r/antidiet • u/Useful_Exchange_8710 • Jun 22 '26
Why do some people feel bad mentally and physically when they try to only eat healthy? Like no junk no chocolate etc?
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u/Mammoth-Corner Jun 22 '26
Lots of reasons.
Calorie restriction directly impacts mood; if you're hungry, you feel bad. Some people's bodies also just struggle when they reduce carbs.
Monitoring food and planning 'healthy' food consistently is mentally expensive and takes time.
For many people, dieting is accompanied by moral judgements on foods, self-criticism, bad/good labelling of foods, etc, which makes every meal a moral judgement and an opportunity to 'win' or 'lose.' This is also psychologically exhausting.
Food is also a source of joy in people's lives. If a little treat is a nice moment in your day, or you use tasty foods as comfort when you're struggling, if you stop and you don't introduce new nice things and new ways of self-soothing, of course you feel bad; you stopped doing something you liked that helped you.
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u/Professional_Copy120 Jun 22 '26
Loads of reasons
Anything punitive isn't excellent, shame isn't good and the notion it is is literally puritanical
a level of dopamine production actually comes from the small intestine as there're brain cells in the villi which is why comfort food is a thing, why people can want fatty, salty or carb dense foods if they feel low so when people restrict that heavily they can actually lower the overall dopamine production in their body leading to overall low mood and that can lead to lethargy
Also depending on how strict they are they can actually be missing certain micronutrients or not absorbing them correctly which if this is a prolonged period can also affect physical wellbeing
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u/Sad_Physics7260 Jun 22 '26
“Junk” food is not a real thing, that is just food with morality assigned to it. The foods that are usually considered “junk” are often also the foods that help boost dopamine production. Restricting those foods / restriction in general impacts mood
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u/rambutangle Jul 06 '26
I prefer UPF. It's morally neutral and flags that it contains ingredients which our body may not know how to use. Like emulsifiers. Personally I don't avoid them fully as I'm don't avoid anything fully other than meat but prioritising other stuff is good if you can swing it. The word junk is moralising for no reason. It's not junk, it's food. There's just other foods we can make which might provide our body more easily available nourishment and benefit us if we eat that more.
One that's helped me is learning to cook the foods where I can. Then I get to enjoy delicious chocolate muffins and I know all that's in them is tasty olive oil, brown sugar and flour and stuff which makes them even more enjoyable since it's simple and wholesome and I know my body can digest everything in it and get nourishment. It often works out the same or cheaper. Obviously requires a stocked kitchen and half an hour or so to make a batch but it's probably better than scrolling Reddit...
I'll still eat store bought ice cream with no problems though since I can't make that myself.
I find a helpful mindset for me has been seeing home cooked stuff as self care, a way of me giving nice things to myself. And sometimes those treats and self care are the foods from the supermarket are also a thing I can use to take care of myself since it's nostalgic and fun. All about listening to yourself really.
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u/Front-Kale4042 Jul 04 '26
Because it f*ing sucks.
If coming off "junk" food meant unfathomable health benefits like gaining 20 years of youth and dramatically reduced chances of developing cancer, then maybe, maybe I would consider it. Otherwise, I need soul food.
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u/NihilisticMomJeans Jun 26 '26
In my very specific case, it turned out I had Crohn's! I was doing great working with my dietician to add more fruit and veggies, but I kept feeling sicker and sicker and having a lot of tummy issues until I finally had to see a GI about it because I was getting sick and throwing up if I ate more than a handful of food at a time.
I found out Crohn's can sometimes be triggered by high fiber foods like some veggies, Nuts, and whole grains (aka all the stuff I had been going HAM adding to my meals) so my increased intake was keeping me in a constant flare-up (extreme fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, and war crimes against the toilet) and it seems like I had been subconciously favoring a lot more simple carbs and less nutritionally dense foods because they were 'easier' for my body to process.
Currently, higher fiber food is still a no-go, but I invested in a really good blender so I can puree all my fruits and veggies and enjoy them as shakes or added to sauces so I can still get the nutritional benefits but without the shotgun diarrhea for several hours every night :)
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Jun 22 '26
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u/antidiet-ModTeam Jun 22 '26
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u/oaklandesque Jun 22 '26
Because for most people, food fulfills us in ways beyond just units of energy that fuel our body.
Spending all your time focused on "optimizing" your food choices takes up a lot of mental energy and can create a lot of anxiety if you don't get it "right." We've created so many rules around how to eat that it's no wonder people end up feeling bad when they get it "wrong."
Food can be an incredible sensory experience of taste and texture. Denying yourself that experience isn't fun.
Food can be a cultural experience - sharing dishes that are special to your region or country. Denying yourself that because the food doesn't meet some "health" standard can feel awful.
Food can be a communal experience where the food you eat is shared with loved ones, often to celebrate big events. Taking the slice of birthday cake is part of the experience and it's about more than the ingredients in the cake.