The theory behind the Shangri-La Diet says that food with unfamiliar flavor will be just as unfattening as food with no flavor (such as flavorless oil and sugar water). The Shangri-La Diet mentions using random spice combinations to get unfamiliar flavors.
I do this with smoothies. With smoothies there is no sense of loss — you’re not “ruining” something by randomly flavoring it. In my practice, “adding random spices” (also called crazy-spicing) means adding spices from three or four randomly-chosen spice mixes. It works great. Today I made a smoothie from crushed ice, plain yogurt, an egg, protein powder, powdered fiber, sugar, Splenda, Tabasco Sauce, vinegar, and, as I said, lots of four randomly-chosen spice mixes (Russian Sausage, Poultry Seasoning, etc.). Were I not in the middle of a flaxseed-oil experiment, I would have added flaxseed oil or some other oil. It tasted great.
As Michel Cabanac might say, pleasure is additive. This drink provides pleasure from these properties: creamy, protein, cool, liquid (satisfying thirst), sweet, salty (from the spice mixes), hot (Tabasco Sauce), spicy, sour. Nine sources, more than most food. They add up to a lot. It doesn’t matter that it tastes like nothing and that on a menu, no one would order it.
An hour later I thought: That tasted so good! But I was too full to want more.
I will be blogging more about that egg.
While we’re talking about Seth’s blog » Blog Archive » Crazy-Spiced Smoothies Revisited, Filtered water and organic fruit and greens are best – but again, do the best you can with what you have.