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Good morning radiant ones! In Buddhist psychology, craving (Tanha) isn’t about wanting food, money, or attention. It's about "the restless, agitated mind, hard to protect, hard to control” -Dhammapada- looking to soothe a deeper discomfort it doesn’t fully understand. Sometimes, we don’t process emotions- we eat them. Sugar is the taste of love, unmet. The sweet things we reach for in lonely moments are not random. Sugar mimics emotional sweetness: affection, validation, kindness. When love feels absent or unsafe to receive, the body may crave sugar, not because we are weak, but because the heart is hungry. We feed the ache with sweets instead of connection. It is our inability to give love and receive love. Salt is often anger swallowed whole. Those salty chips and crunchy snacks? They match the sharp edge of unspoken rage. Crunching becomes a silent outlet for tension held in the jaw, in the gut, in the heart. The craving is not for salt- it is for release, grounding, control when the world feels too much. And then vinegar and meat- foods rich in ammonia compounds. This is where it gets subtler. These foods can stimulate a kind of restlessness, insatiable drive: more money, more things, more recognition. A chasing mind. Never enough. Just like ammonia agitates the nervous system, this chemistry can mirror our conditioned need to accumulate, to process, to chase validation in external forms- material goods, lottery tickets, luxury, likes, status. We begin to realize: the body gets hooked not just in food- but on the chemicals created by emotions - laced eating.The sugar high, the salt crunch, the ammonia buzz. These aren’t just habits. They are internal spirals. And they can keep us far from the clarity of the present moment. This isn’t a judgement of course but an invitation, to see things as they are. The buddha himself said the real question isn’t “ Should I eat that?’ But “What is happening right now?" What am I really hungry for? What feeling am I trying to avoid? Can I meet this moment with presence instead of punishment? With awareness, we see and can begin the process of change. Pause, and come back to your body. Observe. Breathe. The craving is a teacher, and every bite can be a doorway to deeper truth. Food can be medicine or a mirror to our inner world. Over time, with gentle practice we remember Buddha wise words; “Knowing how much is enough when eating … This is the teaching of the Buddha.” In the Dhammapada and other early texts, the buddha often emphasized mindful consumption, restraint and awareness of the intention behind the eating- not just what is eaten, but how and why. Mindful eating becomes not about deprivation or punishment but meeting the needs that are true. We learn to taste food with gratitude, simple food, and to taste life’s moments - not to escape them, even difficult moments with compassion. In this way, breaking the sugar, salt, ammonia from vinegar or meat habit isn’t about willpower or shame. It is about watching the present moment and feeding our hearts with kindness and not chemicals substitutes. With joy, -Su Co Bao Co
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