Obsession foods and their power

[Pangelsue2]

For those of us struggling here, I thought I would start a topic about foods that we could actually eat dangerous amounts of. By this I mean trigger foods that could destroy our best intentions and our lives.
We read over and over again about these foods on the daily boards:

Can't have them in the house
Eat the whole bag and want more
Have literally eaten this item until sick more than once (for me corn chips and bean dip)
If they are in the house, they call to you
Can't look at them in the store isle
Hate yourself while eating them
Haunt your days with gerbil wheel thoughts that no distraction seems to take away.

Many of us know what I mean by these foods. Mine are peanuts, corn chips and bean dip, potato chips, ice cream and buttered popcorn. I have eaten peanuts and chips until the salt has chapped my lips and burned the skin off the inside of my mouth. I have eaten ice cream until I have flu like symptoms the next day. I have eaten all of these foods long after craving is gone just because there is more. I have felt shame following binges on these foods.

Now I know there are some stock answers here. Carb cravings. I can eat bread, potatoes and sweetened cereals with no special cravings at all. They are not foods my mother calmed me with as a child. They are not foods that hold special meaning for me. They are foods I really like the taste of and can't stop eating.

I want to know why these foods have this hold over us. I love pork but I don't obsess about it. I love potato dumplings but I can eat one and not desire 20 more. So what sets my triggers apart. If I am honest, when I am indulging in those treats, I very soon get overwhelmed by the salt or the sugar but I keep eating more. I am also aware at some point that the enjoyment has ended but I keep going. Finally, I am hating myself and feeling awful about what I am doing but I keep going. That is moving into the alcohol and drug addiction category. So I asked myself what these foods do for people that makes them so attractive that they give their health over to these substances. I will list the ones I can think of and welcome additional thoughts from anyone reading this.

They seem to grab my attention so completely that they make any pain I experienced during the day, more bearable and sometimes make the pain go away for a while.

They are a quick easy fix that doesn't involve a lot of effort on my part.

They are a no risk fix. They work every time. At least for a while.

They don't make me face unpleasant truths about myself or my life. Again, temporarily.

There is something as yet undiscovered in the combination of ingredients in these foods that make them an addictive substance to me.

That is what I came up with. I think these trigger foods are so delicious to us that they work EVERY time to make us feel better. We get relief from something that seems intolerable and we get it cheaply and quickly.

So I am an addict when I am around these foods. Does that mean I can't ever have them again as long as I live? Seems harsh but cold turkey works for many drug addicts and alcoholics. They have to do the 12 step program to deal with their lives but even with that, they can never drink or use drugs again.

I can go without eating one of those foods for a long time. But if I then eat them again, I am almost instantly hooked. I tell myself I am going to have only 5 or 10 chips or whatever or only 1/2 cup of ice cream and quit. But one taste and it is over. Is this true addiction? Is never having these foods again the answer? If that is the case, I will have to man (or in my case, woman) up and give up these foods and avoid them at all cost.

Let me know your thoughts. I know those of you who have never really experienced this level of addiction to a food think this is a crazy post and will recommend practicing moderation. But for those of you who this resonates with, if you have overcome this addiction and if you have insight or advice to give, please chime in.


And let's have a vote too. Cold turkey-never eat it again or are there rules of engagement with these foods to keep them under control?

Weigh in? Excuse the pun.

[gk]

Great post.

I have often debated giving up my trigger foods for good. Mine is chocolate in ANY form. I am a total food addict when it comes to that. In fact, I said yes to everything on your list!

At one point, I was even waiting until everyone was in bed and then sneaking down into the kitchen and quietly munching away on my "drug of choice". Pathetic, I know. But as you said, I just kept on eating, even though I was disgusting myself, and would do it again and again, every day of the week. (Sure sounds like an addict, eh?)

I just can't seem to decide if giving it up cold turkey would be the right choice. However, the thought of doing that practically gives me the shakes, so isn't THAT an answer in itself???

You know.......If I have a full green week, by the end I'm doing okay. But as soon as I take a bite of chocolate on Saturday, I start the downward spiral of non-stop munching. SOO.....maybe giving it up for good IS the right choice.

But, but, but....life without chocolate ice cream with big gooey brownie chunks??? How sad is that?

Who knew something as SIMPLE as eating food could be so problematic!

[snapdragon]

I did not vote because I don't know. I have heard it's possible to train yourself some control and it becomes habit. Maybe the first step is abstinence for a while. Would be interested in seeing the responses.

[kccc]

I voted without reading your post. (My bad.) But the reality is more nuanced than my choice, of course.

My vote was for learning control. However, I think it's fair to KNOW the limits of your control.

Some foods I just don't keep in the house. Most of those are "junk food" that I don't want to be a prominent part of our family's diet. I don't consider that "abstinence"... but maybe it is. (I think of it as a choice, or perhaps as setting up an "S-friendly environment.")

Some foods I buy infrequently because I don't currently control them well. Trader Joe's sells these cookies that I LOVE. When I get them, I often eat a LOT of them. So, I buy them infrequently. And I try very hard to ENJOY them when I do get them, not just mindlessly go through the box! (I do only buy them on S-days.)

But there are a whole range of foods that at one point I would have considered triggers that just aren't anymore. Nuts. Basic chocolate - I can have it in the cabinet for weeks on end. And that used not to be true. I am very pleased about this change.

And finally, some of the foods I used to think of as "triggers" I don't even like anymore - really junky stuff that I thought I liked a lot, and couldn't stop eating... until I got away from it and could see how nasty it really was. So, you might call that abstinence - I don't plan to eat some of them ever again. But it feels different to me.

Hope some of this is useful to you.

[Clarica]

I totally agree with everything KCCC said, except I never felt like I was out of control or bad while overindulging. I just felt like I did not fully understand my impulses to overeat, and I did not judge that ignorance overmuch.

I do feel more stress now that I don't give in to impulses to overeat. I do not enjoy this. But I am choosing it.

[SkyKitty]

I'm honestly heartened that the vote is leaning so far towards learning control. I think that says that on the whole, folks here have a determination to deal with rather than hide from their problems.

I did Slimming World before No S. I decided to start Slimming World when I realised I had eaten an entire six-pack of crisps on the bus on the way home from the supermarket. A multi-pack, intended maybe for a family to share over a week and I had eaten them all before I even got home.

I decided that day that I needed to be taught how to eat like a normal person and I was at a meeting the next evening.

I would binge on crisps at least once a week, 6 or more packets at a time.

My other weakness is salted popcorn and I would buy a cinema ticket for a fim I didn't really even want to see, on my own of course, along with a large bucket of popcorn, and once I'd finished the popcorn I would just leave the cinema - that was all I went for. I must have spent a fortune doing that.

I now only have crisps on S days, and try to only have them at a certain time of day - one packet when I get home, with a can of diet coke.
I have been known to eat up to 16 bags at a time and then not be able to move for the rest of the day. I have binged on crisps since starting No S - only once though- which is an improvement.

Thank you PangelSue for starting this thread. I've never confessed before to ANYONE, not even my husband, how much control this craving can exert on me. Now I know I'm not alone.....

[NoSnacker]

mmm, tuna noodle casserole is something i make rarely..why because i eat most of it, minus what my hubby eats.

i haven't been buying any snacks as i end up eating them. i don't binge on any particular food..if I'm going to binge it can be on anything...even a boring cheese sandwich.

so for my favorite tuna casserole, i will make it again..but on an S day..last time i made on an S day it was lunch and dinner..

i just can't snack on anything, it leads to a binge..hence why my screen name is nosnacker..

still working on my weekends..but for now, my N days are my focal point of changing.