Food and music

Nausea and sour stomach are normal side effects of chemo, but there are some interesting things I’ve noticed about my own eating habits in the recent weeks.

For starters, one moment, something will sound delicious and the next, absolutely disgusting. It changes day to day and the rigmarole could even include my favorite foods.

My taste buds are shot; though a dietician told me that sour generally will taste the same for people, so sucking on lemons before eating a meal will help someone maintain a “normal” palate.

I’m probably not stretching the truth by saying that food and psychology go hand in hand. Why is it watching a commercial on bacon will be tempting to a carnivore and horrifying to a vegetarian? There are moments when the food becomes art and psychology in commercials.

For example, in one heavily mass-produced commercial stereotype, a chocolate chip cookie is broken apart in a close-up oh-so-gently to exploit the gooeyness of the chocolate chips and is given by a mom to her children.

Oh! I get it. Mom made those cookies for her kids. The happy kids are ingesting chocolate chip cookies that are gooey. Since they are happy, gooey cookies must be good. That particular brand’s gooey cookies must be good. And then I want one. And so forth.

My cravings are hardly as direct these days, but I have noticed an interesting phenomenon.

I’m one of those people that attach memories to music (like most people) and if I made a compilation years ago and suddenly put the CD in my car, I’ll remember the exact order of the songs. I refuse to listen to certain songs if the memories are depressing.

Today, I was listening to The Beach Boys, on a lark, because 1) I’m on a Mad Men kick and therefore music from the 60s, 2) The Beach Boys, despite their issues with depravity, have such infectious music, and 3) I’m looking forward to summer.

Here is the weird part: I’m listening to the music and I’m reminded of my childhood in California. Yes, I was a bit of a California kid stereotype: a cute blonde kid with a light golden tan and permanent windburn. While we didn’t live close to the ocean, it was only a few hours away. I then begin associating California with things that did not necessarily occur in my childhood or adulthood visits to the state, for that matter (perhaps all those Sonic commercials?):

Warm sunshine, rollerskating on the boardwalk, milkshakes, grilling on the beach, happy people, sparkly water, the smell of ocean air, sand between the toes, running and splashing into the water with clothes on and shoes off…I’m transported to a happy place.

And here’s the shocking part: I’m hungry. I suddenly begin craving milkshakes and burgers.

Whiskey tango foxtrot?!

For the duration of the morning, I had hardly eaten a thing, pushing some mashed potatoes around in a bowl and consuming a glass of soy milk just so I could take some damn pill and now I’m hungry after listening to The Beach Boys?

I’m blown away at the psychology of it.

Is it because of the association I made between the music and food? Is it the commercialization of food and how its psychology affects our choices?

Further, how the heck can a cancer patient who had no appetite suddenly make a 180 and become hungry after listening to songs that have memories, pseudo and real, attached to them?

I’ll leave that for everyone to ponder.

As they say with the priceless and ageless Tootsie Pop commercial: the world may never know.