All You Can Eat is a Facebook page and website dedicated to sharing all things food related. On Facebook, they tend to focus on posting hilarious memes and jokes about eating, while their website features recipes and articles all about food. And clearly, they’ve done a great job gaining a following, as the Facebook page that warns viewers it “will make [them] hungry” has amassed an impressive 654k followers since its creation in 2019. Meanwhile, the website, which shares recipes and food news, seems to receive plenty of engagement as well.

If you’re interested in food news, All You Can Eat shares articles about new products, bizarre and unusual headlines, news about restaurants and alerts about recalls. And when it comes to the recipes shared on All You Can Eat, everyone is sure to find something that sounds tasty. The categories featured are breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts, appetizers, sandwiches, snacks, side dishes, seafood, pork, chicken and beef. Some creative recipes that have recently been uploaded are Air Fried Cadbury Creme Eggs, Cherry Vanilla Coke Poke Cake, Parmesan Shell Spaghetti Tacos and No Bake Blueberry Cheesecake. You can genuinely find all you can eat right here!               

Food is something we all literally cannot live without, but we can derive a lot of pleasure from it too! Food is an integral component when celebrating holidays in many places around the world, and there’s nothing like sharing a fresh, home cooked meal with loved ones, accompanied by hours of conversation, of course. Food brings people together, nurtures our bodies and can even be a creative outlet for many people who love to experiment in the kitchen. And when it comes to why eating can feel so wonderful at times, research suggests that we can get a rush of dopamine from the first few bites of a delicious meal.       

“Researchers at the Max Plank Institute in Germany used a new positron emission tomography (PET) technique to track the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in specific brain regions when volunteers ate either a tasty milkshake or a tasteless solution,” David DiSalvo explained for Forbes. “The study found that dopamine was released twice in the brains of those drinking the milkshake: first when the milkshake was ingested and again when it hit the stomach.”

This dopamine rush we receive from the tasty treats we crave might partially explain why it’s so hard to resist that gorgeous donut or that creamy mountain of pasta. But it’s encouraging to remember that the pleasurable feelings only last for the first few bites or sips of that delectable treat. So we don’t actually need to eat the entire burger or slice of cake to enjoy it. A few bites now and the rest for later will usually do the trick! We all deserve to indulge and enjoy delectable treats, but we may need even less of them than we expect. “Remember that your cravings are fueled by not just one but two generous jolts of a potent brain chemical that routinely smashes our willpower,” DiSalvo writes. “Plan your exposure to delicious treats accordingly.”

According to UpMeals, food is the most nurturing gift you can offer someone. Remember all of those times your parents made you chicken noodle soup while you were sick in bed with the flu or grandma stopped by with some delicious muffins to help give you the strength to get out of bed? Food can definitely be a love language, and preparing or eating meals with another person is a great way to bond. Taking the time to chop up ingredients together and ensuring that your meal is prepared with love may require effort, but it’s certainly worth it, for your stomach and your soul!   

Food can also be used to make connections with others. “Traditionally, when food was harvested it was shared with those in the community as an offering of care as we saw above, but also as a way to celebrate and come together,” the UpMeals team notes. “A big harvest would yield a big meal to celebrate the end of a season. Many indigenous communities across the world celebrate seasonal harvests by coming together and sharing the food that everyone has worked hard to grow and care for.”

“This practice can be seen in different versions around the world and even in our modern-day to day life (think of pumpkin and apple picking in the fall with friends, or driving out to a blueberry farm to harvest as much as you can to take home),” UpMeals goes on to explain. “These are activities that we still seek out and do for fun in the company of those close to us. Sharing time together over dinner (in smaller groups than usual right now) also allows time for plentiful conversation, debate, storytelling, and building memories. These spaces strengthen our relationships with those around us and help us build stronger, healthier communities.”

It can be easy to get sucked into the vortex of diet culture and start to view food purely as fuel. The numbers can be exhausting to keep track of, and worrying about your calorie, carbohydrate and protein intake too much sucks all of the joy out of eating. But it’s important to know that enjoying our food can actually be beneficial for our health.

“Enjoyment tells the parasympathetic nervous system to trigger its relaxation response. This is the same system that gets your digestion going by relaxing the muscles in your gastrointestinal tract and increasing digestive juices,” Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS, writes for US News. “So when you are eating food that tastes good and brings you pleasure, you're also triggering digestion. The opposite can happen as well: If you eat something that you don't really want or like, or you feel guilty or ashamed while eating it, you trigger the body's stress response. This partially shuts down digestion and can lead to insulin spikes, fat storage and gut issues like bloating, constipation or diarrhea.”

Being present while eating and savoring every bite can also keep us in touch with our hunger cues and allow us to feel satisfied with appropriate quantities of food. “When you don't get the pleasure you are seeking, your brain interprets that missed experience as hunger, so you continue to eat more and more in an attempt to feel satisfied,” Rumsey goes on to explain. “Satisfaction, however, is what really turns off the drive to eat. When you enjoy the food that you are eating, it is much easier to stop eating when you are full.”

Rumsey recommends slowing down and staying mindful when eating, making a list of all of the foods you enjoy to keep handy, asking yourself what you really want before dining, and removing labels from food that hold moral weight. “Guilt counteracts any pleasure you would otherwise feel, and makes it tough to enjoy the food,” she explains. “Plus, eating foods you enjoy but have labeled as off-limits often leads to overeating or binging because who knows when you'll let yourself have those foods again (and what the heck, the day is already shot, right?). Changing your mindset and viewing foods as neutral allows you to make choices based on health, satisfaction and self-care, which increases the pleasure you feel.”