Special Sauce with Ed Levine Food Critic on a Diet, Part Two: The NYT's Pete Wells
8 snips
Feb 20, 2026 
Pete Wells, New York Times restaurant critic who wrote about changing his diet, discusses sugar addiction and hidden added sugars in processed foods. He talks about recognizing different hungers, snack traps, and how cooking and walking help reshape habits. He encourages experimenting with cutting added sugars and treating processed foods with caution.
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Listen To Hunger Signals, Not The Clock
- Pay attention to different intensities and types of hunger instead of eating by the clock.
- Eat when mildly hungry and plan smaller, more frequent meals if that suits you.
Don't Stock Trigger Snacks At Home
- Avoid buying individually portioned salty snacks that invite repeated eating.
- Pete Wells and Ed Levine stop buying 120-calorie chip bags because they lead to more consumption.
Cooking As A Mental Reset
- Pete Wells finds chopping and cooking with a knife mentally restorative after a day of writing.
- He says the physical focus of prep work lets his language-obsessed mind wander and reset.
