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There is only one explanation for the resistance up to hostility I see against sound advice--willful ignorance. People are so emotionally dependent on food for

There is only one explanation for the resistance up to hostility I see against sound advice--willful ignorance. People are so emotionally dependent on food for a feeling of success, happiness and reward that their mind responds to any threats like that of an addict threatened with supply interruption. It's crazy to me how hard it is to switch to a view of food as fuel instead of as a reward. People who readily eat the worst foods on earth would never think of putting bad fuel in their car. With that backdrop, all the food industry needs to do is sew the tiniest amount of confusion and that lets everyone do whatever they want, because "who knows for sure!?!?"

opportune 8y ago
Asking people to view food as fuel is akin to asking people to view sex as for procreation. Seems very Puritanical to view the pleasure we receive from food as a problem or distraction. People like to eat. It feels good. There is of course a lot of ignorance about food (and even if you aren’t ignorant it’s still easy to willfully make bad choices) but that doesn’t mean we should dehumanize it. Just like with sex, we should study it and develop a healthy culture for it that balances pleasure and what’s good for us. Also, I’m somewhat convinced myself that the reason poor people tend to be very fat is that food for them provides way more bang-per-buck than anything else at certain income levels. Yeah you may not be able to afford a car or a nice place to live, or healthcare, or education for your kids, but goddamn you can eat some delicious food for relatively cheap. It sucks that poor people get hit hardest by obesity and almost nobody wants to be fat... but at the same time, I feel like trying to decouple food from pleasure would mean depriving poor people of one of the few joys they can afford
- rootusrootus 8y ago
  "Among men, obesity prevalence is generally similar at all income levels, with a tendency to be slightly higher at higher income levels." https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db50.htm#mennn https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db50.htm#mennn
  - zeroego 8y ago
    Slightly below that it says the opposite is true for women. Obesity increases as income decreases.
    - rootusrootus 8y ago
      Or put another way, there is no correlation.
crankylinuxuser 8y ago
> It's crazy to me how hard it is to switch to a view of food as fuel instead of as a reward. People who readily eat the worst foods on earth would never think of putting bad fuel in their car. But that's the problem. Sugar hijacks the body's receptors making it think that it tastes delicious and is healthy and yummy. Because why would something yummy be so bad for you? Im also a type 2 diabetic. After cutting sugar out of my diet (damn, its hard AF to avoid sugar everywhere), sugar tastes bitter and leaves a weird aftertaste. Of course, unlike what many say is polemic, sugar absolutely is poison to me. Yet, I find more and more foods that have sugar crammed in for no good reason. After seeing product after product with artificially added sugar, I can only assume that this is a conspiracy of some sort. Why? To make food addicting? Cheap and easy? No clue. I just know I end up paying more for unadultered products - where this should be the default.
zeroego 8y ago
>People who readily eat the worst foods on earth would never think of putting bad fuel in their car. I respectfully disagree. People put all sorts of terrible fuel into their car. In my opinion, price is the determining factor for most people when it comes to fuel, not quality. I think the prevalence of ethanol based fuel supports that. I also think there is a somewhat analogous argument to be made for food as well. People go for what is cheap and fast. If time = money then people go for cheap and cheap. Although I agree with your point about the emotional dependence. Anecdotally I've been doing Keto for 2 years and removing carbs and sugar from my diet has allowed me for the first time in my life to view food as fuel and not some sort of emotional validation. I've seen a lot of people on r/keto speculate that it's because of the lack of sugar rushes and the then inevitable dopamine hit. Kind of like a drug when you think about it.
- logfromblammo 8y ago
  Sugar is a drug, and you can suffer from withdrawal symptoms. It's not like Trainspotting withdrawal, of course, but when you're drying out from a sucrose binge, "just getting a little taste of that sweet stuff" does tend to intrude upon one's thoughts annoyingly often.
  - nradov 8y ago
    "There is no support from the human literature for the hypothesis that sucrose may be physically addictive or that addiction to sugar plays a role in eating disorders." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561409002398 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026156140...
    - logfromblammo 8y ago
      That doesn't contradict what I said.
nradov 8y ago
Anyone who wants to have much success as an athlete, especially in endurance sports, is pretty much forced to view food primarily as fuel. So for some people who want to lose body fat, it might be helpful to get them involved in a sport they enjoy. That way they'll have a specific reason to eat less and better food, and be able to see the improvements in a matter of weeks.

opportune 8y ago

Asking people to view food as fuel is akin to asking people to view sex as for procreation. Seems very Puritanical to view the pleasure we receive from food as a problem or distraction. People like to eat. It feels good. There is of course a lot of ignorance about food (and even if you aren’t ignorant it’s still easy to willfully make bad choices) but that doesn’t mean we should dehumanize it. Just like with sex, we should study it and develop a healthy culture for it that balances pleasure and what’s good for us. Also, I’m somewhat convinced myself that the reason poor people tend to be very fat is that food for them provides way more bang-per-buck than anything else at certain income levels. Yeah you may not be able to afford a car or a nice place to live, or healthcare, or education for your kids, but goddamn you can eat some delicious food for relatively cheap. It sucks that poor people get hit hardest by obesity and almost nobody wants to be fat... but at the same time, I feel like trying to decouple food from pleasure would mean depriving poor people of one of the few joys they can afford

rootusrootus 8y ago
"Among men, obesity prevalence is generally similar at all income levels, with a tendency to be slightly higher at higher income levels." https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db50.htm#mennn https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db50.htm#mennn
- zeroego 8y ago
  Slightly below that it says the opposite is true for women. Obesity increases as income decreases.
  - rootusrootus 8y ago
    Or put another way, there is no correlation.

crankylinuxuser 8y ago

> It's crazy to me how hard it is to switch to a view of food as fuel instead of as a reward. People who readily eat the worst foods on earth would never think of putting bad fuel in their car. But that's the problem. Sugar hijacks the body's receptors making it think that it tastes delicious and is healthy and yummy. Because why would something yummy be so bad for you? Im also a type 2 diabetic. After cutting sugar out of my diet (damn, its hard AF to avoid sugar everywhere), sugar tastes bitter and leaves a weird aftertaste. Of course, unlike what many say is polemic, sugar absolutely is poison to me. Yet, I find more and more foods that have sugar crammed in for no good reason. After seeing product after product with artificially added sugar, I can only assume that this is a conspiracy of some sort. Why? To make food addicting? Cheap and easy? No clue. I just know I end up paying more for unadultered products - where this should be the default.

zeroego 8y ago

>People who readily eat the worst foods on earth would never think of putting bad fuel in their car. I respectfully disagree. People put all sorts of terrible fuel into their car. In my opinion, price is the determining factor for most people when it comes to fuel, not quality. I think the prevalence of ethanol based fuel supports that. I also think there is a somewhat analogous argument to be made for food as well. People go for what is cheap and fast. If time = money then people go for cheap and cheap. Although I agree with your point about the emotional dependence. Anecdotally I've been doing Keto for 2 years and removing carbs and sugar from my diet has allowed me for the first time in my life to view food as fuel and not some sort of emotional validation. I've seen a lot of people on r/keto speculate that it's because of the lack of sugar rushes and the then inevitable dopamine hit. Kind of like a drug when you think about it.

logfromblammo 8y ago
Sugar is a drug, and you can suffer from withdrawal symptoms. It's not like Trainspotting withdrawal, of course, but when you're drying out from a sucrose binge, "just getting a little taste of that sweet stuff" does tend to intrude upon one's thoughts annoyingly often.
- nradov 8y ago
  "There is no support from the human literature for the hypothesis that sucrose may be physically addictive or that addiction to sugar plays a role in eating disorders." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561409002398 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026156140...
  - logfromblammo 8y ago
    That doesn't contradict what I said.

nradov 8y ago

Anyone who wants to have much success as an athlete, especially in endurance sports, is pretty much forced to view food primarily as fuel. So for some people who want to lose body fat, it might be helpful to get them involved in a sport they enjoy. That way they'll have a specific reason to eat less and better food, and be able to see the improvements in a matter of weeks.