I've noticed that when I eat something with a lot of sugar or salt, especially if it's corn syrup and not regular sugar, then I can't taste other flavors as well for a while. Like, I take a bite of salad and can taste all the different vegetables and the different flavors in the dressing, then I drink some soda, then I take another bite of salad and it now seems really bland. I was just noticing this again this weekend, when I was eating some Thai peanut noodle salad, then had a few fries, and then I went back to the salad and it just tasted like it needed way more salt and oil.

Growing up third world meant no sugar cereal. In fact, it meant no cereal at all, until my mother started making her own muesli. She continued to do this even after we moved to England. I have a very limited range of cereals I like, even of mueslis--mother's own, Alpen, or Sainsbury's home brand. I do snack on sugar cereals from time to time, but I need to dilute them. I can't have a full bowl of one of them--it's at least half and half with Special K.

We usually had Roman Meal or some kind of brown bread, although my sister picked up low tastes from her friends and kept asking for Wonderbread. We always had dessert. My sister liked chocolate or strawberry milk, usually made with Quik, and I avoided milk when at all possible. Otherwise it was orange juice and unsweetened ice tea. I only remember sodas when we were on vacation and got bottles out of a machine, although my mother was also a proponent of ginger ale or 7-Up for any stomach upset.

We had a lot of juice and Kool-Aid as well, and Dunkin Donuts on Sunday mornings after church. Oh, and we *always* had FlufferNutter for sandwiches, either on bread with peanut butter or on Ritz Crackers.

God, we ate like shit. And yet my brother was a rail.

I, um, have Type II diabetes now, but let's not talk about that.

Oh man, I lived on Roman Meal waffles growing up. And that was the bread we mostly had too.

msbelle, excellent going!

chocolate milk, white bread, dessert after dinner, soda. Everyday food or treat food when you were a kid?

Pretty much all treats. Though we did have dessert fairly frequently, if irregularly. Basically only if my mom felt like making something. Often had ice cream in the freezer. Or fro-yo. We'd have breakfast for dinner (waffles! pancakes!) at least once a week. Soda was ginger ale or sprite and pretty much for sickness. I called it nose, because it tickled it. Sugar cereals were camping (because the minipacks had 'em.) By the time my brother hit elementary, it got a lot more lax, so my brother never knew the joy of whole wheat carob cookies. The little shit.

Made milkshakes with frozen bananas and milk a LOT.

I loved going to Kimberly's house because there was bologna on white bread with yellow mustard! And grape jello jigglers! Sunny delight! So gross now.

chocolate milk, white bread, dessert after dinner, soda. Everyday food or treat food when you were a kid?

White bread was everyday. Everything else was treat food. Which meant either I had it at my grandparents' place. For about two years it was everyday food after school, because Mom was in the hospital, Dad was at work, and the nice friend of the family who I went and stayed with after school tried to make up for the fact that my Mom was undergoing chemo by giving me whatever junk food I wanted.

chocolate milk, white bread, dessert after dinner, soda. Everyday food or treat food when you were a kid?

White bread always (Webber's with Snoopy on the wrapper), we could have Quik or Ovaltine in our milk if we wanted, but never, ever soda in the house. I have no idea why though. We very rarely had dessert, if we did it was usually in the summer, peaches (off the tree in the yard) and vanilla ice cream or watermelon. The funny thing is that there was always Ding Dongs or Twinkies in the house because they were in our lunch every day, but we never thought to eat them after dinner. Strange.

My kids get wheat bread only, no flavored milk but we have soda in the house all the time (they have to have it after dinner though)and always ice cream in the freezer.

Badassness (computer Version): Penelope Garcia or Alec Hardison

the chocolate (or other flavor milk) was, a la Tep, to get us to drink it.

What I *loved* about chocolate Quik back in the day (the time period is key*) is that it didn't dissolve very well and there were lumps of slightly damp Quik on the top of the milk (which were NOT at all the same as the totally dry Quik out of the can), which I would scoop off the top of the milk with the mixin' spoon and eat. And then mix in more Quik, since what I skimmed hadn't made it into the milk, so the milk wasn't chocolate enough, and of course mixing more in produced more lumps which I skimmed off the top, and and and.

I have always been a sugar monster.

But there are tons of things I am indifferent too. And aren't really worth eating from a satisfaction level.

This. I still owe Teppy a write-up, but learning to pay attention to this has been so key.

I really am looking forward to it very very much. Because my eating is not what I want it to be (and I don't even mean sugar -- or, at least, not JUST sugar), but I feel like I can't get a handle on it.

*(And the reason the time period -- back in the day -- is key with the Quik lumps is that they changed their formulation in the 90s some time, and now it all dissolves immediately. And yes, I know this because I got Quik at some point in my 30s and was sorely disappointed in the lack of lumps. So now we have Hershey's syrup in the fridge for making chocolate milk. Though mostly The Boy has put it on ice cream and waffles and, once, a bagel. Seriously.)