Smoking and gambling addictions may be more frowned upon than a healthy food obsession – but while the latter can be beneficial to your health, can it ever be too much of a good thing?
Redditor attn2deta1l thinks so and is very concerned for her boyfriend’s well-being.
However, confronting her boyfriend about his particular food obsession did anything but bear fruit. So she took to the “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) subReddit to ask strangers:
“AITA for being concerned with my boyfriend’s obsession with apples?”
The Original Poster (OP) started her post by suggesting that her boyfriend takes a well-known mantra too far.
“So my bf takes the saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ very very serious.”
“He usually has a minimum of 3 apples a day. The first one, he eats in the car on the way to work. He tells me he just throws the apple core out of the window into grass which is a bit douchey for littering IMO but whatever.”
“The second, he usually eats before or after lunch. Then the third is before he brushes his teeth at night. Not gonna lie, I don’t think this is healthy.”
“I mean, it’s bad to have things in excess right? I understand that apples are good for you but this is a tad bit too far, not to mention it can become kind of expensive and takes up a significant amount of space in the fridge. (He wants his apples cold and ‘crispy’)”
“So it was my turn to get groceries. The store was a complete clusterf’k and I was stressed trying to social distance and I completely forgot to get the apples as well as some other things too.”
“It was not malicious at all, and I only realized this once we got home and unpacked the food. He starts losing his sh*t, that he’s only got enough apples to last till the end of the day and he needs it for his drive to work tomorrow.”
“I said, you ‘need it’? What’s gonna happen if you don’t have a morning Apple? He claimed that it just gets his day going, that eating the apple calms his mind down and eases stress.”
“I told him that this makes me a bit concerned and that there’s other, healthier ways of coping and offered to find a therapist for him.”
“Well he wasn’t happy with that, he visibly got stressed out and just hopped in the car. I suppose he went to the grocery store because he came back with a couple bags of apples but he locked himself in the basement and hasn’t come out since.”
“What have I done wrong in this situation? I’m just concerned for him.”
Anonymous strangers on the internet were asked if and where guilt belongs by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
“YTA. Maybe he has an addiction to eating apples, but it sounds like a very healthy addiction.”
“We all have our vices and he chose something that’s good for him. YTA for discouraging that and making him feel like something is wrong with him for enjoying apples every day.
“By the way this is the most bizarre AITA I’ve read in a long time.” – endora6
The thread sparked an interesting discussion on what qualifies as an addiction.
“You literally cannot get ADDICTED to apples. They aren’t Vicodin.”
“I’m autistic and like to eat the same things day after day. There’s nothing wrong or bad about it. I wish I wanted apples instead of caramilk bars!” – wolfcaroling
“Hey no offense but people’s addictions work in different ways. There’s no drugs in gambling but you can get addicted to that.”
“No reason someone else couldn’t get addicted to apples (just weird as sh*t).” – ndu867
“In order for something to qualify as an addiction, it has to be a compulsion which is interfering with your life.”
“It doesn’t sound like he is neglecting his friends for apples, stealing to get Apple money, or showing any other signs of addiction. He doesn’t keep trying to quit apples and repeatedly fail at it. He doesn’t keep promising to reduce his intake and fail.”
“People use the word ‘addiction’ far too lightly. It mocks and makes light of what addicts go through and struggle with.” – wolfcaroling
“He panicked, said he needs it to start his day, and rushed off to buy it immediately. That’s an interference in your life.”
“I like coffee a lot, I have a locker at work filled with different coffees and coffee brewing items. If I forget to restock my coffee, I don’t panic and jump in the car to get another bag of it.”
“I suck it up for the shift, maybe even set of shifts, and get some more coffee when I finally have free time to hit the store again.” – mrtnmyr
“Dude literally might be neurodivergent and rely on apples as a part of his routine. Many people do get pretty pissed and anxious when a large part of their daily routine is messed up. Those routines are not addictions.”
“Not only that, but this post started off as a spiel against apples, and I hardly think OP hasn’t made her view known to her SO. The guy was agitated about having to go and get more apples because his routine was ruined and he’d have to go out of his way, and out of his routine, to remedy it.”
“It didnt seem like he got actually angry until OP used it as an opportunity to tell him to go get counseling.”
“This just seems like another way that neurotypical people love to question neurodivergent people for just existing in our non-harmful ways.”
“He eats a lot of apples! That’s it. Some people drink enough to be binge drinkers because of the clinical definition, or have their entire moods dictated by coffee, but we dont go around suggesting they get professional treatment for their ‘problems.'” – NothingISayIsReal
When a Redditor implied that the boyfriend’s “addiction” to apples was “healthy,” it remained debatable.
“Even that’s questionable at a certain point. Apples contain somewhere around 20g of sugar.”
“Three apples is about as much sugar as a can and a half of Coke, of which one can of Coke is already over the recommended amount of sugar for a day. Now, apples are undoubtedly better than Coke because there’s good stuff in there too, but it’s still a lot of sugar.”
“It’s usually not a problem on its own because you are getting that other good stuff. But I have seen some people increase their fruit intake so much that they actually gained weight because of it in spite of cutting out other sources of sugar as part of a diet. Everything in moderation.” – SJHillman
“Are you ignoring the fact that he’s getting upset and is distressed from not having his apples? The problem isn’t him eating 3-6 apples a day, it’s his behaviour in regards to this habit.”
“Why is she the one being criticized for ‘having her panties in a bunch’ over his behaviour in regards to this habit and not him for freaking out from missing out on apples for one day? Why is it okay for him to freak out over something so small?”
“If he wasn’t freaking out, maybe just showed a little disappointment, sure, that’s totally fine and normal. However, he’s straight up freaking out and treating his SO poorly over this. It goes beyond a healthy snack. It’s obsessive and is definitely concerning.”
“OP is NTA by a long shot.” – MooGoreng
By the way, the pandemic seems to magnify many inconveniences.
“I’m not saying he’s 100% in the right here.”
“But apples are obviously a very important item on his grocery list.”
“In the context of the pandemic, I’d probably get more upset than usual if something very important was missed from my shopping list because making a second trip is just more of a hassle than ever before.” – Elihzbah
There has been no word yet from the OP on whether or not her boyfriend came out of hiding.