Being attracted by junk food is a feature of turned bugs. But food is only a hacked exploitation, for which we pay with our lives.
Junk food by evolution
Why we are looking for junk food (transformed to have too much sugar, fat, salt) is fairly known.
The short version is that we are far from our ancestors living in the caves, but no evolution. We have the same body / brain and therefore the same “training”. Optimized more than a million years to survival under conditions slightly harder than a modern suburbs.
Do you find food with a lot of calories? Excellent! Eat as much as you can. Let your cave hunt and get together is dangerous and you could find more soon. It has also come directly from nature – so you can contain fibers and vitamins and is good for you as a whole.
Rapid advance of 990,000 years – to the invention of agriculture – obtaining food by producing it is slightly easier but gives little surplus. So eating while it lasts is always a good idea.
Quick advance again – another 9,900 years – food is much easier to do and more surplus is generated (for luck among us). But the evolution – that responsible for adjusting our body to modified reality – works on a different clock. It takes a million years to make a lasting change, so devastating the kitchen at night looking for something sweet to snack is always very natural. Modernity must last a million years to provide natural immunity in the refrigerator.
Remember the excess – created by our technological innovation? A few economic and political stages later – here – we have modern capitalism. In addition to many big things (we live longer, in better health and safer), it has created a disalconnence between corporate objectives and human goals. The food industry and its support ecosystem have therefore optimized their performance (for the benefit of their shareholders) to produce what humans will consume in optimal quantities. Optimal for organization. Not humans.
Terms like “Bliss -point” – the quantities of sugar salt fat, which means that people consume more non -nausea – are sought and optimized to generate dopamine (the hormone that our body produces to point out “yes!”
At this point, you must think of thank God, we have found a solution for that.
But our relationship with food is not the only thing that evolution has not obtained memo.
Restity by evolution
The other side of the equation – burn them calories – has also evolved over the same million years with different problems in mind. And as you can guess – it does not only work against us – it is also in progress.
First, why. It is the same rare fruit and the hungry lion outside the cave to be blamed. If we spend too much energy – we have to eat more. Eat more = difficult and dangerous. Therefore, wasting less energy is a good idea. Evolution promotes rest.
The organ consuming the most energy for its size is the brain. Taking 2% of our body but consuming 20% of energy. By getting a good idea to keep it as silent as possible. The heart? Take 0.4% and use 9%. Muscles? Take 36% and use 20%. Does that seem reasonable? He jumps 50 times during the exercise vigorously. Soufflé is the favorite evolutionary state. Thinking, learning, creating, exercising? As little as possible, thank you.
See where is it going? Everything that will make your brain and your body NOT Exercise an effort obtains a bonus by evolution. Here is the junk food for the brain. Undesirable attention.
Watch out for compensation, for lucrative
Coca-Cola? Pepsico? Kraft Heinz? McDonalds? There is a whole new set of incentives for companies to be taken from the human evolutionary configuration to rest. Netflix (“Sleep is our competitor”), Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, The News (Do you think it's always bad news because the world empire?), Xbox, Whatsapp (your “stay in contact” and “up to date” is mainly entertainment). And – surprise surprise – Most of your work meetings, slack, zoom and physical. You get the kick to feel like you are “working” and “produce”, but most of the time, it is only the precipitation of “finishing a task” (responded to a push notification, by responding to the cat, by attending a meeting) without exercising too many calories related to the brain. They are all easy, addictive, to optimize.
So what to do?
Do we want to fight back?
If the evolution, your body, the largest companies in the world, modern society and your spouse all conspire against you – what chance do you have not to consume junk food and disperse the attention of junk food?
First – Who said you should TO DO Nothing? OK – The junk food is bad – but the attention of the junk food? Come on. Why should we do “something better” with our time? How important does all this do if we live in a simulation anyway? And what's wrong with a little Daoism?
Say that we do
Let's say that we want more of our attention and our time.
First – we must be aware. To be aware that major forces work against us (which are not bad once we buy their actions). Then – mount west time. See what we are spending. Remember that it came out for waking up hours, not 24. The remaining hours after sleeping and other activities cannot hold a screen.
Then – we can return to the sofa, rest and wait for the regulator. It took around 70 years for governments to start acting against cigarettes and junk food to realize that they are not “good for you”. From your sofa, you can adjust the alarm about 2084 approximately. Alternatively, there are some techniques that work “with” our nature and not against it.
Try Ulysses contracts. No need to bind you at the hanger to avoid going to the kitchen for snacks, do not buy them (don't forget to never shop for food when hunger or nature will prevent you from associating). Buy apples and bananas. I guarantee you that you will be hungry by watching Netflix at night and that you will be disappointed to find only apples with their ugly sugar content, but I can also guarantee that you will be too lazy to dress and shop for ice cream. And while you are there – delete your credit card and delete food delivery applications.
Try social pressure. Tell your friends and family that you plan to do social detoxification. You will feel more “linked” (under pressure) to keep your word. Appearing online recently, download or see a story, comment or love immediately will feel “shameful” and not do it will also feel “OK” since you “told them, so they do not expect”. At work – Be absent on Slack and plan to respond to emails at 24 hours intervals. Avoid meetings as much as possible. Ignore all the above-mentioned work advice if work is less on creativity and more on service.
Work against algorithm. Close as many notifications of as many possible applications. Consider each click on a notification as a money cost. Because they are, even if you do not see him coming immediately from your account. All notifications are carefully designed and timed not by altruism but because they have proven to be earning money. Remember the bliss-point? Exactly the same thing. Take a little revenge and say no to cookies (making you more resilient at ICT to the pulled by advertisers).
Try overcrowding activities. Travel to work? Do not play a game, read or listen to the news. Listen to a book. A podcast if you should (they are a lower source of knowledge that producers by nature make less effort in relation to the writing of a book. You pay with the same time and especially get a smaller reward).
Try to start little. Do you want to start training? Do less than your current capacity level allows. Take something so easy that your mind will say “that's all?” It's almost like resting! ”. Ditto with everything that is “against our nature”. Take you. When you do it regularly, another mechanism will go into speed – the habit. In fact – it's the same mechanism. We don't want to think about what we do (too much energy) – so we make habits.
Try DNA implants. Take this new pill that updates DNA (I think the 3.23 version is out of the beta version and available now). Heard that there are two versions – Blue – You don't care. Red – makes you aware.
