By Kyla Woodard, kyla@claytodayonline.com<\/p>\n
\u201cFood is symbolic of love when words are inadequate.\u201d \u2013 Alan D. Wolfelt\u00a0<\/p>\n
I found myself waiting in line early Tuesday morning\u00a0to try\u00a0Chick Fil A\u2019s new\u00a0chicken and waffles breakfast sandwich.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The limited menu item\u00a0was released on Aug. 24, and I have to say, it was\u00a0actually pretty tasty.\u00a0And the smell of maple-flavored waffles, honey butter and warm syrup, specifically,\u00a0was wholesome.\u00a0In fact, it\u00a0brought me back to the early mornings and sticky breakfast tables from when I was a child.<\/p>\n
Food has a weird way of reminding us\u00a0of\u00a0the past.\u00a0And \u201cfood nostalgia,\u201d as\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0called, is\u00a0actually a\u00a0real thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here’s\u00a0a little science lesson: According to\u00a0ExpatEat, your sense of smell is\u00a0directly linked\u00a0to the brain\u2019s memory and\u00a0emotion centers. Scent molecules are always traveling through your nose to\u00a0the \u201colfactory bulb\u201d at the front of the brain.\u00a0And essentially, that\u2019s\u00a0what triggers amygdala and hippocampus, or your emotions and memory.<\/p>\n
In simpler terms, the aromas we smell when we eat travel through the nose and straight to the brain, triggering a sensory overload.<\/p>\n
Experts say that many of our most prominent food memories are formed during childhood, a time when the brain is highly receptive to sensory experiences. I guess you could say that was very true for me.<\/p>\n
Like slurping frozen popsicles on a hot afternoon and my first time\u00a0perfecting my grilled cheese recipe.<\/p>\n
I swapped\u00a0houses every Sunday for family dinners and ate\u00a0funnel cakes and cotton candy at the Clay County Fair,\u00a0knowing for a fact\u00a0it\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0pair well with\u00a0getting on the Zipper right after.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sharing oversized turkey legs at Disney with my family reminds me of why\u00a0it’s\u00a0the most magical place on earth. Cake symbolizes\u00a0the times I bonded with my mom while she baked in our\u00a0family\u2019s\u00a0kitchen \u2014 taste testing the batter and frosting even when I\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0supposed to.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0forget about school lunches \u2014 the good ole\u2019\u00a0tradition\u00a0of dipping my chicken nuggets in my mashed potatoes and getting excited over Italian Dunkers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While food nurtures the soul, I think it’s safe to say that it also significantly tastes better when it reminds you of the past. All of those memories helped shape me into who I am today. And they continue to do so.<\/p>\n
Think about the last thing you\u00a0ate\u00a0and the memories associated\u00a0with it.\u00a0\u00a0While it could be the simplest meal, when paired with emotions and memories it could also mean so much more.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kyla Woodard, kyla@claytodayonline.com \u201cFood is symbolic of love when words are inadequate.\u201d \u2013 Alan D. Wolfelt\u00a0 I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3496,3487,3495,3498,3488,3493,116,118,117,3492,3494,3499,3490,3489,3497,3491],"class_list":["post-382896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-argyle","tag-clay-county","tag-doctors-inlet","tag-eagle-harbor","tag-fleming-island","tag-green-cove-springs","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-keystone-heights","tag-lake-asbury","tag-margaret","tag-middleburg","tag-orange-park","tag-pace-island","tag-penney-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}