The Maple Syrup Mystery

When I started all of this, a month and a half ago, I bought a bottle of 100% pure maple syrup with high expectations. I wanted to use it as a sweetener and of course for the usual suspects: pancakes and waffles. You see, I love maple flavor and therefore should love maple syrup...so I thought. I tried it the first time on a baked sweet potato. I couldn't even taste it. Hmmm. All I tasted was sweet...no maple. I was disappointed. I had second thoughts. Maybe I was happier with my fakey, butter-flavored, generic jug of syrup...

Yesterday, I made sweet potatoes again (really they are yams, but the word yam just sounds less appealing). I tried maple syrup again, just a drizzle...and...mmmmmmm! I tasted it and it tasted wonderful...so it got me thinking.

Does eating all of the processed alternatives, for instance, "butter-flavored" syrup vs. real maple syrup cause our taste buds to be over-saturated and therefore prefer the bad stuff? I really think that when I used to drink so much pop it deadened my taste buds and I wasn't able to fully taste food the way it should have tasted. Did the overly sugary, acidic soda set a "standard" of sweet that nothing else could compete with? It makes sense to me at least. Maybe that is why I craved sweet SO much before...maybe I wanted to find something to meet that sweet expectation and everything fell short except for candy, chocolate, and pop.

Now that I have been pop-free for almost 2 months I am less driven by sugar. I require less sweet to be satisfied. Fruit is filling that void, and when I need something a little more decadent, I am able to, for the most part, enjoy it in smaller doses. That is a huge hurdle for me! It gives me such hope...maybe someday I WILL like brussel sprouts...haha...or maybe not.

So what do YOU think?