Victims should not be ashamed. Eating healthy can be challenging. While plain and natural celery stalks may be all the flavor one person needs, other people may crave a flavor from artificial sources that are not necessarily healthy but considered more vibrant. Sometimes Cheetos are more appetizing than cheeseless salads with lettuce that tastes like crunchy, thin pieces of water. However, since nutrition is a vital tool for a healthier life, it is frowned upon for people to crave unhealthy food. I label this phenomenon of unhealthy cravings as people having an "inner trash panda."

I will openly admit to harboring my own inner trash panda. I like French fries. I dip them in ketchup, which is known to be derived from tomatoes and is, therefore, slightly nutritious due to the subtle amount of vitamin C that I consume with it. According to Google, ketchup has approximately 0.7 mg of vitamin C, and since we need at least 65 mg per day for proper nutrition, it can be argued that ketchup partially contributes to nutrition. Also, each potato seems to have a substantial amount of vitamin C, so eating French fries with ketchup may indeed fulfill the required vitamin C for my nutrition. it may take many orders of fries to accomplish this, many fries.

As demonstrated by the previous paragraph, my inner trash panda likes to create valid reasons for consuming unhealthy food. Ketchup is clearly not a valid substitute for a piece of fruit in order to consume enough vitamin C within a day, but my inner trash panda knows how to "get around the rules" of nutrition. I consciously know that feeding my inner trash panda will not ultimately work out in my favor, but I have found that everyone with an inner trash panda must learn how to tame it. Slow and steady wins the race. Here is a list of ways to tame your inner trash panda if you have one:

1. Deceive your trash panda

One of the easiest ways of taming an inner trash panda is to deceive it by pairing unhealthy food with healthy food. Eat Cheetos alongside a healthy fruit or vegetable. This will confuse the inner trash panda into believing you are completely eating trash when in reality, only half of what you are eating is trash. My personal favorite way of deceiving my inner trash panda is to sprinkle organic chia seeds in my ketchup before dipping my fries into it.

2. Starve your trash panda

Starvation can be considered extremely harsh, but try to reduce the amount of trash you eat to every other day before eventually every 3 days. In time, you may even be able to only feed the trash panda once a week to keep it tamed and from attacking your digestive system with more trash.

3. Hunt your trash panda down

Figure out exactly what type of trash your trash panda tends to crave. Isolate the trash that seems to be your downfall and work up a plan to lessen the number of cravings you have for that specific trash. Remember that trash pandas do not crave ALL trash, just SOME trash.

Unhealthy food, aka trash, can taste delicious, so it is important for victims of the inner trash panda to not become insecure from harboring one. We all have struggles, and it is important to remember that just because a problem is not immediately solved does not imply that the problem can never be solved. It may take time, but each inner trash panda can be tamed. Victims should not feel ashamed.