I think the reference to "collecting" was a kind of a joke,a way we rationalize...

I have a bunch of fabric I inherited from DH's grandmother...

Ian proud of you, I got rid of some things I was ignoring on top of my dresser, thanks for that! I did some laundry today, so the closet tomorrow.

Best to all

Would anyone like to exchange some canned fish for divine, hard-to-come-by fabric?

You're just planning ahead, and being polite. Koreans have separate refrigerators for kimchi because of the smell.

It's definitely toeing the line though. What else do you think about or do for fun?

Ian, I have hoarding/hiding tendencies, too. And I know what you mean about becoming obsessed with food, and can see how those two practices can easily intertwine.

What do you think would be a reasonable number of cans to have? Pick a number, x cans of mackerel, y cans of crab, z cans of salmon. Write it down, keep an inventory. Then, if you really can't keep to that, if you find yourself struggling with that number, rationalizing why you need more, you might consider talking to someone about it or doing some self-help reading?

I hate the food obsession -- I'm so sorry to hear you're feeling it.

Ian,

I tend to be an impulse buyer and as a result have too much food. I found out that the following plan works for me

1. Inventory your food stash at work and at home.
2. Then make a shopping list of items you really need.
3. Go to the grocery store and buy ONLY the items on your list. NOTHING ELSE

I do this with my sardines to some extent, but I wouldn't call I hoarding because I don't have an emotional component to it. It's cheaper and makes sense to acquire them at discount, in large quantity, when is eat it every day. But I'm not storing 'just because', but rather because I'm eating them every day

It sounds like you have a good handle on this - just keep it in perspective and manage what you already have and I think you'll be fine.

You're pretty far from a hoarder based on your post.

What concerns me is the amount of fish (canned or otherwise) you're consuming. I have tried to determine what is safe to avoid long term mercury poisoning but it seems that we simply don't know.

5 cans a day may be putting you at risk.

Ian, I am really glad you posted about this. I have struggled with this for many years, but it is only when I am restricting/dieting. I didnt know that it is something present with anorexia, but that makes sense. In case you havent seen elsewhere on the boards, I have a long history of starving (days weeks or months) then binging (for days week even months of out of control eating).

In my earilier years I lacked insight into what I was doing (food hoarding) but aftetr many years I have mentally and emotionally approached this and this is what it was for me.

I had "safe" foods. Foods tht I felt would not make me fat, but really it was food that I could eat without guilt, without scolding myself or belittling myself for hours and hours afterwards (I'm so fat, weak, I ate XYZ). My fear was that I would run out of my safe foods and eating something else, anything else produced such anxiety that hoarding those safe foods helped make be feel less anxious about it. I still do this, but I literally talk myself through it on a daily basis. Sometimes I try to eat unsafe foods that are on plan just to deal with the anxiety it gives me.

Then at some point this seems to shut off, something just triggers a binge and I find myself eating eventhing I couldnt before because now I can do it "guilt free"...until I start restricting again...but during binge times...NO hoarding at all!!

Wannybeskinny posted a thread on the general chatter board, a link to a video regarding what its like to be anorexic, and its so true. The noise that comes from eating unsafe foods. And safe food vary from person to person, and mine have even changed at times depending on what new nutritional information I learned.

I should also say I came from a very financially stressed background, but some how I dont think thats playing into this as much as the reason I explain above.

I dont know if this is what is behind your food hoarding, but if it is, I hope my post helped.

I do wonder about what JohnP said, as I've read that as well about mercury poisoning. We get warnings about that from the game and parks commissions on not to consume too much fish that we've caught.

I wonder if that applies to canned...saltwater fish or if that's only a problem with freshwater fish here in the US.

Probably worthwhile checking into that.

Thanks for all the great advice, responses and concerns and from so many of my 3FC "heros" too!

On mercury, I try to be careful with that. I eat mostly smaller fish lower down the food chain where this is likely to be less of a problem (e.g. sardines, anchovies, wild salmon).

The stuff I limit, but still eat occassionally and store, are albacore tuna, some of the bigger mackeral and (fresh, not canned 'cos it's real hard to find) swordfish.

To be honest, though, I'm willing to take the risk of mercury, PCBs etc. given the other health benefits (e.g. Omega 3s, lean protein etc.). But if I start going mad (sorry...even more mad), you'll know why.

However, if I were a woman looking to have a child some day, I am not at all sure I would play this game given the potential risks to infants. And my very young kids won't be getting this diet either as per mom's instructions (but a little oily fish won't harm them every now and again).

That being said, I enjoyed 4 cans today with some 'fresh' fish...Bar Harbor canned kippers, Polar canned Jumbo Lump Crab, a pouch of Good News Tuna Company smoked Albacore tuna and some fresh smoked salmon with 10 anchovies (I buy raw anchovies salted in a 2.2lb can, fillet them and soak them to reduce the sodium). All eaten with a hearty salad as is the norm. And oats for breakfast.

Arctic Mama, sardines are my go-to too. I currently have 30 cans at home and 20 cans at the office. Yum. (I've started that inventory Larry H!).

Krampus, I also eat kimchi (daily) and love it. I would stock more of it but I eat it too fast so a stash never builds. I should learn to make it but I'm too lazy so just buy Lucky Food's kimchi instead. It's wonderful. But does smell of smelly feet (don't say that to a Korean!). I guess those extra fridges are an investment then!

Hoarding is a term I reserve for dysfunctional stockpiling - when you have so much stuff, you can't find or can't get to what you want when you need it, so you go buy more even though you know you have it somewhere. Or when your stockpiles are taking over your living space to the point you're embarassed to let people see your home or a significant part of it.

At one point my collection of craft supplies crossed into a hoarding situation. Hubby bribed me to cull the hoard with the promise of new furniture and storage for the room.

I still have stockpiling and collection issues with craft supplies, and food items.

Foods I have collecting issues with, or have had in the past include especially low-calorie sweeteners, pickles, powdered drink mixes, canned fish, oatmeal, gluten free flour mixes and noodles.

I have a plastic storage container a little bigger than a shoe box devoted to Crystal Light and similar drink mixes and another of low-calorie teas, coffees, and hot cocoa and another for flavoring syrups and extracts and another for a huge assortment of soup and bouillon cubes mostly from the asian market.

For a while, I had a huge assortment of canned fish and shellfish from the asian market - mostly in curries and other strongly and uniquely flavored curries and sauces. I still usually have an assortment of at least 5-10 cans, I usually don't let it get bigger than that because we now live only a couple blocks from a well-stocked asian market.

I also have about 30 bottles and jars of asian condiments - fish and soy sauces, vinegars, rice wine, hoisin, seasoning and soup pastes, chili pastes... the shelves on the fridge door are packed.

I also love asian snacks like seasoned nori strips and "prepared" squid or cuttlefish (essentially pink shreds of sweet or sweet and spicy squid/cuttlefish jerky). I usually have at least a few packages of seafood or seaweed snacks of some sort on hand. The squid is my favorite.

We have a huge walk-in pantry in our kitchen (almost as big as our last apartment's bathroom), so there's a lot of space to fill before food item stockpiles become unmanageable, but we're pretty much ready for the zombie apocalypse.

Thanks kaplods! I am not at all at your definition of hoarding, so that is useful and comforting.

I just keep very generous stocks.

But, like you in the past, I do enjoy collecting pickles (especially Amish!), canned fish (obviously) and oats. Ouch!

Another Sardine lover, yay. I hoard them too. With them, you have no mercury worries.

Just wanted to say, another oat "hoarder" here! lol...

With the hoarding shows now we have an extreme example that most of us can't identify with. However, if you feel like you're keeping things out of fear, anxiety, maintaining a sense of calm, or whatever then even if it's not the extreme definition of hoarding there is still a problem. It seems like you've hit a nerve there, like you've figured out that this might cross into problem territory and you're not comfortable with that. No harm in addressing this issue.