I loooove encouraging people to eat healthily in order to function at the optimal level!
When you nourish your body with food thats ideal for your body, then your mind and body will be at its best.
Now food is very subjective. Every person has different needs, a body builder has different needs than an.. office worker, haha.

Finding what's right for you is an entire journey full of... decondiitoing your taste buds!! Most people(In the USA, I dont know about other countries) are used to putting garbage in their body because of the instant gratification it provides your tastebuds and the sweet rush of serotonin in your brain.

Anyway my first question is, without thinking of the flavor of things but rather the nutrition: What are some foods you wish you could stop eating and other foods you wish you could enjoy?

Now, Ive been on a 5 year journey of tranforming my diet but to this day I struggle soooo much to resist the call of spicy chips. I have gotten a lot better but on a bad day I gotta reach for that bag. Sigh. *Pan to the empty cheeto bag on my desk rn"

okay, I know you mean well - but be careful not to obsess over eating "healthily", you know? that's an eating disorder too.

Healthy is debateable.

A bag of spicy chips won't kill you. ;]

Remember to live a little. Go on a "junk" food spree, sometimes.

as for deconditioning your tastebuds: you know what? I don't think it's even our fault for liking "junk" foods. They're made to quickly satisfy our flavor cravings. The businesses who sell these things are to blame; they'd rather make a quick buck instead of making sure their foods can give us more nutrition.

Because it'll probably cost them more money.

So instead of blaming yourself, don't blame yourself.

Alternate title: 'Balance your body baby!'

When I was a teenager I feel into the eating disorder pit and when dragging myself out of it I found that focusing on adding things works better for the brain & relationship with food than fixating on things to cut out. Filling up on nourishing foods will help with other cravings itself, and a lot of the time diet culture can actually make things less nourishing. For example, removing the fat from things like yoghurt... And completely removing the satiety, and the common "advice" to skip the dressing on salad when the nutrients in raw veggies are actually more bio-available when eaten with a source of fats.

Two books I read this year on nutrition science that I would really recommend are Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken, which is all about the impacts of processed foods on the body (again, i try not to focus on cutting out foods I enjoy, but this one will definitely dampen some upf cravings) and Food Isn't Medicine by Joshua Wolrich, a dietician breaking down all the myths, fads and exaggerations spread around social media