23-year-old boyfriend reprimands girlfriend for only eating '3 pieces of chicken' on a meal for 5 people he spent $200 on: 'He gave you a stern look and tricked you? Girl run'

Nobody likes being forced to eat something. We hated it as kids, and we hate it now. That piece of broccoli that we didn't want to touch, that glass of milk we were avoiding, that lunch we packed for ourselves when we thought we were a different kind of person. Yuck. One of the wonderful things about being an adult is that nobody forces us to eat anything. We're in charge of our bodies, and we get to decide what goes in them. If we want to eat a bag of microwave popcorn for dinner, we can do that. It might not be advisable, but we can do it if it pleases us. When we go out to dinner, we can order what we want, and nobody gets to say anything about it, and nobody is allowed to make us feel bad about our food choices. 

One of the big red flags of any relationship is control. If they feel like they get to exert control over you, then that's a huge issue. You're your own person, and nobody gets to take that away from you. There are a few ways that some folks can try to control you, though, and food is a big one of them. Food is fundamental. It's famously something we have to think about every day. It's the way we nourish ourselves, but it's also the way we express ourselves. Food is so important to culture, identity, and sense of self. If anyone tries to mess with that, run.