This is clearly one of those things, like many say, specific to the individual.

When eating LC, I could probably cheat with chocolate or candy all day and go back to eating LC and not blink an eye.

If I cheated LC with two bites of something with gluten in it, I'd be lucky to crawl back on the wagon three months later.

Will power is not a magical thing that floats around outside someone's head. It is tied implicitly to the physiology of the human body. If one HAS 'willpower' in response to a certain food or drug or situation, it is because the body responds in such a way to enable that. If one doesn't, it's because the body responds in such a way to complicate or even disable that.

There are alcoholics who completely lose it after years of sobriety by eating something that had a little alcohol in it and they don't even consciously know it. The trigger is that severe for some people. There are others who can drink daily for a long time and then decide they should probably just stop doing it so they do. This is physiological in nature, not magical. The people who are able to stop are not morally superior because it's easier or possible for them.

Certainly putting one's mind to something is a hugely important thing, and it plays a very big role in accomplishing most anything in life.

But when it comes to "biochemical reactions" this has to be recognized for the practical, not magical, matter that it is.

If a person is not really bothered by various off-plan foods, and can eat them and return to plan without issue, awesome. Most people actually do have SOME foods they can do that with -- depending of course on their physiology.

For the other vast majority of the human race, though, getting everything offplan totally out of the house, and staying onplan to the maximum degree possible, is probably going to be a more viable solution to their nutritional issues.

In a way, the debate is a little like the exercise one. Some people have the energy to do massive exercise and they are sure that everyone else should simply do this too and if they don't, they have no willpower and are lazy. But really, it is the biological issue of having the energy/strength to do that exercise to begin with, that is the fundamental difference. It isn't a moral difference. It isn't a magical thing. It's basic physiology.

PJ