After I identified the foods that I could easily manage, I needed to sort through the foods that remained. This is a large and varied group. Difficult-to-manage foods are the foods that are highly attractive even when we’re not hungry. They are also hard to stop eating once we get started. Difficult foods need to be monitored in some way because they don’t have the self-limiting quality of the easy-to-manage foods.
Difficult food easily trumps our genuine feelings of hunger and fullness. If we see a difficult food and it’s available to eat, we’re drawn to have at least a taste. Then the taste sensations lure us to keep eating. The taste of a difficult food is experienced as overly stimulating rather than mildly stimulating.
Difficult foods are not equal in their degree of difficulty. Some of them are the real problem foods that we might even say we feel addicted to. If given a choice, we always choose them. Some of the foods are far less difficult. Nevertheless, they are all gathered together under the heading of difficult-to-manage. I established four types of difficult foods.
Difficult-to-manage foods include:
- Meat, Cheese, and Eggs—All meats including poultry and fish—Hard and soft cheeses—Various types of egg preparations
- Creamy Favorites—Butter and other spreads such as margarine, mayonnaise, cream cheese, and peanut butter—Ice cream, pudding—Whipped cream, marshmallow
- Flour Foods—Cakes, cookies, donuts, muffins—Pancakes and ready-to-eat cereal—Pasta, noodles, and batter-dipped foods—Breads, tortillas, crisp bread
- Snack Foods—Chips, pretzels, popcorn, crackers—Snack meats and cheeses—Candy, both hard and soft—Peanuts, nuts, dried fruit, trail mix, granola bars
Explanation of the preceding list:
Meat, Cheese, Eggs:
The first group of difficult foods consists of animal products that comprise the typical protein entrée. Meat stands for red meat, poultry, and fish. Cheese includes all types of hard and soft cheese, both high fat and low fat. A hard-boiled egg may not seem very difficult, but a fried egg can be very compelling.
These foods are important sources of protein. By designating them as difficult-to-manage, I don't mean to imply that they shouldn't be eaten. Simply be cautious with them.
Creamy Favorites:
In this category, I list a variety of foods that are similar in some way to butter, ice cream, and cream. Here is where I solved the margarine and mayonnaise problem. They, along with cream cheese and peanut butter, are listed as spreads which can take the place of butter. This is an irregular grouping of these foods. It is based on the way these foods are typically used in the diet. They all have a creamy texture and are highly attractive.
Ice cream and all of its lower fat alternatives are included here. I decided to keep them together since I find all of them tempting regardless of fat content. Any of these can lure me away from a juice beverage, like lemonade, when I’m sitting at the drive-in window for an afternoon treat. Ice cream and its imitators get in the way of my choosing a beverage, which is the habit I want to form. Although not frozen, pudding is placed here as well. Sweetened milk, like the chocolate or strawberry milk that I said was too compelling to allow on my free choice beverage list, could be placed in this category. It’s similar to melted ice cream.
Whipped cream is usually sweetened and makes desserts more tempting. Whipped toppings imitate the cream original. I include marshmallow topping and marshmallows in this group. I know that overeaters sometimes like to keep a bag of marshmallows as a guilt-free sweet treat. However, this will keep your taste buds clamoring for more excitement, leading to further indulgence.
Flour Foods:
The third type of difficult food is what I call the flour foods. They all include a highly processed grain, usually wheat flour. I listed the most difficult ones first, followed by less difficult examples.
It may seem unfair to cast a dry, wholegrain cracker into the same category as a frosted cupcake. But as soon as you cover a piece of crisp bread with a thin spread of butter, it becomes quite attractive. As a rule, the whole grain flour foods are easier-to-manage than the white flour foods. Certainly, bakery treats such as cookies, pastries, donuts, and cakes pose the greatest threat to overeaters.
The wide range of flour foods creates confusion, and with confusion comes temptation. One morning I would have a whole grain muffin for breakfast. The next morning someone in the family would make pancakes, and I’d think, “Why not have pancakes with a little butter and syrup? Is it so much different than a high fat bran muffin?” The morning after that, I am confronted by donuts, and I easily reason that a donut can’t be any worse than the white flour pancakes I ate yesterday. Soon I’m facing a daily conflict with flour foods that wear me down and make me susceptible to temptation. Therefore, I decided to designate all flour foods as difficult-to-manage.
As you can see, I list ready-to-eat cereal as a difficult flour food. The grain in these cereals is highly processed, like flour. Even the whole grain types are more attractive than cooked cereal. An overeater can easily consume two bowls of ready-to-eat cereal, but we wouldn’t even think of eating two bowls of oatmeal at one sitting. The fun varieties of sugar-coated, ready-to-eat cereals are even more tempting and difficult-to-manage.
Certain types of bread can provide a chewiness that is rarely found in any of the easy-to-manage foods. Therefore, when I have bread I try to select chewy or crusty bread. Basic breads have been an important part of a simple diet throughout history. Bread was the original convenience food of great versatility. It could be baked and stored without refrigeration for future use. The people of many cultures rely upon some kind of bread for daily sustenance, and it still holds an honored place in the modern diet. The overeater, however, needs to be cautious when consuming bread.
Snack Foods:
These foods greatly stimulate the taste buds. Rather than satisfying the normal taste urge, they create unnatural taste cravings. It’s very hard to stop eating them once you start. Even if you think they really hit the spot and you feel satisfied, you’ll return for another and another with increasing frequency. Before you know it, you’ll be standing by the counter in a munching trance. They are extremely attractive, often using chemical enhancements and artificial flavors.
Snack foods are the real culprits of modern-day obesity. I believe the proliferation of salty snack food is probably the single greatest cause of childhood obesity. Candy and bakery treats have been available for centuries, but salty snack foods have only been widely available and popular in the past fifty years. These are the junk foods that dance off the shelves and into our grocery carts. They are the gas station foods, so easy to purchase and consume as we travel. They are ever expanding in variety and availability.
Salty snack foods include chips, popcorn, pretzels, salted nuts, snack meats, and snack cheeses. Salted crackers need to be included here as well. No matter how low-fat or natural the snack item is touted to be, if it’s convenient and salty, I need to avoid it.
Candy is just as prevalent as salty snack food. Chocolate candy is especially tempting for many people. Even fruit-flavored hard candy or other fat-free candy is a problem. Popping a jellybean here and there certainly isn’t going to make anyone gain weight, but it reinforces the nibbling habit that leads to foods that are serious threats to health and cause excess fat. If you want some sugar, always have a sweet juice beverage, not a piece of candy.
Like many overeaters, I’ve always had a weakness for chocolate. When I cheated on a diet, it inevitably included indulging in chocolate. I’d forgo lots of other delicious flavors if chocolate was available. I knew I needed to retrain my taste buds away from the chocolate obsession. Now, the less I eat chocolate, the less I enjoy the taste. With less exposure, the memory of the taste of chocolate actually fades. I have more freedom of choice if I avoid chocolate.
Healthful snack foods, I hate to say, are also difficult-to-manage. These presumably healthful alternatives often contain chocolate chips and other candies. Granola bars and trail mix, containing nuts, seeds and dried fruit, are too attractive to manage with ease. We try to do the right thing by choosing a granola bar rather than a candy bar. But it only ends up reminding us of the luscious chocolate bar that we really want. Trail mix encourages that mindless, hand-to-mouth munching that is very hard to stop once you start. Even dried fruit all by itself can be eaten in that trancelike way. Dried fruit gives that burst of concentrated flavor that is similar to candy. Nuts, seeds, and dried fruit are natural and nutritious, but they must be eaten cautiously.
In summary, here is an abbreviated listing of easy and difficult foods:
Easy-to-manage foods:
- Fruits
- Easy Dairy 4
- Vegetables / Oil
- Whole Starches
Difficult-to-manage foods:
- Meat, Cheese, Eggs
- Creamy Favorites
- Flour Foods
- Snack Foods
