Trigger Foods and How To Avoid Them Help

SideSteel

I have had success getting to a point of moderation by eliminating certain foods for about a month and then slowly re-introducing.

^ I think this is very reasonable.

bcattoes

It often *isn't* the first step in learning moderation, that's the problem. People usually think that it is, but it isn't. It generally makes the problem worse, not better. And your comment about cheetos kind of proves that really. Banning yourself from eating it isn't making this problem go away, because you still can't control yourself around cheetos, to the extent that you ask your friends not to bring cheetos round to your house at all.

In my opinion, not having to tell people not to bring certain foods to my house is better than having to do that. I'm not saying it's something you *have to* learn *or else* or anything like that.... but surely you can appreciate that overcoming this problem completely, as in learning how to just have a small portion of cheetos would represent personal growth...? Maybe you've chosen to not do that, that's your choice. But I think it's important for people who have this problem to realise that there are alternative, and better, choices to just banning themselves from eating these "trigger foods" and that banning themselves from eating them can make the problem worse, and that it doesn't solve the problem. Additionally, the psychological impact of calling a food a "trigger food" is basically allowing that food to have control over you.... people should not be controlled by food. Food should be controlled by people. And that control is something that can be learned.

No, honestly I wouldn't see eating Cheetos in moderation was any type of personal growth. I don't normally think of any food in that way. Though I think I might feel something akin to personal growth when I finally perfect a recipe.

Perhaps if I'd had some type of eating disorder then I could see that, but you know, it's just a chip I find hard to stop eating once I start. So I don't start. I don’t want to eat 10 Cheetos. I’d rather eat zero Cheetos. Seriously seems like we're romanticizing food a little too much.

Edit: remove wall of text, it's all up there in other posts.

no I'm not... quite the opposite. stopping seeing certain foods as special/forbidden is what enabled this major shift in attitudes towards the food.

seriously, I used to have a problem with overeating and it was with a lot of foods, chocolate and other sweets being the main ones. The fact that right now I have 3 large size cadbury's bars in my fridge, one of them partially open, the others untouched, and they've been like that for at least a couple of weeks now, when in the past they'd all have been gone within a day.... yes that's personal growth. Because I can take or leave the chocolate, and still enjoy it when I want to.

I really like the taste of chocolate... nowadays I enjoy the taste of it and stay within my calories. In the past I massively overate on it and would never have been able to have chocolate in the house without eating all of it. Yep I didn't do that when it wasn't in the house, but when I did have chocolate, I had no control over it. Banning myself from eating chocolate (which is what I did mostly for many years) did not work. Changing my mentality towards it, i.e. stopping viewing it as this forbidden food that I wasn't allowed, and allowing myself to have it (and the other foods I had this problem with) whenever I wanted (but had to adjust my calories to fit it in) totally changed my behaviour around all these foods.

It wasn't binge eating at an eating disorder level, it was just an inability to have it in the house or on my person without eating it all in a short time frame. And if friends offered me sweets or similar, I was a total fiend for it, I couldn't say no, I'd have it every time.

Maybe this kind of overeating isn't a big issue for you because it's only a small number of foods. But for me it was a lot of different foods, and foods that I enjoyed, and most of them I still enjoy these days (not all of them, because some like donuts I've found I don't really like that much, but I haven't banned myself from eating them, I just don't want to eat them).... but that sense of "gotta eat it all NOW" has completely gone away, and I can eat these foods in quantities where I can savour and appreciate the taste, without that urge to eat all the rest of it, then put the food away and eat the rest later (which for stuff like sweets or frozen things like ice cream may not be for another couple of weeks).

BTW the only reason why I currently have 3 large bars of the chocolate was because it was on special offer... usually I don't even buy it in that large quantities because it takes a long time to get through it all, because I don't have that urge to eat it all at once any more... I have a little when I fancy it and leave it the rest of the time. The last time couple of times I went to the supermarket, I didn't buy any chocolate, because I still have those three bars (well, currently about 2 and a quarter bars)... so it's saving me money too.

Really that is personal growth, it is learning self control around food. All kinds of food.

It's interesting that in the Arabic language, the word "haram" can mean either sacred or forbidden, depending on the context. Because forbidding things makes them special, and that gives them power over you.

I suppose it really does just come down to different strokes for different strokes. I control Cheetos by (usually) not eating Cheetos. You choose to eat smaller amounts. You feel like you've grown as a person, I can't understand that feeling.

I don't see that either of us is wrong. We're just different.

bcattoes

It often *isn't* the first step in learning moderation, that's the problem. People usually think that it is, but it isn't. It generally makes the problem worse, not better. And your comment about cheetos kind of proves that really. Banning yourself from eating it isn't making this problem go away, because you still can't control yourself around cheetos, to the extent that you ask your friends not to bring cheetos round to your house at all.

In my opinion, not having to tell people not to bring certain foods to my house is better than having to do that. I'm not saying it's something you *have to* learn *or else* or anything like that.... but surely you can appreciate that overcoming this problem completely, as in learning how to just have a small portion of cheetos would represent personal growth...? Maybe you've chosen to not do that, that's your choice. But I think it's important for people who have this problem to realise that there are alternative, and better, choices to just banning themselves from eating these "trigger foods" and that banning themselves from eating them can make the problem worse, and that it doesn't solve the problem. Additionally, the psychological impact of calling a food a "trigger food" is basically allowing that food to have control over you.... people should not be controlled by food. Food should be controlled by people. And that control is something that can be learned.

No, honestly I wouldn't see eating Cheetos in moderation was any type of personal growth. I don't normally think of any food in that way. Though I think I might feel something akin to personal growth when I finally perfect a recipe.

Perhaps if I'd had some type of eating disorder then I could see that, but you know, it's just a chip I find hard to stop eating once I start. So I don't start. I don’t want to eat 10 Cheetos. I’d rather eat zero Cheetos. Seriously seems like we're romanticizing food a little too much.

Edit: remove wall of text, it's all up there in other posts.

Seems like you are demonizing food too much!

Food isn't the problem here.

de·mon
noun \ˈdē-mən\

: an evil spirit
: a person who has a lot of energy or enthusiasm
: something that causes a person to have a lot of trouble or unhappiness


I think you are reading WAY too much into my statements. I don't think Cheetos are demons or a problem. It's just a food I choose not have in my house often. End of story.

tennisdude2004

It often *isn't* the first step in learning moderation, that's the problem. People usually think that it is, but it isn't. It generally makes the problem worse, not better. And your comment about cheetos kind of proves that really. Banning yourself from eating it isn't making this problem go away, because you still can't control yourself around cheetos, to the extent that you ask your friends not to bring cheetos round to your house at all.

In my opinion, not having to tell people not to bring certain foods to my house is better than having to do that. I'm not saying it's something you *have to* learn *or else* or anything like that.... but surely you can appreciate that overcoming this problem completely, as in learning how to just have a small portion of cheetos would represent personal growth...? Maybe you've chosen to not do that, that's your choice. But I think it's important for people who have this problem to realise that there are alternative, and better, choices to just banning themselves from eating these "trigger foods" and that banning themselves from eating them can make the problem worse, and that it doesn't solve the problem. Additionally, the psychological impact of calling a food a "trigger food" is basically allowing that food to have control over you.... people should not be controlled by food. Food should be controlled by people. And that control is something that can be learned.

No, honestly I wouldn't see eating Cheetos in moderation was any type of personal growth. I don't normally think of any food in that way. Though I think I might feel something akin to personal growth when I finally perfect a recipe.

Perhaps if I'd had some type of eating disorder then I could see that, but you know, it's just a chip I find hard to stop eating once I start. So I don't start. I don’t want to eat 10 Cheetos. I’d rather eat zero Cheetos. Seriously seems like we're romanticizing food a little too much.

Edit: remove wall of text, it's all up there in other posts.

Seems like you are demonizing food too much!

Food isn't the problem here.

de·mon
noun \ˈdē-mən\

: an evil spirit
: a person who has a lot of energy or enthusiasm
: something that causes a person to have a lot of trouble or unhappiness


I think you are reading WAY too much into my statements. I don't think Cheetos are demons or a problem. It's just a food I choose not have in my house often. End of story.

How dare to choose not to have junk food in your house.

Stock them and eat them in moderation everyday - that is the only way!

bluehydrangeas

I thought I had trigger foods (poptarts, pizza, chocolate, pasta, cake, cheesecake, muffins, donuts, etc).

Turns out my actual trigger was being hungry & feeling deprived.

Now I eat when I'm hungry and eat everything in moderation so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. As a result, I no longer have any trigger foods.