bigfatscience answered:

My stance is that unrestricted eating means unrestricted eating. Yummy yummy candies, cakes, ice creams, tarts, chips, pizza, burgers, fries and other goodies are part of a normal varied diet. It’s perfectly OK to eat them every day as part of an otherwise varied and satisfying diet. It is nothing but cultural biases like classism and racism that vilify such foods. It’s even wrong to claim that they don’t have any “nutrients” (though I also don’t believe in analyzing our foods in that way so I won’t indulge that aspect of your question any further, beyond pointing out that it is incorrect).

Most people who have the privilege of food security live their lives restricting those foods, and so they begin to take on a special obsessive place in their lives. People crave those foods, then eat them and feel guilty, so they restrict them again. People moralize about those foods and link the eating, or avoiding, of those foods to personal feelings of worth. This is all disordered.

The truth is that those yummy things are just foods. No different in the grand scheme than a carrot or an avocado or that god-awful kale.

So when people who have the privilege of food security truly embrace unrestricted eating, those foods lose all their power. They become just another option in a wide sea of food options. Some days you eat them, and some days you don’t, and you don’t worry about it at all. Doesn’t that sound better than obsessing all the time?

But honestly, this topic is far too big to cover in a single ask. I spent two years working with a dietitian and educating myself online to learn how to eat intuitively and without any restriction at all. I am lucky that I was able to access that support and it has been truly life changing for me and my family. If you want to learn how to get from where you are to a place of peace with food, you can start your education here:

The Food Psych Podcast

The Fat Nutritionist

The Ellyn Satter Institute

Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison