I mean the thing is that these things are useful as athletic aids. But they are useful only for the athletic pursuit, not just for the sake of it. Calorie dens

I mean the thing is that these things are useful as athletic aids. But they are useful only for the athletic pursuit, not just for the sake of it. Calorie dense foods help you hike further with less weight carried. Electrolyte drinks, even sugary ones, help you fuel yourself through workouts when your digestive system is iffy. In both cases the dietary impact is essentially irrelevant because you need to eat something to fuel the workout, if you try to hike on an empty stomach you will eventually damage yourself. But yeah, for someone who does intuitive eating (i.e. not tracking calories), they should probably stay away from calorie dense foods. You can easily drink yourself 1000 calories of soda with near zero hunger impact. The takeaway should probably just be that in a world with bountiful food supplies, intuitive eating just doesn't work for most people, like how a Labrador will just eat forever if you let them. Because most people sit on their arse almost all of the time and do fuck all.