Many people find "cold turkey" to be an effective way to discontinue bad habits or addictive behaviors. It's brutal, but carrying it out is simple and binary.
You can't do that with food. Your only choice is to develop moderation, restraint, and discipline. You're forced to always be around temptation. To always indulge at least a little, but hopefully somehow not too much.
This is much harder to do. And you have to keep doing forever — even when you're tired or stressed or bored or whichever feelings trigger your bad habits. For life.
"Eat less" / "eat veggies" is a mechanical solution to an emotional and physiological problem. The GP is highlighting that some tools we apply to similar problems can't be applied here, and so we see poor results and higher recidivism.
The point is that black and white, all or nothing is easier for many to stick to. It’s easier to not be tempted by a cigarette if you never see one or hang out with someone who smokes. With food, you can’t take approach.
That is fair but you can't pretend all food is bad when that's not true. That is what I took issue with.
You can eat as many greens and lentils as you want. No such thing with cigs
The fact you can’t pretend _is the point_. A blanket policy of “no and never” that works well for other addictions or compulsions can’t be applied to food. :)
As a counter-factual, imagine if every time you wanted to smoke you had to decide if one particular type or brand of cigarette was good for you.
Except stopping is much harder than not starting. I can relate, I can go weeks/months without drinking. But then I have a beer and it turns into 10+ before the night is over.
I'm lucky I don't have the problem with food, because you cannot just avoid it like other "bad habits".
You can't do that with food. Your only choice is to develop moderation, restraint, and discipline. You're forced to always be around temptation. To always indulge at least a little, but hopefully somehow not too much.
This is much harder to do. And you have to keep doing forever — even when you're tired or stressed or bored or whichever feelings trigger your bad habits. For life.
"Eat less" / "eat veggies" is a mechanical solution to an emotional and physiological problem. The GP is highlighting that some tools we apply to similar problems can't be applied here, and so we see poor results and higher recidivism.