For me it’s extremely easy to cut things out wholesale from my diet if I’ve recognized a cause-effect relationship. Which can be hard to do, since food problems

For me it’s extremely easy to cut things out wholesale from my diet if I’ve recognized a cause-effect relationship. Which can be hard to do, since food problems are often a chronic rather than acute issue, taking months to come into effect or subside. In my case my primary restriction is removal or reduction of omega-6 sources. This wipes out much of what is found in a grocery store, like most condiments and salad dressings, frozen foods, baked goods and deserts, chips, no fatty pork or chicken (which is high in omega-6 due to bioaccumulating it from their feed), etc. And absolutely no French fries or other commercially fried food. For me excess Omega-6’s appear to result directly and repeatedly in severe depression, dry(er) skin, eczema outbreaks, and weight gain even when undereating. This turns items containing omega-6 mentally into poison, which makes it easy to avoid. Just think of what happens when you get food poisoning from something you like even once, it changes the way you look at it for a long time. When I look at French fries, I don’t think “oh man I wish…”, I flashback to the times where for months I’d spend hours every single day sucked involuntarily into negative mental spirals, where the only comfort I had was my fantasies about finally dying. While Omega-6s certainly isn’t my sole cause of depression, it does seem to repeatedly amplify it far beyond what I can deal with. What’s left is things which do require a bit more home preparation, but I’ve worked out a variety of low effort/time options. Beef, non-fatty seafood, some eggs, butter/coconut oil, vegetables, rarely fruits, “pure” carb sources like dry pasta, beans or potatoes. I’ll even make cornbread, brownies, or muffins sometimes, I just make them with an equivalent volume of melted butter instead of oil. Still need to keep an eye on calories for those… but way better tasting and they don’t seem to cause that slightly upset/acidy stomach feeling that I realized store bought versions give me. Given my aversion to most pork and chicken, keto wouldn’t be the most sustainable for me personally, since I’d be left with basically only beef and vegetables. That would end up monotonous even for me and I don’t have further identifiable problems with carbs I’m trying to solve. Which might be for the best, I’d likely be happy to eat nothing but brats and chicken wings until I die.