Scarcity is definitely something that causes hoarding, whatever the resource is.

I'm plus sized and up until the last decade or so, it could be very difficult to find decent clothes that fit. Even now it can be a bit of a hunt to find the good stuff. So I'd find myself with fifty, sixty dresses stuffed into my closet, because I'd buy anything that looked good on me. Because what if I couldn't find something that good again?

It's taken several years of (relatively) abundant plus sized fashion to get into a mind set that more clothes will always be available and that I don't have to buy all the clothes. I still have more stashed away than I probably should, but I like to thing most of it is in wearing rotation at least.

there is someone who's GF in my family and i feel like that every time GF bread goes on a decent sale... the sell by date is so far away, that I stock up since it's ridiculously expensive otherwise!! it's crazy how much they charge for some GF items! (am dipping GF pretzels for easter today!)

I always feel bad when people buy GF baked goods on my behalf, thinking they're doing something nice for me. I really don't like them enough for -anyone- to spend money on them. They're gritty, or their texture is weird.

I think that's part of why I haven't used those baking mixes; I buy them out of hope, and then in the kitchen, i think, "it's a lot of work for something that's going to be disappointing."

And the calorie thing, as well.

I like regular food, though--lots of yummy stuff has no gluten in it whatsoever and never will. Chicken, pork, veggies, rice...

From where I stand, I call it stocking-up, or a home food storage plan. Hoarding is when you have it --- don't use it --- and keep getting more.

I'm gluten-free due to gluten sensitivity (since Jan. 2013) and I have, and rotate, enough food to last us a year using the LDS Church model, even though I'm not affiliated with the LDS Church. They have food storage down to a fine art and freely share their information. I literally "shop" at home first. Rarely run out of anything. And save even more money by making large purchases when something is at a stock-up, or rock bottom low price, and placing it in storage.

I have a food storage room in the basement where I maintain my storage plan on $125/month food budget (for 2 adults). So eating gluten-free, at least for myself and my husband, isn't any more expensive than when we weren't following a gluten-free diet and maintained the exact same food storage plan, because that is what my food budget has been for many years.

I already had hundreds of pounds of grains/seeds/beans in storage (many of them were gluten-free). I still use wheat (and other similar grains even though they contain gluten - barley, spelt, kamut, rye, triticale, etc.) for growing grass and juicing it in the fall and winter (it works best when you can maintain a fairly cold ambient temperature). The grass (as long as it doesn't get over 8-10" tall) doesn't contain gluten. So that's one way I can still use the gluten-containing grains I had in storage before going g-f, plus enjoy all the health benefits from the juice. If I had Celiac disease, I probably wouldn't use wheat in this way, but I have a couple Celiac friends who grow wheatgrass and juice it without any issues. My mother had Celiac disease (diagnosed in the 1980's), so I've been cooking/baking gluten-free for decades. LONG before it was so readily available. Even our Wal-Mart has a whole isle of gluten-free foods.

I make most of my g-f foods/baked goods from scratch, mill most of my own g-f flours, and make my own baking mix and other all-purpose mixes. I did exactly that before going g-f, so all that has changed are the grain choices and some new recipes. I also make some of my own nut flours and coconut flour, but I also purchase them (usually from Honeyville Grain when they have a sale).

When deciding to go g-f, I chose not to exchange one problem, gluten, for another one, starches and flours that are highly-processed and high-glycemic. Most commercial gluten-free products would only contribute to blood glucose issues, and that's something we're trying to avoid by being low-carb (since the 1990's). I was using almond flour (and other nut flours) and coconut flour for low-carb baked goods long before going g-f in order to try to prevent diabetes (which runs rampant in hubby's family). He's gluten-free at home (and only rarely eats gluten away from home - like the sandwiches served after he gives blood), and is such a good sport about it. He says he hasn't missed anything by joining me when I went g-f. He also lost 20-pounds by going gluten-free, and I lost 15, and that was an unexpected bonus.

Much of the gluten-free foods produced for the commercial market are loaded with rice flour, and rice has it's problem with arsenic, so I choose to use brown rice varieties that are lower in arsenic, and I sprout brown and black rice, dehydrate it, and mill my own rice flour in order to lower the amount of arsenic, increase the nutrition, and lower the phytates and glycemic impact. I also mill my own cornmeal, but I've done that for decades, along with milling most of the flour I use for cooking/baking.

It's certainly a different strokes-for-different-folks situation. I'm gluten-free, but I choose whole foods and leave the commercial choices in the store and make my own from nutrient-dense whole foods. More work, but I think our health is worth the extra effort. The gluten-free isle at the store just doesn't have a lot of influence or place in my grocery cart. We probably eat less "junk" food and empty calories by avoiding the commercial side of gluten-free food choices. But we don't do without, we just do "different".

-Grainlady

Grainlady, you wrote: "Hoarding is when you have it --- don't use it --- and keep getting more."

That's why I said, "I'm hoarding gluten-free food!" I have it, I buy more, and I never use it.

Specifically, I'm hoarding gluten-free baking stuff. And part of why I'm not using it is, like you I tend to just eat whole foods. We cook meat, we eat vegetables.

And I've been avoiding baking, bcs it's fattening, and the GF baking stuff is not particularly satisfactory, for the effort involved.

talley_sue_nyc-

I think baked goods can be part of a balanced diet, and they don't need to be fattening - it's how much and how often..... I've believed it as a certified nutrition instructor as well as a homemaker. On the down side, not many of the gluten-free recipes give you nutrition information, so you have to do some detective work yourself to figure it out. What kinds of things would you like to make, and what are some of the brands of ingredients you have "hoarded" away? Maybe all you need is a "good" recipe and inspiration go give some things a try. Wasted food is the most expensive food we buy!

A recipe example: I had one banana that needed a new-lease-on-life this morning, so I made a recipe for Super-Simple Banana Cookies (1 small ripe banana, 1 c. oats, 2 T. dried dates - chopped fine, 2 T. chopped pecans, 2 T. coconut oil, vanilla and a pinch of salt (optional). Form into 12-dollops - I use a #50 portion scoop - flatten until they are 1/4" thick and I baked them in my convection/microwave oven - 350° 23-25 minutes. As hubby likes to put it, it's how we can eat 1 c. of oats without it being oatmeal ;-). The twelve 2-inch cookies will last us for 3-4 days. I usually make this recipe once or twice a month. I'm also a stickler about serving sizes and the number of servings from the 4 food groups we consume each day.

I have a short list of recipes I use 1 banana in, like a G-F Banana Snack Cake which uses 1/4-cup butter for an 8-inch cake, which at our house is 16-servings. Serve it with some fresh fruit and you won't require large pieces. Wolfing down food without savoring each lovely bite is one cause of over-eating, so slow down and one small piece of cake will be most satisfying. This recipe is generally made on Friday or Saturday morning for the weekend drop-by traffic. People who eat it love it and never realize it's gluten-free.

I make small silver dollar pancakes using 2 eggs and 1 ripe banana. It's more than enough pancakes for the two of us. I also make Buckwheat Banana Pancakes (using 1 ripe banana) and the fat is from 2 T. of peanut butter - not even an egg in the recipe. We have pancakes every Monday morning and the recipes are made from a variety of ingredients - cooked quinoa, soaked oats, and sprouted lentils. None are high-fat or high-sugar, and I always keep a stack in the freezer. Some pancakes will actually work as a sandwich wrap, in a pinch.... if you add some chopped chives and dill weed the pancake wraps are a substitute for the much loved dill bread.

One loaf of g-f banana bread makes twelve 1/2-inch-slices and has 2 T. oil and the fat from 3-eggs in the recipe. But those three eggs, along with the almond flour and coconut flour also make them high in protein and fiber, and the 2"x3"x1/2" slice is more satisfying than eating two or three slices of traditional banana bread baked in a 9x5-inch loaf, with all it's sugar and empty, addictive, carbs from wheat flour. Carbs make us fat as well. That loaf of banana bread will last us for 6 Sundays. We have one slice of a quick bread as part of breakfast each Sunday.

We have one regular-size muffin as part of breakfast on Saturday morning. Another place to get whole grains like oats and quinoa, and I make sure it's also high-protein, low-fat, and low-sugar. So one recipe making 12-muffins will last for 6 weeks. Once again, serve it with fresh fruit.

Baked goods are just one source of fat in our diets, and it all adds up no matter what the source is, but fat is also an essential element for good health and we should include "good" fats in our diet. Eating too much of anything is a waste of food, so I would start there for inspiration, rather than worrying about one type of food in the diet. In truth, over-eating is not much of an option on a $125/month food budget for 2 adults (I typically allot $10/week for meat, and try to keep meat purchases to $2 per pound, or less). Hubby takes his lunch to work, and we rarely eat out, but there are home-baked goodies available as part of our regular diet.

If you haven't discovered Elana Amsterdam's web site - http://elanaspantry.com/ - you might give it a look. I've used so many of her recipes from her web site, and I also have copies of "The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook", and "Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry" by her.

-Grainlady

I do this with shoes that fit my slightly odd feet.

Growing up, they were so hard to find. I got used to snagging a pair if I ever found something cute and/or useful that fit. Then for a while they were plentiful, and I accumulated quite a few pairs. Now size inflation has hit the shoe department -- or else my feet have shrunk -- and the size I now wear is uncommon.

So... now I have all these shoes that fit the fashion and my life, 10 years ago...

Eww... what?! This is my first post since the changeover to houzz, and they changed my username! How did THAT happen?!

Well hey, at least the first step is to recognize that the things you are doing aren't working-- now you can change your approach and stop buying those baking mixes, right?

The story about the bananas reminds me of something I heard a few years ago--- that during the beef shortage in the 70s, people wasted large quantities of beef. It was the mentality and perception that they needed to buy it when they could because it was perceived to be scarce- then they didn't plan well with this impulse. It must be human nature to do this.

Where I grew up, we always had a lot of extra food around in case of emergency. I've come to realize as an adult, that while it's good to have some excess food on hand, it's like all the other clutter problems I face. If it's not well organized, I can never seem to keep track of what I have and then feel like there's nothing to work with. I struggle between keeping emergency food stock on hand, and feeling overwhelmed when there's more than I can wrap my head around. :(

nila42, I'm sort of hoarding shoes right now. I have wide feet, and I'm used to not being able to buy shoes. But a couple of years ago, Payless started carrying more wide sizes, and I sort of went nuts. (though, it's probably a good thing, because they don't have quite as many cute styles as they did, at least not lately).

When I lost 30 lbs, I found that grain-based foods did not really work for me. I was calorie counting and I just found that, calorie-for-calorie, grain-based foods fell short in terms of pleasure and feeling full and satisfied. My suggestion would be for you to decide a small area in your freezer to a few gluten free mixes and toss the rest. I remember when I was hoarding specialty gluten free stuff myself - my pantry got infested, I had to toss a lot, and I had to get really hardcore about recognizing what foods should be stored and for how long. Anything with starch goes stale relatively quickly.