Gateway Foods: The Slippery Slope of “Just a Bite”
The holidays are coming and with them the food. Maybe with Halloween come and gone, the season is already upon you in your social/work/family circles. Beyond the actual meals themselves, there are the umpteen parties, open houses, potlucks, lunches, brunches, happy hours, coffee hours, bake sales, soup suppers, and bazaars – as well as the continual conveyer belt of office/shop/home display of every sweet and savory (mostly sweet) treat known to humankind. As fun as it all is, the holidays can be a seasonal equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle – a festively decorated abyss where good intentions get swallowed along with the latest Martha Stewart recipe.
We Primal types bring both common sense and the reasonable 80/20 Principle to the holiday season (as any other occasion). We partake moderately and selectively. We use ingenuity and well cultivated Primal taste to create (or adapt) our own choice holiday delicacies. In short, we have no problem enjoying the party. We’re just rarely the ones with the proverbial lampshade on our heads at the end of the buffet table, so to speak. We can enjoy our favorite dishes without chucking every goal and standard we have for our health. Nonetheless, even those of us with the most stalwart wills and number of years under our Primal belts wisely steer clear of a few foods out of sheer sensibility.
Most of us have at least one. I’m talking about those foods you know in your heart of hearts (and maybe hard experience) can send you down a slippery slope. Maybe it’s the taste, the plain sugar rush, or the emotional association. Whatever the source of temptation, it’s a Pandora’s Box better left undisturbed.
I’ve been Primal so long that I don’t get conventional cravings much. Even when I indulge and have a few bites of really good pie or bread once in a while, I’m no worse for the wear. When I’m done with the piece, I’m done. That was delicious. Case closed. Some foods, however, are more problematic. For me, it’s Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream. (Yes, there it is.) Ice cream was a relic of my extreme training days, and there’s just something about Cherry Garcia. A little too easily turns into a lot. I find it’s just better to stay away.
Is your mind wandering to any particular foods now? It seems the holidays are a common time for their appearance – or maybe omnipresence. They’re the foods that once tasted, beckon you to keep coming back. (You can just hear that apple strudel calling you….) More than just good, more than just run of the mill tempting, they’re downright precipitous.
True gateway foods can wreak havoc with more than just your intended portion size, however. Suddenly, other things start looking good that you’ve had no taste for in a long time. This particular surrender to temptation can become a catalyst for a broader descent like a gateway drug leading you to something bigger and badder. You’re one brownie away from inhaling half the dessert buffet. (Or half those leftover Halloween candies taking up space in the cupboard still?)
Histrionics aside, these are foods I suggest leaving out of the 80/20 picture because they’re just too complicated to be worth it. As much sentimental value as they might have or as good as they might be, if they can’t be a moderate end in themselves, it’s just better to bench ‘em.
All this said, it’s illuminating to see how much power we often assign to food. It’s an inanimate object. It’s one among a bazillion choices we have for things to eat. Yet, we can feel certain foods have a hold on us. We consider them a nemesis, their presence on this earth a continual threat to our well-being like some kind of personal kryptonite. It’s a power relationship, of course, entirely constructed in our heads. By all means, avoid a specific food if it imposes more complication than it’s worth. If it’s a presence in itself even when you don’t eat it, that one likely calls for some deeper examination.
With the holidays coming, I always suggest folks think about how they’re going to enjoy it Primally – especially if this is your first holiday season since going Primal. Think about each event and how you’ll handle it – what you’ll eat and what you won’t. Being honest about any gateway – or otherwise thorny – food items is a big part of this. It’s usually easier to control our environments at less social times of the year. What will it mean to stay Primal within a fully conscious 80/20 framework this holiday season – in the midst, for example, of a big family Thanksgiving dinner and the other upcoming celebrations? Sometimes the best strategy is knowing where, when and how you’ll graciously say “no thanks.”
Now I’ll turn it over to you. Do you have a “gateway” food that you steer clear of for the greater good of your Primal self? Share you tips and stories, and thanks for reading today.
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
One of my clients has recently seen Dr. Daniel Amen (The Amen Solution) speak on the local PBS station and in person at an event. He warns against sugar not just for its effect on the body, but also the mind . . .
Few bites of pie and bread? According to Dr. Thomas O’Brien (gluten and celiac expert) says just like you can’t be a little bit pregnant, you can’t be a little bit gluten free. You’re either gluten free or not.
That’s why the life of a celiac can be so grim and obsessive. A crumb of bread in the peanut butter jar from someone spreading it on their wheat toast can make you sick and you probably won’t fully recover from such an exposure for 6 months. He also says your body may react to milk protein as if it were gluten. The exception is camel and ass milk, they are the closest thing to human milk.
Antipasto (cured meats, roasted peppers, provolone, olives and assorted pickled vegetables) is my gateway to crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside italian bread.
Know what’s killing me right now?? The big long list of “foods” everyone’s talking about! Maybe we need a post (or several) on how to primalize this stuff! Sprouted wheat for the apple pie crust? Frozen bananas in a blender to replace ice cream? Call the post/ebook something like “Primal Hacks”. Make some YouTube videos to promote it. What do you guys think? We can all pitch in recipes/ hacks for the content.
cookies [really any baked good] and peanut butter and chocolate are my down falls/”gateway”
I have note found a system yet that works for me. I swear this article was directed toward me.
I have been able to give up a LONG list of bad for me stuff, 2L/day of MtDew being the worst if it. But my Kryptonite is Fritos Corn Chips. I don’t even shop the “chips” aisle, but yesterday they ambushed me with a 10′ tall endcap of Fritos. (Sad confession… 2 large bags of Fritos in my pantry right now).
The best way to make temptation go away is to give in to it! Pass the apple pie!
Since there was no such thing as cavemen, how do we know what they ate or didn’t eat? Grok is a krok.
Challah bread. Oh my goodness, challah bread. Rich and sweet and eggy, with just a bit of salted butter on it. Drool…
But of course I’ve found it’s not worth it, because I’m in the bathroom for the rest of the night with intense stomach pain, gas, and other incredibly nasty symptoms. I try to avoid anything with even the texture of bread.
I can pretty easily avoid most baked desserts, but bread is still hard. Oh, and Peach Snapple. Used to inhale that stuff by the case.
Medjool Dates — and we aren’t talking the dried kind in the red bag — i mean the big, fresh ones from whole foods — I can never just eat one… it turns into 6
Funny, I haven’t had a dessert in about 2 decades, and I don’t miss it.
I did eat a donut about 9 months ago and was stunned at the reaction. I think it was the reaction to grease they deep fry those things. I had to go to the bathroom within 15 minutes.
As to the holidays? Check this out, I make every Xmas/NY:
Quiche Lorraine & spinach salad. Bacon, eggs, GOOD gruyere cheese, carmelized onions (in the bacon grease), and creme. In the salad, 1 lb of bacon, tomatos, more onions, mushrooms.
Then cheese & beef fondu w/ New England style clam chowder.
Trust me, after pounding this down, there is no room for dessert (LOL)!
My sweet tooth left me long ago – don’t miss it.
I have a huge weakness for Coldstone icecream. I usually spoil myself once a month, and just induldge in a “cookie dont you want some” love it serving size.
I usually just have homemade dark chocolate in the freezer to taste every once in a while to keep my sweet tooth under control.