6 Signs Your Almond Mom Caused Your Eating Disorder

Was your mom like this? This could still impact you today. Here are 7 invisible eating disorders that could have come from growing up with an almond mom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDofzdRTCk

I grew up in the eighties so I didn’t have an almond mom, I had a cigarettes and coffee mom. Same difference.

Yes to all of these. It has really strained my relationship with my mom. Exercise was punishment, the kitchen was “hers” and closed to me, daily weigh-ins… I could go on and on. Currently working with a therapist and a dietitian on all of this.

Don't forget almond Dad! Mine used to say, "That's not a single size serving!" no matter how much I would take. I still hoard food because of him.

So I am someone who as a child developed Binge Eating disorder that was mostly hidden and unnoticed till after I got married and felt secure and accepted by my husband and gained a tremendous amount of weight. (also struggled with self harm and was later diagnosed with CPTSD) I now have 14,12,10 & 8 year old girls that are watching their mom with 200lbs to lose. I have been open with them about how I used food to cope with emotions and trauma. Open about what I am doing to lose weight (50lbs down so far!) But reinforcing that food is fuel for our body and can be a source of enjoyment, but not to be a replacement for working thru our thoughts and emotions. We don't use terms like healthy or unhealthy, good, bad foods, I ask them to think about what foods are made of and what things our body probably needs more of to work well and feel good and what things might make us physically feel bad if we have to much of them. Living in America we have easy access to pretty much any kind of food we want, whenever we want. If there is something we really love we can have a few bites, enjoy it and be done, we don't have to stuff ourselves till we are sick like we can never have it again, or on the opposite side its ok to have a few bites of something purely for enjoyment because it taste good. It's hard as a parent to know the things you struggle with can effect your children negatively, I am just trying my best to be open and giving space for questions and talking thru things so they have a healthy, fun relationship with food that is not a burden to them as they grow up....

This video will be my undoing…you opened a door I have never seen before and after seeing it this controls my whole life. I never recognized this, but everything you mention here was present in my life and has me now in a terrible spot in my life. This is lifechanging. I need to think about this and listen to it few times more.

I basically had the opposite. There was a time I came home from college, and just before I left was given two bags of groceries. When I got back to my apartment I unloaded one bag, and found the next was filled with sweet rolls and cookies, chocolate and candies, etc. Way more than I could eat on my own before they would go stale. I took it all down to the student lounge.

Oh yes, this is her. Since 2020, I made the decision to better my health by taking daily walks and trying to eat better. Gradually the changes started to show. When my mom noticed she would say “you look good”. She never said this to me when I was heavier. Now it frustrates me when she says it. In addition, I can never eat when she visits. I feel like anything I pick is going to be met with criticism. I usually find myself making a Chick fil a run out of spite.

It's a lot like drug/alcohol prohibition vs addiction recovery. It might be necessary for someone with a food or drug addiction to impose rigid restrictions on their own intake in order to recover, but to impose it on someone who doesn't have those problems can often be counterproductive and lead to them wanting to binge on something that's forbidden instead of developing a healthy relationship with it.

I always thought of my stepmom as an almond mom, but I just realized my mom is also one. Now that I’m an adult with multiple sclerosis and deal w severe fatigue, I’m always hearing that I need to eat this or that or do this exercise. When I told my mom the trick I figured out to help me eat (a handful of chips helps stimulate my appetite) she was horrified even though I’ve lost 50 lbs in the last few years from my lack of appetite.

Wow. I had not heard of this before, but both my parents were exactly like this. It was and still is, how someone looks. My mom relishes when she can tell me her sister looks fat and how she looks better. She made me go on so many diets. Age 12, made me go to a very strict diet place. I live states away and she still tries to tell me how and what I should be eating. It's so toxic. The evil thing is I tell her I am not eating sugar and very low carbs, she sends boxes of those kind of foods.

What do you do when the food is genuinely bad and you want to raise your children with healthy ideals? The grocery store is filled with so much junk that is bad for you. I want my kids to know that dye is bad for you and to avoid seed oils, and whatever else I learn. How to properly go about this? I hate that I was raised on soda and candy. My parents didn’t know better though. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything by making small changes. (I’ve never had body issues I genuinely care about health though) I would of course allow sweets and desserts. I would just make them homemade when I can. Of course they can have a birthday cake. Chips are fine too. I also eat fast food occasionally! I’m not insane about it, but I just want them to know it’s not ideal to have 24/7. But for example.. Halloween candy? 😬 I don’t love the majority of the popular Halloween choices. I would give them alternatives. They still taste great! Companies are getting so good at making candy that’s “better” for you. Is that bad? Is it ok to inform them, but let them make their own decisions? Give them better options at home that are still fun? I’m not anti candy or anti sugar. The grocery shelves just sell the worst of the worst for no reason. Help please We will never get better options in stores if we just tolerate the crap they feed us. Where is the line?

You know, some of these "consequences," as opposed to "signs" are common ways you can relate to food in poverty too. Especially the scarcity mindset, self-esteem and shame issues, an obsession with appearance, stress, etc. All associated with food. I think that I sometimes have eating disorder behaviors from growing up in food scarcity. I've seen them in others for this reason too. I'd love to see a video on how poverty causes disordered eating behavior, or eating disorders. The way these disordered behaviors are treated in therapy also doesn't make sense for people whose disordered behaviors were caused by poverty. I'd love to hear a discussion about this.

Advice for finding balance? I want to encourage our kiddo (3) to eat whole foods, and also enjoy treats. But if we have treats in the house (which we often do), it's all he talks about :( We had donuts for Father's day and he struggled to eat anything else besides a few bites of sweet potatoes last night because he just wanted donuts. We try not to do the "you need to eat three bites of this to get that" thing. We explain that sugar isn't bad, but foods with lots of sugar/processed foods are "sometimes foods". But i think it makes him want them more still. Do we let him eat 6 donuts, and have nothing nutritious/filling for dinner, then wake up hungry in the night after his blood sugar crashes? How to we set healthy limits(?) without causing a scarcity mindset or orthorexia 😬Ideas would be so appreciated!

In her 50’s/60’s my mom put an old photo of herself in her flight attendant uniform from the 70’s (early 20’s), on our family fridge, as “motivation”…I don’t recall how old I was, but she use to tell me about “living on cans of tuna” in her 20’s and weekly weigh-ins as a flight attendant…My first time restricting I was 11/12 years old…

Having an almond mom is hard and I'm glad I got that realization because ever since I figured it out, now whatever she tells me I just tell her it's MY body and just simply block out any comment she has and I feel free. Before that, she had always made me feel bad about my body pointing out my weight every once in a while or telling me that the shirt I want is for skinny people and my self esteem has always been so low, the way I looked at my body was different every time. Now I've worked on accepting me and I no longer feel guilty for craving food, no longer look at cals or fats. I finally can stand up for myself.

My ex husband is an almond dad.

In the grand scheme, almond moms are just another nutty twist in the absurdity of existence.

Wow. So many of these were in my home. I had no idea. I can never tell when I’m full. Lots of powerful food guilt as well, and no surprise, lifelong weight challenges. Eyes opened.

Every summer I'd visit my grandparents for two weeks, states away from my parents and my grandmother was an almond grandma. I would get weighed every other day, berated for wanting seconds (i spent ALL DAY playing outside, i was burning a lot of calories), and always making comments on how "tight" my clothes were. My mom was into diet culture but never put it on me. My grandma was def the perpetrator of my bad relationship with food.