food to adjust the body's state. In contrast, if a person usually likes sour food and consumes it sufficiently, he or she will want to eat bitter food during pregnancy.

Citric acid, the basic substance that produces sour taste, has the effect of decomposing fatigue substances in the human body. Generally speaking, we tend to crave sweets when we are tired, but if you encounter this situation, please try replacing sweets with sour foods.

While physical fatigue is being metabolized, the craving for sweets will also be relieved. For those who cannot stop eating sweets as a stress reliever after work, it is recommended to carry small bags of plums that can be easily taken out and eaten.

In fact, when we cannot stop eating large amounts of desserts after a meal, eating foods with a strong sour or bitter taste can help us stop our appetite for sweets. Bitter foods often help promote digestion and detoxification.

Recommended sour foods

• Dried plums (especially those with a strong sour taste, pickled with shiso)

• Pickle

• Vinegar salad

• Vinegar-pickled foods

• Sushi Rice

• Lemon juice (can be drizzled on fried foods)

• Plum juice, plum pulp, etc.

Recommended bitter foods

• Ginger (pickled ginger can absorb both sourness and bitterness)

• Onions

• Grated white radish

• Shredded Cabbage

This article is provided by Kate Culture Publishing House and excerpted from [Eat if you want! [Appetite slimming method that allows you to eat as much as you want without worrying about getting fat]