Lays says: “betcha can’t eat just one”, Pringles says: “once you pop, you can’t stop”.
Trigger foods are those foods that cause us to keep on eating even when we should be full. Case in point: The fact that I can’t stop until I finished the whole damn pint of Ben and Jerry’s, and just maybe one bite of pizza causes me to go on to eat massive quantities of other tasty but evil delights such as chips, cheese, brownies, fritos and cake. I even get crazy cravings the next day after consuming said trigger foods. Duh, my trigger foods of pizza and ice cream are pretty “bad-for-me” foods anyway and hence logically should be avoided if I want to eat healthy, but what about whole grain bread, cereal and greek yogurt? They have a similar trigger effect on my brain. I can easily eat 5 plus slices of bread with butter in one sitting and still not be satisfied. It’s important to figure out your own personal trigger foods and realize what they do to your body and brain. Know that everyone has a unique set of trigger foods (mine are not yours!) and know that these trigger foods can change over time.
Buffer foods are the good guys. They are not necessarily 100% “good for us all the time fat loss friendly” foods but we can taste them in small quantities and our cravings will magically disappear or at least be tempered enough until our next meal when we are legitimately hungry again instead of simply craving. My personal favorites are: one tablespoon of peanut butter, the ME cocoa drink, a square of dark chocolate, BCAAs in water and apples. Each individual must experiment to find his or her own magic buffer foods. A buffer food for one person might be a trigger food for another, and sometimes one of your buffer foods could actually morph into a trigger food, so do your research and watch out!
Robin Hersh Fitness 