Flying on the concord

[roadrunnertwice]

I get this mysterious nutritional deficiency sometimes. This started in Cork, and it's popped up a few times since, and I'm not quite sure exactly what it is that I'm missing. But sometimes, I just get really distracted and fretful for long periods, with an accompanying case of the gnawing munchies. (In particular, I can't seem to keep raisins in the house.) It always takes me a while to notice it, too.

Anyway, the food that reliably contains whatever it is that I'm missing—the thing that'll make that irritating distracted/hungry state finally go away—turns out to be grape juice. The stainy purple stuff. I kind of have to remind myself to breathe when I'm chugging down my first cup after a long dry spell. Once I've had my fill of the stuff, I generally feel calm and full, and I tend to eat a lot less for the next day or three.

My diet's generally pretty balanced; I've got a really good mix of veggies, grains, and legumes, and I take my B vitamins. The one thing I tend to neglect a little bit is fruit, since it's kind of expensive, but there are always some raisins or a bottle of lemon juice or something hanging around, so I'm not some kind of scurvy risk case. Does anyone know what I could be needing that mostly comes from grape juice?

Regardless, I should probably just be smart about this and make sure there's always a can of concentrate sitting in the freezer.

Comments

[1251isthetime.livejournal.com]

I wish that when I had cravings is was for grape juice and raisins rather than cookies and chocolates.

My little mind can't answer your grape juice question unfortunately.

[roadrunnertwice]

Whoa, I asked Google, and it looks like maybe my brain hungers for proanthocyanidins? Or something. At least that makes the whole "distracted and fidgety without grape juice" thing slightly less creepy.

[froborr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, nutritional defects are weird. When I first started my job, I took to drinking a bottle of Coke every afternoon, then after a couple of weeks I stopped, and found myself getting dizzy and tired every afternoon. I thought I was developing a caffeine addiction, so I cut all caffeine from my diet, but instead of fading with time it got worse. Eventually, it turned out I had a salt deficiency -- Coke has 300+ mg per serving. So I switched my breakfast cereal out for pretzels, and I'm fine.

Anyway, cool you figured out what it was, and great subject line. ;-)

[roadrunnertwice]

Haha, thank you!

And eugh, I hear salt deficiencies are murderous. Glad you caught that in time.

[froborr.livejournal.com]

You may be thinking of iodine deficiency, which causes your glands to swell up into goiters, and which has been almost completely eliminated in the First World by adding iodine to salt. Salt deficiency can make you very sick, after a very, very long time, by ruining your kidneys, but mostly it makes you dizzy and unable to retain any water, so you're always dehydrated. Unless it's just that I had a very mild one, I don't really know much about it.

But yeah, my family simply didn't put anything like salt or butter on the table when I was a kid, so I never really add them to my food. Couple that with getting into the habit of drinking 3-5 liters of water a day (which I got into because it helped with a medical condition that has since been cured), and it's amazing I never developed a salt shortage before.

[roadrunnertwice]

Hmm, I think I was thinking of electrolyte shortages, and wasn't quite sure how that lined up with salt deficiency. As in, that's what'll make you pass out and die in the desert?

Probably not at work, though!

[itastelikelove.livejournal.com]

apparently mild cases of scurvy are actually common among college students. not like teeth falling out and open sores and stuff...just good ol' malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. another thing that gets my munchies down is avocado. it's a bit expensive here, but in costa rica i had the munchies for like two months straight, until i started eating avocado sandwiches for lunch every day. maybe i was lacking fats in my rice-beans-and-veggies diet, or maybe it has something like grapejuice. on a divergent note of slightly fewer degrees than a tangent...someone once told me that a person could live on nothing but avocados and water for a full two years or something, albeit with some definite vitamin deficiencies. the Resplendant Quetzal, which takes its name from the mayan god Quetzalcoatl and lives in some of the highest places in central america, eats only wild avocados. also, despite being a masculine noun in spanish, a half avocado with the pit removed is one of the most vaginal (what is the female equivalent of 'phallic' anyway? i know there's a better word...) fruits ever (right behind a half papaya...as if the taste alone weren't sexy enough...).

in summary: avocados are totally the food of the gods. or goddesses, whichever.

[itastelikelove.livejournal.com]

also, is it just pure coincidence, or is your listening to "the current" symbolic of your deep jonesing for raisins?

[roadrunnertwice]

You need to stop projecting your foul puns onto innocent people! I thought nothing of the sort.