Well, yes and no.

The question is akin to asking: do people who are not on a diet maintain some food preferences? How do they choose what they eat?

This question would appear hilarious to a person who has never dieted, but it can be a very serious question to a person who has been conditioned to be on a diet for all his life, since early childhood. And in some way, it reveals the limitation he unknowingly placed upon himself.

So how do they choose what to eat? They kinda don’t. They just eat whatever they feel like eating at the moment. Yes, sometimes there’s some back-and-forth, or they take a second to think about what they’re gonna prepare for breakfast next morning with the ingredients available, but without a diet, there are no rules - only wants.

But from the outside, does it feel like they maintain a consistent set of food preferences? Sure! It just doesn’t feel this way to them. When they grow tired of one food they will switch to another without second-guessing their decision.

To a person who’s been on a diet all their life it will seem like they are also dieting, they just switch diets whenever they feel like. He may even say there’s no difference between you and I, I’m just much more disciplined in maintaining my food diet, and you’re all over the place with yours, but look - you have preferences also.

Which is why it’s impossible to tell if one is enlightened from the outside.