What Should We Eat?

What should we eat?

It's a question that echoes billions of times a day in homes, workplaces, and grocery aisles across the world. It's as if we're constantly grappling with this basic, yet elusive, decision. Even with an overwhelming amount of nutritional research, AI-generated diet tips, and endless spousal bickering, we seem to struggle more than ever to answer it. 

For all our technology and knowledge, the answer is never really clear. We can spend endless compute (mental and otherwise) chasing the perfect solution to this age-old dilemma, yet most of us end up choosing based on convenience, mood, or pure impulse.

Now, I’m not here to offer you a miracle answer to “What should we eat?”—sorry. But what I can offer is a new way to think about it. A way that might just shift your entire relationship with food, and, in the process, with yourself.

The Food System: A Machine Built for Pleasure, Not Health

Growing up in America, I watched as our food system slowly unraveled. We were constantly hearing about the “obesity epidemic,” and it became a hallmark of what was wrong with the way we ate. Films like Supersize Me opened our eyes to the horrifying reality of fast food, especially the way it’s marketed to children in schools. Yet, despite knowing that our food choices were a problem, we doubled down on the very system that made us sick.

You see, America’s food system is a marvel of efficiency—there’s no denying that. Over the last century, it became optimized for volume, convenience, and pleasure. And for a long time, it worked. In fact, some could argue that this system helped fuel the country’s rapid growth, possibly even contributing to our success during WWII. But the efficiency came with a price. Today, we’re dealing with the long-term consequences—widespread obesity, chronic diseases, and now, a looming mental health crisis.

It’s not that our food system was designed with malicious intent. It’s simply that we prioritized certain values—like pleasure, cost-effectiveness, and shelf life—without fully understanding their impact on our health. For decades, we optimized for convenience and instant gratification, and in the process, we sacrificed long-term well-being.

Our parents' and grandparents' generations saw the boom of capitalism, and with it, a rise in highly processed, mass-produced foods. Now, we’re the ones paying the price. And it’s not just our waistlines—our mental health is on the line too. Our food is messing with our brains.

Food and the Dopamine Loop

So much of what we eat today is designed to hit our pleasure centers hard. Every bite we take—whether it's fast food, snacks, or even certain "health" products—is engineered to trigger a dopamine response. These foods aren’t just meant to fill you up; they’re designed to make you crave more.

Cheetos, for example, are designed so the cheesy residue sticks to your fingers, encouraging you to keep licking them. That simple act of reaching for more is a dopamine hit. It’s a powerful feedback loop that keeps you hooked.

We’re trapped in a cycle. Eat for pleasure, get a short-lived dopamine rush, then crash and crave more. But while our taste buds might be momentarily satisfied, our bodies—and more importantly, our guts—are left feeling worse for wear. And the worst part is, this cycle has been normalized. It’s how our food system functions.

Why Do We Eat? A Shift in Perspective

And that brings me to a much deeper question: why do we eat?

In America, especially in the modern workplace, we often eat for pleasure. Food becomes a reward—a brief moment of relief from the stress of the day. You’ve spent the morning grinding through meetings, emails, and deadlines. By noon, you’re ready for your dopamine hit. Whether it’s a greasy burger, a fresh sushi roll, or a plate of pasta, lunch feels like a well-deserved break, something to make you feel alive again.

But here’s the problem: eating purely for pleasure, especially the kind of pleasure our food system is built to deliver, leaves us feeling empty afterward. Sure, we get that quick rush, but then we crash—hard. Our bodies ache, our minds get foggy, and we lose the very energy we were hoping to replenish.

The question we need to start asking isn’t just what should we eat, but why should we eat? Should food only be about satisfying cravings, or can it be something more? A way to nourish not just our minds, but our bodies and even our mental health?

That’s what we’ll explore in the rest of this series. Click here for Part 2.