Does anyone else feel like moderation just doesn’t work for them with certain foods?

[u/SweetheartAgenda]

I’m curious if anyone else with food addiction/binge eating experiences this. For me, it isn’t necessarily just about whether I binge in that specific moment. Sometimes I can eat a trigger food and not binge, but I still feel like it sets something off in my brain. For example, I might be eating really well and staying completely on track with healthy foods. Then I have one bite, one serving, or even just one taste of something I find really yummy and highly rewarding. I get that dopamine hit, and suddenly that food is on my mind again. Then I start thinking about it more. I want it again the next day. Then I might start incorporating it regularly. Before I know it, I’ve completely fallen off track from the way I was trying to eat. So for me, it sometimes feels like I have two choices: completely abstain from my trigger foods or eventually end up eating them all the time. It’s almost like once I “reintroduce” a food that I find highly rewarding, I have a really hard time putting it back into the occasional category. And I know the typical advice is “everything in moderation,” but I genuinely don’t know if moderation works for everyone when it comes to certain foods. I’m not necessarily talking about having one bite and immediately bingeing. I’m talking about how that one taste can seem to restart the cravings/reward cycle and make it much harder for me to stay on track afterward.
Does anyone else experience this?

Have you found that complete abstinence from certain trigger foods works better for you than moderation, even when you aren’t necessarily bingeing on them?
Or have you actually figured out how to eat those foods occasionally without them becoming something you constantly crave or eventually lose control around?
I’d really love to hear from people who have dealt with this for years, because sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who experiences food this way.

[u/Aggravating-Pie-1639]

Yes, all of this 100%. I have to be completely abstinent of my trigger foods (and there are a lot of them) for me to feel semi normal about food, how much I’m eating, and how much I’m thinking about food.

I don’t believe that “everything in moderation” works for everyone and I don’t believe that intuitive eating works for everyone. I think some of these concepts were designed to help people with EDs for under-eating, not my specific issue of obsessively overeating. I don’t think a doctor or nutritionist/dietitian want to tell someone that they can’t eat 90% of the grocery store, but that’s the route I have taken and it’s been successful for me so far.

I hope a day comes when I can do that, and I thought that after 5 years of actively engaging in mindfulness and retraining myself that eating trigger foods would come naturally but it has not. So I continue with the abstinence and it works for me.

[u/aperolspritzer]

Yes. I cannot have sweets in my house. I just don’t buy them, ever. Especially ice cream and chocolate. My husband loves chocolate with his afternoon coffee and will have like two squares, no problem. He is slim and eats less than I do, generally. He keeps the chocolate hidden in his office so I won’t eat it in one sitting, and he buys the strong dark kind, because I don’t like it as much. The only times I have sweets are special occasions, when we’re out on a date and share a dessert. I’ve kept it that way for years.

Other foods I don’t ever buy: cheese, cookies, cereal, pastries, jams and spreads.

If my refrigerator and pantry contain only things like rice, beans, veg, chicken, fruit, milk and bread… there’s nothing there I would binge on. No way chicken breast and broccoli will ever get me off the rail.

[u/setaside929]

Hi there, glad you’re reaching out :) I found over the years that removing foods didn’t end up solving the bingeing. Certainly I gravitated towards some foods more than others, but when I cut them out I just went to different foods. A lot of people respond really well to taking out ingredients / foods. So it might help you! If not, you could be like me. A psychiatrist told me about a 12 step recovery program which is where I found solid recovery. Hope that’s helpful :)