Why your food environment can make healthy eating feel impossible

You know what you should eat. You've read the articles, seen the Instagram posts, maybe even bought the cookbook. But somehow, it still feels incredibly hard to make those healthy food choices stick. What if it's not a matter of discipline or motivation anymore? That's where your food environment comes in.

What's a food environment?

It includes the types of food outlets available such as supermarkets, farmers markets, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, the affordability and quality of foods offered, marketing and advertising influences, cultural norms around food & eating, policies that affect food supply and more.

Let me tell you something from my experience that might sound familiar.

The shock of seeing food differently

I grew up in an environment where healthy eating was just... normal. There wasn't anything special about choosing whole foods or home-cooked meals. It wasn't a statement or a lifestyle brand. It was simply what we did.

Then I got to college. Suddenly, fast foods were everywhere. Sugary drinks which used to be once-a-while something lined entire store aisles and were incredibly affordable. But the kicker was that, these were the "cool" choices, the convenient ones. The ones everyone else was making without a second thought.

Years later, I remember walking through a large grocery chain and stopping dead in my tracks. Row after row of soda and soft drinks stretched as far as I could see. I'd never seen anything like it. The sheer volume. The accessibility. The pricing that made them more affordable than fresh produce.

That moment shifted something for me. I realized that making healthy choices where I grew up was easy, without a second thought because the environment supported it. But in this new environment? I had to actively fight against a system designed to make unhealthy eating the path of least resistance.

Now imagine someone who grew up seeing those endless soda aisles. How incredibly difficult it is for them to make the healthy choice their norm.

Your food environment shapes your choices more than you think

We don't talk enough about the fact that your food environment isn't neutral. It's actively influencing every food decision you make whether you realize it or not. Often you don't.

Research consistently shows that food environment and accessibility significantly impact dietary behaviors. When ultra-processed foods dominate your surroundings, grocery stores, cafeterias, vending machines, gas stations, workplace and even school lunch programs, those become your default options. Not because you lack willpower, but because they''ve become the easiest choice.

How often do you have to go out of your way to find whole foods compared to (ultra)processed options? That effort gap? That's your food environment at work.

Let's look at some numbers

According to food systems research, ultra-processed foods now make up about 57-60% of energy intake in many Western diets. And this is due to the fact that these foods are more available, more affordable, more convenient and more heavily marketed.

When someone tells you to "eat healthy" without considering your context, they're ignoring that your local corner store might have 47 types of chips but only wilted lettuce in the produce section. They're overlooking that your workplace cafeteria might offer 5 soda options but charge premium price for fresh orange juice. They're missing that you're making food choices within an environment that wasn't built to support health.

The hard truth is healthy eating is the harder choice if the environment doesn't support it

I once read a post on LinkedIn, the author shared her family's journey to eliminate ultra-processed foods from their home. They cooked everything from scratch, meal prepped constantly and had their kitchen working seven days a week. They had resources. They had support. And her kids were really in on it. Even then, she still emphasized "It is not the easy choice. It is the harder choice."

You see, even with time, money, knowledge and family support, choosing whole and healthy food options requires sustained effort. Because the moment you step outside your carefully curated home environment, you're surrounded by what they called "the omnipresent nature of unhealthy junk foods and beverages."

School cafeterias, airports. gas stations, movie theaters, office break rooms, etc. The healthy choice isn't just harder to make, it's sometimes not readily available at all.

What this means for most people

If it's challenging for families with resources and motivation, consider what it means for:

• the single parent working two jobs who relies on what's quick and nearby
• the college student navigating a campus where (ultra)processed foods dominate and cost less
• the professional in a food desert where the nearest grocery store with fresh produce requires a car and time they don't have
• anyone trying to balance health goals with real financial constraints

These are the reality of the modern food system.

Why growing up matters more than you'd realize

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As you'd have realized by now, the environment you grew up in shapes your food baseline. If you grew up where whole foods were the norm, you have an advantage. You already know what "normal" healthy eating looks and feels like. You have taste memories, cooking observations and a reference point for what meals can be beyond boxes and packages.

If you grew up surrounded by ultra-processed foods, you're not starting from the same place. You're working against established patterns, taste preferences and the comfort of familiarity, potentially lacking the basic cooking skills and kitchen confidence that come from growing up in a cooking household. Neither is your fault. They are just the result of your food environment.

Changing this current food environment can take years if it'll happen at all. But you can learn to navigate challenging food environments more effectively, regardless of where you started.

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What works making healthy food choices easier a little

Let's be realistic. Until we fundamentally restructure food systems; fresh, whole foods are as accessible and affordable as (ultra)processed options, teaching kitchens become common to help people learn cooking, school cafeterias prioritize nutrition over convenience, you're navigating an environment that doesn't naturally support health.

But what steps can you take while living in this reality?

1. Build your personal food baseline

Identify 3-5 meals you can make reliably with whole ingredients. If you want to be a bit more adventurous, identify this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That makes it 9-15 baseline meals. These become your defaults. When decision fatigue hits, you don't have to think, just go for one of your baseline meals. This enables you have reliable options that work within any constraints you might have.

2. Create food environment short cuts in your personal system

Make the healthy choice the easier choice in the spaces you control:

• Keep water visibly accessible
• Pre-make ingredients so they're grab-and-use
• Position healthier snacks at eye level in your pantry and fridge
• Batch cook proteins on one day so you're not starting from scratch every meal
• Organize your pantry and shelve to easily access ingredients and utensils during cooking

The idea is to curate your home environment to support you making healthy food choice.

3. Learn some simple ways to navigate outside-of-home food environments

Develop ways for the challenging environments you regularly face mostly outside of home:

• Grocery stores: shop the perimeter first, fill your cart with whole foods before entering center aisles
• Restaurants: check the menu online beforehand, decide what you'll order before being overwhelmed by options
• Travel: pack portable whole food options like nuts, fruits or prepare to get healthier options like yoghurt or restaurant meal
• Social events: eat a small meal before attending so you're making choices from satisfaction, not hunger
• Workplace/school: pack homemade food/drinks, have specific places you get healthier options, treat yourself to delicious healthy options at the canteen occassionally even if slightly costlier (worth the effort you're putting in)

These help you reduce the mental load of constant decision-making on healthy food options.

4. Acknowledge the problem

In my current environment, I have to actively remind myself to make the healthy choice. Because the sheer availability and incredible accessibility of unhealthy options is truly dizzying. Recognize that this mental effort is real work. On days when it feels too hard, that's not your personal failure. That's you facing a systemic challenge. Sometimes choosing the (ultra)processed option is the right call for that day. What matters is you building the capacity to make intentional choices most of the time.

5. Build your cooking skills

One of the most powerful ways to navigate challenging food environments is developing the confidence and skills to prepare your own meals. You don't have to become a chef or spend 5hours+ in the kitchen. Just learn practical, repeatable strategies that work for you. Take a cooking class, try out very simple recipes, have a cooking date with a friend who is skilled at cooking. And if you're feeling overwhelmed by where to start, personalized food coaching can help you build decision-making frameworks and sustained routines tailored for your context.

Moving forward on system and individual action

For now, we have to hold the tension that this is both a systemic problem and an area where you can take some individual action.

Yes, we need policy changes, easier access to better food, nutrition education starting in elementary school, teaching kitchens and community cooking programs, food industry regulation that doesn't allow unlimited marketing of unhealthy products to children. We need these and more.

Until those changes happen, you're navigating a difficult food environment. That reality doesn't mean giving up. It only means you approach healthy eating with clarity about the challenges and practical strategies that acknowledge them.

The goal isn't to make healthy eating look effortless. That's a lie that creates shame when you struggle. The goal is to make it more manageable within the environment you're living in while also advocating for systemic changes that would make it easier for everyone.

When it comes down to it, current food environments are not optimized for your health

This is not an excuse to give up instead, it's information you can use to make more intentional choices about where you direct your energy and resources.

When you understand that you're swimming against a current, you can stop blaming yourself for finding it exhausting. You can start building strategies that account for the challenges you face.

And maybe, just maybe, you can start conversations about how we can improve our current food system. But while we're working toward that better food system, you can build your own strategies for navigating this one. Start where you are. Use the resources you have. Make the next choice a little more intentional than the last one.