Do you have a secret stash? No, but I'm not really a binger or emotional eater. I like to eat because I enjoy food, as opposed to satisfying an emotional need or feeling like I need to eat everything in sight.
Who are you hiding it from? N/A
Why? N/A
How many (%) of us do you think hide their snack food? No clue. I'm curious why people do as the only reason I could think of were ones I mentioned above.
I have a stash. A huge, junky, candy stash. It's all my Halloween candy. I'm hiding it from my mom because I know if I don't she'll eat it all. I'm not even kidding, she has no self control. I told her she couldn't have any of my candy (I felt kind of selfish, but I knew it was out of concern for her), but she went and bought a huge bag of chips! She ate it to herself and then bought another! *sigh* Just goes to show that I can't fix her, only she can.
As for myself, I have all this candy in my closet, but I don't really touch it. I've had a few pieces of candy since Halloween, but I just don't eat it that much.
I hide some of my snack foods because if my family eats my special diet foods I will not be able to eat theirs. Sometimes they eat my protein chips, which I need like I need air, and I hide my MediFast crunch bars just in case someone discovers how good they are. :/
My teenage son eats all my diet jell-o's and it is really aggravating! I have no way to hide them because they need to be refrigerated. Sometimes I make up a batch of regular jell-o just for him so he will leave my jell-o alone.
Sometimes I put my name on things, like if I buy a special kind of yogurt or a yummy item for a recipe I am planning.
I also hide the kids' snacks from them, because if I don't, they will eat all their school snacks at home and then when I go to pack their lunches, there aren't any quick/easy things to throw a lunch together.
Most of my life, I have had secret (or convenient) stashes - even when I was living alone I kept "treats" in my bedside table and in the car. Having food nearby (whether it was "junk" food - or "diet food") was reassuring.
I started hiding food when I was 5 or 6 (some time after being put on my first diet in kindergarten).
I was always hungry (In kindergarten, I had 8 lbs to lose to be at a healthy weight. Today doctors would have advised my parents to let me "grow into" my weight, rather than try to put me on a strict weight loss diet, but 40 years ago, that was considered ok).
I started hiding food and eating in secret, because I was so hungry.
I thought I was an emotional and compulsive eater, but in the last several years I've learned that I'm not addicted to foods, only addicted to carbs - and it's more physiological than emotional. In fact, the high-glycemic carbs were even responsible for the mood swings. My emotions weren't causing my overeating - my eating was causing the emotional imbalance.
When I eat a lower-carb, mostly paleo-friendly diet, I don't have the emotional instability or the urges to binge, eat in secret, or hide/hoard food.
If I return to high-carb eating, these issues do tend to resurface (but usually it reminds me why I need to avoid these foods).
As to how many people hide food, I don't think anyone can make a good guess.
It's impossible to guesstimate "secret" behavior because it is SECRET. The only way to have a clue would be to observe it, and people don't let you observe it, because it's a secret.
Even "anonymous surveys" are notoriously inaccurate for secret/hidden behavior, because people under-report it. The incidence could be anywhere from 2% to 98%.
I think it's often assumed that overweight people hide and hoard food more commonly than thin folks, but of the people I've accidentally "caught" at it, most where thin.
The most annoying was a college room mate (she was actually more oddly proportioned than truly overweight. She was very thin everywhere except her waist and face). She thought I was going to steal her food, which I found both funny and offensive. She also would label all the food she did put in the refrigerator (my dorm refrigerator, by the way, which I chose to share). On the masking tape labels, she'd write her name and "do not touch." Which seemed really weird to me, because I never would have dreamed of eating her food without asking.
At first, I felt like doing the same with all my food, but I realized she wouldn't necessarily see that as odd. Instead, I decided to go out of my way to sweetly invite her to "help herself" to whatever I had placed in the fridge - even if it was something I normally wouldn't share with someone I didn't know really well - like restaurant leftovers.
To my knowledge, she never did, unless I actually offered her food to her directly, and even then she usually declined. I think she had more food issues than just "sharing," I think she had a germ phobia. I don't even think she was afraid of my eating her food, she was afraid that I would touch it (she usually only accepted food that was in a wrapper. For example she'd take a tootsie roll, but never a piece of candy from an open candy box or a chip from a bag or bowl).
I do ask my husband to keep some of my trigger foods out of site, but this isn't really hiding, because I know where they are, I just don't have to see them.
We'll also sometimes set food aside - or put a note on it - as a way to "claim" it for a specific purpose (say it's planned for tomorrow's breakfast or to make a recipe).
I hide my produce from my kids so they don't eat it all in one sitting!! My 3 year old will polish off a whole pint of strawberries and a package of carrots in 30 minutes flat if I don't hide them!
Do you have a secret stash? I used to. Not anymore
Who are you hiding it from? It started with hiding it from my parents who were a whole story in themselves...then my roommate (I didn't want her to think I ate junk!)... my guy.
Why? I felt guilty. It was more my binging tendencies than anything else. I would hide eating more than hiding food.
How many (%) of us do you think hide their snack food? No idea.
I don't keep a secret stash, but if I binge, you better believe I hide the evidence. I went as far as one day, eating my DH's leftovers as part of a massive binge.. I then went to the restauraunt, bought the same meal, ate half and put the other half in the fridge so he wouldn't know. So embarrassing and dumb. :-(
I have secret stashes on occasion for a lot of the sames reasons posted here. Other non dieting people will eat it, etc,..
A lot of times though, I like to hide treats and than bust them out when no one is expecting them, or when my husband is whining about wanting a treat. He gives me a hard time over it a lot, but 99.9% of the time, he's the one who benefits from it.
I don't hide food but I don't want my partner to go without treats simply because I cannot have them so I get her to hide her treats. Fortunately, at the moment she likes crystallised ginger, licorice and those sour tasting Haribo jellies, none of which I can stomach even if I craved sugar.
In my shameful days I did have an awful secret. I was really addicted to cans of condensed milk and I did sneak a couple into the grocery shopping and guzzle them while my partner was at work. I still have no clue why I did this but I still feel the shame of it and just plain need to forgive myself for being such a pigwidgeon.
How many of us hide food?
I told her she couldn't have any of my candy (I felt kind of selfish, but I knew it was out of concern for her), but she went and bought a huge bag of chips! She ate it to herself and then bought another! *sigh* Just goes to show that I can't fix her, only she can.
