Food Rules Aren’t About Food
The quiet madness of carbohydrate fear — and how to gently step outside it
There’s a pattern I see often.
Someone tells me they haven’t eaten potatoes for years because they’re “too high in carbohydrate”. They avoid root vegetables. They feel uneasy about rice. Bread has long been exiled.
And yet, somewhere in the week, there’s a bar of Dairy Milk. A packet of chocolate chip cookies. A handful of snack foods eaten standing up in the kitchen.
This isn’t hypocrisy. It isn’t stupidity. It isn’t a lack of discipline.
It’s what happens when food rules quietly replace food.
How we sleepwalk into food rules
Most people don’t consciously decide to fear potatoes.
Food rules tend to accumulate slowly — gathered from headlines, diet books, social media posts, legacy eating plans, half-remembered advice, and well-meaning health campaigns. Over time, they begin to stack up:
Carbohydrates are fattening.
Sugar is toxic.
Don’t spike your blood sugar.
Avoid white foods.
Don’t eat after 7pm.
Individually, each message may seem reasonable or rooted in some kernel of truth. Together, they create a dense web of restriction.
And once enough rules are in place, eating becomes less about nourishment and more about compliance.
What’s often missing is a zoomed-out perspective — a reality check that allows someone to see the whole picture of how they’re actually eating, rather than how they think they "should" be eating.
Recognition alone can be powerful.
Why potatoes become scarier than chocolate
On paper, it makes little sense.
A boiled potato — rich in potassium, fibre, vitamin C, resistant starch when cooled — becomes a source of anxiety because it contains carbohydrate.
Meanwhile, ultra-processed foods that also contain carbohydrate (often alongside refined fats and additives) are mentally categorised as "treats", "naughty but allowed", or "I’ll compensate later".
The difference isn’t nutritional. It’s psychological.
Ultra-processed foods often come with clear internal scripts:
Eat quickly.
Eat privately.
Make up for it tomorrow.
Whole foods sit in a grey area. They require judgement, context, and trust. And when trust in the body has been eroded by years of dieting or conflicting advice, ambiguity can feel threatening.
Potatoes aren’t the problem. Uncertainty is.
Where carbohydrate actually fits
Part of untangling this requires a calmer conversation about carbohydrate itself.
Carbohydrates are not a single entity. They exist on a spectrum — from refined sugars to fibre-rich vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fruit.
In a balanced diet, carbohydrate-containing foods can:
Provide readily available energy for the brain and muscles
Support thyroid function and reproductive health
Contribute fibre for gut health
Promote satiety and meal satisfaction
Carry important micronutrients and phytonutrients
For many people — especially those who are active, menstruating, managing stress, or simply living full lives — carbohydrates are not optional extras. They are physiologically useful.
That said, we do live in a food environment where refined carbohydrates and ultra-processed products are abundant and heavily marketed. Navigating that landscape requires awareness — but awareness is different from blanket fear.
The presence of highly processed carbohydrate foods in the food system does not make a roasted root vegetable inherently problematic.
Context matters. Quantity matters. Individual physiology matters.
Rigid exclusion rarely tells the whole story.
The stress of worrying about food
There’s another layer that’s rarely discussed: the physiological impact of chronic food anxiety.
When eating is accompanied by vigilance, guilt, or constant self-monitoring, the nervous system shifts accordingly. Stress hormones rise. Digestion can become less efficient. Satisfaction diminishes.
Ironically, the stress of worrying about eating may be more disruptive than the carbohydrate in a potato ever was.
This isn’t an argument for chaos or abandoning all structure. Some people genuinely feel better with certain boundaries. Some medical conditions require careful carbohydrate management.
But many people are living by rules that were absorbed unconsciously, never re-examined, and never tested against their current reality.
Recognition as the key
Sometimes the most powerful intervention isn’t a new diet plan.
It’s noticing.
Noticing that “I don’t eat potatoes because they’re high in carbohydrate” exists alongside regular chocolate bars.
Noticing that fear is attached to whole foods but not to processed ones.
Noticing that the rules feel stabilising — but also exhausting.
Recognition doesn’t require shame. It simply opens the door to choice.
Instead of asking, “Is this food allowed?”
We might ask, “What does my body fancy right now — and what story am I telling myself about this food?”
Food rules often survive not because they’re logical, but because they make us feel safe in a confusing landscape.
But safety built on rigid avoidance can quietly narrow life.
A gentler approach doesn’t remove discernment. It replaces unconscious restriction with awareness, context, and trust.
And sometimes, that’s enough to step outside the madness.
If This Resonates With You
If you’re reading this and quietly recognising yourself — the potato avoidance, the carbohydrate anxiety, the mental negotiations around “good” and “bad” foods — please know this: nothing has gone wrong.
You haven’t failed at willpower. You haven’t misunderstood nutrition. You’ve likely just absorbed years of conflicting messaging without ever being given the space to zoom out and make sense of it.
In my clinic, we don’t start with rigid rules or prescriptive eliminations. We start with physiology, context, and curiosity. We look at what your body needs, how your digestion and hormones are functioning, how your stress levels and history with food might be shaping your choices. From there, we build something steady and realistic — not perfect, not extreme, but sustainable.
Often, the most powerful shift isn’t a new diet. It’s the relief of understanding how your body actually works. And from there, health improves tremendously.
If you’re ready to step out of inherited food rules and into something calmer and more grounded, you’re very welcome to explore my clinic services or get in touch. There is a way to eat well without fear — and without the quiet madness of contradictory rules running the show.
