Trigger Foods: How to Find Freedom

Do you struggle with trigger foods during weight loss? Here is a 4-step approach to find food freedom around foods like sugar, chocolate, fried foods, and comfort foods so that you can enjoy these items in moderation without binging or overeating them.

What is a Trigger Food?

Trigger foods are foods that once you start eating them, you feel like you can’t stop.

• You are highly motivated to continue eating trigger foods to the point of overeating, binging, or physical and emotional pain.
• You find it very difficult to eat a trigger food without finishing the box, carton, or package.
• You might say things like, “I can’t be trusted to have _____ in the house.”

Trigger foods are typically…

• high in sugar, fat, and salt
• processed or packaged
• high in calorie density, including fried foods
• foods that give you a “hit” of pleasure when you eat them
• foods you crave
• foods you are drawn to eating and you feel like these foods call to you
• foods you fantasize about eating

Examples of common trigger foods:

• Sweets, including chocolate, candy, ice cream, cookies, pastries, cake, and frosting
• Salty and crunchy foods like chips, crackers, and cereal
• Creamy, fatty comfort foods like mashed potatoes, rich casseroles, bread and butter, and lasagna
• Nuts, nut butters, granola, and trail mix
• “Healthier” replacement foods like protein bars, energy bites, and diet desserts

Don’t get too hung up on wondering if a food is a trigger food for you or not.

If it’s one of your trigger foods, you know it.

While it’s more rare, some of us also binge on healthy foods, including foods like cooked brown rice or leftovers from meals. I’m one of those rare ones and have binged on plain cooked brown rice, cooked potatoes and even stir fry vegetables. This type of binging is often driven from restriction and food deprivation over a period of days and weeks.

While some people worry about trigger foods for physical conditions such as gout, IBS, or heartburn, for those of us with binge or overeating behaviors, we view trigger foods as those that trigger unhealthy food choices.

Why Am I Drawn to Trigger Foods?

You are drawn to trigger foods for two main reasons:

1. The dopamine hit
2. Restriction & rebellion

Dopamine Hits from Food

Food is designed to feel good as a primitive safety mechanism. God built this reward system into your brain to keep you alive.

You are drawn to the highest calorie food in your environment. This isn’t a character flaw. It’s a biological urge, because up until recent years humans needed to take in the most calories while expending the least in order to survive.

Food is plentiful now for those of us in first-world countries, yet our primitive drive to food has not changed.

The food industry engineers packaged and processed foods so that they are even more highly desirable. (Click here for a video on secrets the food industry doesn’t want you to know.)

Certain foods, particularly those rich in sugars and fat, are potent rewards within your brain chemistry that promote eating beyond your body’s calorie requirements. Due to genetic variation, some of us are especially vulnerable to problems with calorie regulation.

When you eat, your brain releases chemicals that give you a dopamine reward. I call it the dopamine hit. This motivates you to repeat that behavior.

Like many pleasurable behaviors—including sex and drug use—eating can trigger the release of dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter in the brain. This internal chemical reward, in turn, increases the likelihood that the associated action will eventually become habitual through positive reinforcement conditioning. 

Scientific America: Addicted to Fat

As you repeat the behavior, the brain adjusts. You may find that you need a stronger hit to get the same pleasurable sensation. This is how tolerance develops.

You can tell a food is giving you a dopamine reward if it gives you pleasure when you eat it and pain when you stop or abstain from it.

In addition to the brain chemistry, recent research shows that even your gut microbiome is involved. The more you eat processed foods, the bacteria and other organisms in your gut send out signals driving you to crave similar foods.

Binge eating also makes sense from a biological perspective. For much of human history, people needed to consume as many calories as possible when the they were available. The act of binging can also trigger a dopamine reward.

Food Striction, Rebellion, & Self-Sabotage

When you overly restrict calories, this sets you up biologically for binging or overeating later. The body has built-in defense mechanisms that will drive you to obsession-like behaviors when you become underfed. Even people without food issues will over-consume food after a time of calorie restriction.

When you eliminate whole food groups and types of food (carbs, fat), this sets you up to feel deprived and rebellious.

Click here for more on self-sabotage and check out my free self-sabotage quiz to learn if self-sabotage is holding you back from your weight loss goals.

Is Your Body Asking for Something?

There’s a common belief that your body creates cravings for specific foods because you need one nutrient from that food.

Magazines and websites include pretty charts that say things like,

Craving Chocolate? Your body needs magnesium!

While there might be a tiny shred of truth to this, most of the time this is baloney. Your body isn’t craving ice cream because you need calcium. Your body is craving ice cream because it tastes so darn good.

4 Steps to Gain Freedom Over Trigger Foods

From my own experience as a binge eater and from working with thousands of women, these are the stages to freedom with trigger foods.

The goal with trigger foods is to enjoy them in a typical portion, without binging or overeating them. Keep in mind this process is a slow and gradual one, and the final result may to look different for each person.

This is sometimes called legalizing food or habituation.

The Stages of Freedom with Trigger Foods

1. Abstain.
2. Not at home.
3. Measured control.
4. Freedom.

Stage 1 – Abstain from Trigger Foods

At stage one, you abstain from eating the trigger food for a period of time. Many people start with the management of trigger foods by eliminating them entirely.

You’ve probably done this at some point. You said something like…

• That’s it. I’m giving up all sugar.
• I won’t be buying Girl Scout cookies again.
• I can’t keep ice cream in the house.
• That’s the last time I buy a jar of peanut butter.

There are methods like Overeaters Anonymous, Bright Line Eating, and strict Whole Food, Plant-Based (WFPB) that preach life-long abstinence from specific foods like sugar, flour, grains, and animal products.

Life-long abstinence may be the best strategy for some people, but I find that for most people this isn’t realistic or desired.

A short period of time to eliminate trigger foods is a often good idea. Sometimes, none is easier than a little bit.

When I lost weight for the final time, I did not eat any cereal, French Fries, or certain types of ice cream for months. I knew that one bite would mean a full-out binge.

When I gave up Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper, I knew that I had to quit cold turkey. (It’s been 5+ years now and I still haven’t had one sip, because I know that once I start drinking it again, soon I’ll be back to drinking 5-6 bottles a day.)

You may need to take a short break from a trigger food in order to come up with an action plan for how you will manage it next time.

All Foods in Moderation?

There are people who preach strongly against any type of food abstinence. They believe that all people should eat all foods (except for medical reasons).

These methods say that once you let go of the restriction, you’ll naturally enjoy all food in moderation, and your desires to binge and overeat will decrease or go away completely. Intuitive eating, non-diet approaches, and the Health at Every Size (HAES, pronounced “haze”) movement teach this belief system.

I don’t fully buy into this. While I think it’s a nice thought, the truth is that some of us are much more genetically sensitive to the dopamine hit that certain foods provide, especially the processed foods that are available in unlimited quantities in our society today.

For us, freedom includes healthy boundaries. Part of finding freedom is allowing for boundaries to be different depending on the type of food, situation, and season of life.

Stage 2 – Keep Trigger Foods Out of the House

When you are ready to enjoy a specific food again without binging on it, the next step is to enjoy it, but not bring a full bag or carton at home.

This might include:

• Enjoy one dessert at a restaurant, but not bringing a whole cake, carton, or package home.
• Purchasing one item or portion and bringing it home to enjoy, such as one candy bar, one doughnut, or one slice of cake.
• Enjoying one ingredient (peanut butter, Nutella, chocolate chips) if it’s in something you enjoy out of the house, but you don’t bring that ingredient home in a full-sized package or jar.
• Purchasing for family members only brands or types of foods that you aren’t tempted to overeat, like buying chips, candy, crackers, and cereal that aren’t your personal favorites.

Remember that the goal is to enjoy treat food in one portion that fits into your daily calorie or points allowance, and is eaten with physical comfort. If you buy a restaurant-sized massive dessert and eat the whole thing at once, that’s not moving you toward food freedom.

Stage 3: Measured Control

During this stage, you begin to bring a former trigger food into the house in a carefully controlled way.

This includes:

• Purchasing individual, pre-sealed packages of foods, like small bags of chips, crackers, sweets, or granola, individual servings of nut butter, or a pre-measured cup of cereal.
• Pre-measuring portions of a food into zipper plastic bags or individual containers.
• Purchasing smaller amounts of trigger foods, like one box of 4 granola bars instead of the family pack, one small container of nuts instead of the jumbo carton, or a smaller bag of chips or box of cereal vs. the Sam’s Club or Costco-sized bag.
• Purchasing individually wrapped ice cream treats instead of a carton of ice cream.

Purchasing individual portions may be more expensive, but it’s worth it if it prevents you from binging on it.

Portioning out individual servings can be an effective strategy if that works for you, but keep in mind that some people find themselves snacking on the foods while they pre-portion them, or opening zipper bags and taking little bites out and then re-sealing them. (Both of those are behaviors I have done.)

In these cases, buying a factory-sealed individual serving is worth the extra expense.

I have a specific strategy for managing treat foods at home outlined here: The Holy Mess Treat Box.

Stage 4: Food Freedom

You’ll know that you’ve found freedom with a former trigger food when you can be around that food without it creating a great amount of anxiety and stress.

Food freedom looks like:

• you might eat it or you might not
• you can have it in the house without binging on it
• you realize part of a package went stale in the pantry because you never finished it
• you enjoy it, but it doesn’t call your name
• you might crave it, but the cravings don’t push you to do something you will regret

Is food freedom possible for you with all foods? To be honest, I’m not sure.

Some people find total food freedom as they work on these methods. Others find that freedom means keeping some foods off the regular daily rotation, but they eat them on occasion.

How to Legalize Foods

Legalizing foods means focusing on one specific food and intentionally bringing it back into your diet in a healthy amount.

Often this involves planning one portion of that food into your day every single day for awhile.

If you used to binge on Oreos, a period of time where you eat 2-3 Oreos (one serving) every single day after lunch might make it so that Oreos don’t call to you anymore.

Other people find that including a treat once a week is enough, like having pizza on Friday nights or wine on Saturday evenings.

Giving yourself permission to have may take the emotional charge out of it.

You might realize that the food doesn’t taste as good as you thought it would.

Then again, you might find that eating a trigger food leads to binge desires that are so strong, you are better off without it. In that case, take that food back to Stage 1 and abstain from it for awhile. Plan to try that food again later.

Your Personal Path to Freedom + My Before & After Experience

You might feel shame or embarrassment about your trigger foods.

You might ask yourself…

• Why can’t I eat a bowl of ice cream like a normal person (instead of the whole carton?)
• Why can’t I eat one serving of chips (instead of a whole bag)?
• What’s wrong with me that chocolate has such a hold on me?

None of these questions are helpful, and asking them pushes you away from food freedom.

The truth is that these foods are designed to work with your brain chemistry so that you overeat them, and it makes biological sense that you are driven to consume them until they are gone.

You are developing your personal freedom with trigger foods. Some foods might always stay in the earlier stages for you, or you might eventually have free choice with all foods.

As I write this, I’m 20 years into maintaining a 100 pound weight loss. My freedom with trigger foods has continued to evolve.

Foods I used to strictly abstain from (like cereal, ice cream, and French Fries), I now keep in the house and eat on occasion without binging on them. I like them, but they don’t call to me like they used to.

Some foods I still keep out of the house most of the time, like Nutella, chocolate-covered nuts, and granola. If I did bring them into the house, I would be careful about how I stored and managed them.

I have foods I am still working on like mixed nuts, peanut butter, cookies dough, and frosting.

Tips and Strategies for Getting to Food Freedom

Here are some ideas to make you trigger food management more successful.

• If you are like me and have many trigger foods, work on one specific food at a time. You might be abstaining from ice cream (stage 1), enjoying chocolate only on date nights at a restaurant (stage 2), bringing chips home in individual serving bags and putting them in your treat box (stage 3) and keeping boxes of cereal around for your kids because that doesn’t trigger you anymore (stage 4).
• Expect some anxiety. Many of us have trauma that drives us to overeat. The whole process of dieting and binging is a trauma in and of itself, too. Give yourself grace here.
• This didn’t become a problem overnight and it won’t be solved overnight, but if you continue to work on it bit by bit, you’ll be amazed at your progress when you look back.
• For more personalized help with trigger foods, and approaching your food issues from a Biblical perspective, check out the Faithful Finish Lines program I run together with my business partner, Becky. We offer in-depth help with getting to food freedom by keeping God at the center of your weight loss journey.

Do you struggle with managing trigger foods during weight loss? Which foods are triggering for you? Share about it in the comments below.