ekaterina choukel
nutritionist | @nutrinama
We all have our thing. And for a growing number of people, that thing is sugar.
It is everywhere, in food that doesn’t even taste sweet, in habits formed before we were old enough to question them, in the automatic reach for something when the day gets hard. For some it becomes a coping mechanism. For others, simply the path of least resistance. Either way, sugar has a way of becoming the default answer to things that have nothing to do with hunger, and over time, it contributes to real health consequences like inflammation, metabolic disruption, weight gain, while the emotional load it was masking continues to grow in silence.
The problem is rarely the sugar itself. It is what the body and the nervous system are trying to solve with it. A body that isn’t properly nourished will keep searching. An overwhelmed nervous system will find ways to cope.
As a nutritionist, what I observe consistently is this: what genuinely works is giving the body what it actually needs: the right nutrients and a restored sense of inner safety. When the brain receives what it has been looking for, it stops reaching for substitutes. And when emotional needs are met directly, rather than managed with food, something shifts at a fundamental level.
Today, we are seeing rising rates of metabolic conditions, including type 2 diabetes and other preventable lifestyle-related diseases. While these illnesses are complex and influenced by many factors, nutrition and early dietary habits play an important role. Habits formed in childhood can persist into adulthood, affecting energy, quality of life, and placing increasing pressure on healthcare systems around the world.
I understand how difficult these habits can be to change. For many people, this is not simply a question of discipline or willpower. Highly processed foods are intentionally designed to be deeply appealing, making moderation more challenging for some individuals than for others. Recognizing this reality should encourage compassion, education, and personal responsibility, not blame or shame.
My vision is a future where healthier choices become more natural, accessible, and sustainable for everyone, where prevention, balanced nutrition, and healthy daily habits are prioritized alongside medical care, and where people can enjoy longer, healthier, more active lives with the people they love.
Addressing our relationship with sugar is therefore not only a personal issue, but a societal one, an opportunity to improve public health and build environments that make healthier living easier for all.
For the first time in history, the number of school-aged children living with obesity has surpassed the number of children who are underweight: 188 million children worldwide, roughly 1 in 10. At the same time, malnutrition in its traditional form has not disappeared. Schools are now on the front line of what the World Health Organization calls the “double burden of malnutrition.”
In January 2026, the WHO released its first-ever global guideline on healthy school food environments, with clear recommendations: ensure that every child has access to healthy, nourishing food at school, and establish the standards that make this possible. Because what children eat every day is not a detail, it is the foundation of everything that follows.
The science is unambiguous. When children are given access to real, nourishing food and taught from an early age to understand what they are eating and why it matters, something important shifts. Not just in their health, but in their relationship with food itself. A child who learns to recognize hunger, to appreciate whole ingredients, and to understand what their body needs carries that knowledge for life and passes it on.
Yet knowing is not the same as acting. An estimated 466 million children receive school meals daily worldwide, with little oversight of their nutritional quality. As of late 2025, only 48 out of 104 countries with school food policies had restrictions on marketing foods high in sugar, salt, or unhealthy fats to children. The standards exist. The evidence is there. What remains is the collective will to make healthy food the norm for every child, not just some.
Closing that gap begins in the classroom, in the school canteen, and at the family table. It begins with teaching children not what to avoid, but what food actually is, where it comes from, what it does inside the body, and how it feels to be genuinely nourished. That education, given early and consistently, is one of the most powerful investments a society can make in its own future.
This is the conviction that runs through my work. The adults I support today were once children whose relationship with food was quietly being shaped, by what was available, by what was normalized, by what no one thought to explain. Changing that story, one generation at a time, is both a personal and a collective responsibility.
My approach goes beyond typical nutrition advice to address the root patterns keeping you stuck. Through my articles and recipes, you’ll discover the mindset shifts and practical strategies that create lasting transformation:
- Food peace without restriction, guilt, or constant willpower battles
- Emotional mastery to break free from stress eating and self-sabotage
- Identity transformation that turns “I can’t resist” into “I simply don’t need it”
This isn’t just about eating less sugar. It is about becoming the person who doesn’t need it anymore, and discovering what else becomes possible from that place.
The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated.
Plato
my training
Addictive eating – Nutrition Network
Nutrition for addictive brain, adaptation of food plans, relapse prevention, de-shaming, solution oriented, Management & Treatment of Processed Food Addiction
Nutritionist – TCMA, Thérapie Complémentaire et Médecine Alternative, Geneva, Switzerland