It’s hard enough to fight the urge to pull up in a restaurant’s drive-thru and order all those ‘forbidden’ foods. While you go out with friends or colleagues and play safely while ordering food, your lunch date gets to enjoy anything with no guilt.
But it’s quite a challenge to keep pushing away those urges, especially when you’re in the mood for some comfort food. You are then riddled with guilt and can’t stop bingeing on them. This issue leads to further weight gain and insecurity, along with other food disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa.
There’s no shame if you are going through any kind of eating disorder. Demi Lovato, a famous American pop singer and actress, has shared several stories of her overeating accidents, leading her to multiple weight-related issues. Even Lady Diana went through a tough spell of bulimia nervosa.
What is meant by “trigger food’?
To be “triggered” has a vast meaning, but when it is related to food, it could be defined as an eating disorder. Trigger food could bring that person back to those unhealthy eating habits and routines, leading to emotional and physical distress. These foods don’t always have to be consumed from hunger or cravings but are just addicting for the consumer. Triggers can happen anywhere and at any moment. It can be caused just by sight, memory, or even smell. Even emotional instability or a stressful day can bring you back to where it all started.
Common types of forbidden foods
If you wish to remove these foods from your diet to get a better grip on yourself, then you have to find replacements for them to work. Here are some common types of trigger foods that people struggle with:
- Candies and dairy products: These contain a high concentration of addicting sugar that is most likely to lead to binge habits. You could replace such products with either sugar and fat-free products or dried fruits.
- Fizzy drinks: This is another product loaded with sugars, food coloring, and high levels of fructose that lead to a sugar rush. Many companies have started manufacturing diet drinks or zero-calorie products that taste just the same but don’t harm your body.
- Fried food products: Deep-fried foods such as wings or fries have a unique taste, and the consumer feels a unique satisfaction when they see oil dripping from their food. These dishes could instead be air fried with little to no oil or baked similarly.
How to manage your trigger foods
Having trigger foods doesn’t necessarily mean cutting out those dishes from your life permanently; instead, you could:
- Portioning every meal is just enough to satisfy your cravings but not enough to lead to binge eating.
- Plan to deal with your triggers through meditation, therapy, group meetings, or looking for distractions.
- If you are emotionally unwell, then find ways to cope with those emotions rather than going back to your old habits and munching all those feelings away.
- Only expose yourself to those types of food with someone around you. Having a trusted fellow with you could help with your cravings.
