Forget the cake, perimenopause will make you eat the icing
Understanding the link between estrogen, insulin sensitivity and perimenopause
Bakeries would never stay in business if they had to rely on me. For 44 years, I’ve pretty much ignored brownies, cake, cookies, pies and — in my Girl Scout days — “dirt cake.” I would choose a bag of Sour Skittles or a Kit Kat over all of the above. Candy has always been preferred over baked desserts. But when I first became a vegetarian (and a two-time failed vegan) 21 years ago, I would complain about my grandfather only buying dark chocolate candy.
ADVERTISEMENT ~ Amazon
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases with my referral links. I prioritize featuring intriguing products from small businesses, women-owned businesses and Black-owned businesses. All five of my Substack publications include a MINIMUM of one product sold by a VERIFIED Black-owned business.
Out of desperation, I would grudgingly eat the dark chocolate mini Hershey’s no one else wanted in his candy dishes. Then I upped the ante. To my absolute surprise, milk chocolate started tasting too sweet and I ditched my go-to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Krackels and Kit Kats for cacao vegan candy. I lost interest in milk-based hot chocolate and would solely look for plant-based dark hot chocolate instead. My grandfather’s dark chocolate candy tricks did a magic number on me.
Even when I was given a couple of assignments to write about why Dubai bars were trending topics, I took one look at the ingredients and said “meh.” A year later, I’ve still never had one. I’d rather have a bag of salt n’ vinegar chips than to eat milk chocolate (or pistachios, which I already never liked). All that sugar seemed like it would turn my stomach.
ADVERTISEMENT ~ Amazon
As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases using my referral links.
So you can imagine my surprise last month when I sat down in front of my computer with a spoon and a container of icing. I’d baked a box cake I’d gotten as a freebie, but I felt like the cheesecake and vanilla icing was what I really wanted. I ignored the cake and started eating the icing on its own during this 17-day cycle. Perimenopause has given me an insanely sweet tooth that my dentist will not be impressed by and one that is foreign to me.