Can "Food" be a love language?

There's a neat book about "love languages" that I borrowed from a friend recently, which has the premise that everyone feels most loved when love is expressed to them in a certain way. This way of expressing love is a person's "love language". The five languages discussed in the book are Words of Appreciation, Acts of Service, Quality Time, Physical Touch, and Gifts. I'm not sure it's quite that simple - five precise categories and that's it - but the basic idea that some people express their love differently from others, and it behooves us to learn their "language" so they can hear our love for them, seems solid.

If I do have a single love language, Words of Appreciation seems likely for me. But Acts of Service seems likely as well, especially one particular act: Feeding me. Food is love.

However, I also note that being given a meal falls under most of the languages. What better quality time is there than a family dinner? What better gift than a home-cooked meal? What greater daily act of service than providing someone with the food they need to live? Even DH's request that I stay seated when I rise to get the girls more milk makes me feel special - because implicitly, he's saying "You deserve a break because of all the things you do for us. Thank you. I love you" I can hear the Words of Appreciation clearly, even though the actual words are, "Stay seated. Geesh, I can handle it!"

I'm a great translator ;-) And exaggerating slightly for comic effect.

Last night, DH made a special meal with me in mind. Spinach, meat, peppers stir-fried with peanut butter and coconut milk and served mixed with noodles. We sprinkled Thai spice on ours, but left the kids' food plain. Yummy - but also very high in iron, and stuff that will help asorb iron. Just that morning, we'd learned from the 'Net that non-heme irons (not from meat) asorbed better when eaten with heme iron - and DH planned a meal for me based on that information.

I mean, wow. That's caring - hearing a little bit of information, and then figuring out a way to apply it to make your spouse healthier and happier, that very same day.

I just ate the leftovers for lunch. And I'm in love. I'll try to remember to give him a hug - his language seems to be Touch.

P.S. I cooked up the rest of the spinach for a side-dish for myself, and was eating it. The girls insisted that I give them some of Mommy's Food, and then gobbled it down. It's funny how making a food just for myself makes it seem "special" to them. This, plus chanting the name of the veggie, is how we got them to love broccoli too. And zucchini. ZU-CCHI-NI! ZU-CCHI-NI! BRO-CCO-LI! UGH! YEAH!

We rarely limit the amount of treats we let them have - we're more likely to limit their veggies (because DH never cooks enough!!! ;-) If we have something sweet to share, we usually just let them eat as much as they want until it's gone. The trick is that we don't share with them most of the time - we just wait until after they are in bed.