Posted by
JPBeal

“She’s like a baby, I’m like a cat
When we’re happy we both get fat…”

“Life in a Nutshell” by the Barenaked Ladies

I fell in love with my wife while we were in college, where the only cooking anybody was doing involved a kettle, a “Mr. Noodles”.  So when we got out from under our student budgets and into wedded matrimony, my better half started taking to the Corningware with reckless abandon. I was shocked! Finding out my beautiful wife was a latent genius in the kitchen was like buying a leather jacket because it made me look like Steve McQueen, only to find the pockets stuffed with fifty dollar bills.

All Those Grandmas from the Old Country weren’t just whistling Dixie when they said “The Way to a Man’s Heart is Through His Stomach,” but we could very well be staring down a chicken-and-egg dilemma. If being in love makes you want to eat better (hence, cook nicer things to eat), then the undeniable euphoria of eating good food could cause you to love more.  You’re walking into a loop of loving, cooking and eating that usually  ends in you moving up a waist size, and if you’re lucky, being too happy to care!

Food and love go together like British people and bad TV, and it’s never stronger than during that wonderful “first love” stage.  Can you remember sharing bits of your meal in a restaurant, feeding each other in public?  Beautiful yes, but now that I’ve been married for 8 years, if I went anywhere near her plate I’d have a fork sticking out of my wrist.

Dr. James Walton (thelatherapist.blogspot.ca) has a few terrific thoughts on eating and amoré. Generally he believes that love and the security and happiness that come with it, are very, very good for you, even if you’ve put on a few pounds cuddling in front of the TV.  “When we are truly in love, we may actually glimpse ourselves as being loveable and worthy of love.  This does make us more accepting our bodies and ourselves, as well as, accepting of others.  As a result, we treat our bodies and ourselves better.”

That makes good sense to me, though it can be a double edged sword for the guys as “Men do have a tendency to “Let themselves go” some after marriage.  This is not so true for women”.  Dr. Walton goes on to explain that since women are more emotionally stimulated they can put up with pudgier men, and men, being happy, well, you can see where that leads.

Tokii is taking a week to celebrate the love of, and love with, Food! We’re talking recipes, restaurants and even bringing a plate of strawberries into the bedroom.  So let’s break some bread and pour some wine with the ones we love. Maybe throw in a few oysters, some chocolate for dessert, and see what happens!

If you enjoyed this post, you should check out We Eat To Survive or Do We?