Why do humans love sugar, fat, salt, and shitty food?

[Onecirrus]

Despite consciously knowing the damage and suffering it causes, I will still go to McDonald's. What in our biology or psychology is driving this irrational behavior? People are literally eating themselves to death these days!!! Why!??

[Opo]

Back in the day calories were scarce. 

So the person who took advantage of it when they were available had an advantage. 

[CultivateLove]

12 hours ago, Opo said:

Back in the day calories were scarce. 

So the person who took advantage of it when they were available had an advantage. 

Simply this. Millions of years of caloric scarcity hard-wired into our DNA.

These things are a signal of "Wow, lot's of energy detected" basically, which was important when we didn't have a grocery shop / restaurant at every street.

Not something you should use an excuse, of course, unless you don't give a f*ck about your health and your life.

Btw, not all salt is the same. There's a big difference between pure Sodium Chloride (Basic white table salt) and something like Pink Himalayan Sea salt, which comes with many different minerals which are good for the body.

Edited July 12, 2021 by CultivateLove

[Rajneeshpuram]

sugar+fat+salt stimulates the dopamine production, so its easy to fall in to the addiction

[flowboy]

@Onecirrus  When you're walking around in nature, where everything that grows and walks around is unprocessed and organic, and you find something to eat, fat, salt and sugar are signs that this is good for you.

McDonalds has hacked this mechanism to make you eat their garbage.

Why do people keep doing it?

• It's addictive
• The "food" is so bad for the brain and mental clarity, that it literally makes you dumber. So it's hard to think clearly and decide to stop.
• Their friends/family do it, and you have to be pretty mentally strong to go against the grain and be laughed at. Which again, is hard if your brain is withering away because of bad nutrition.

[mandyjw]

The problem isn't sugar, fat and salt, it's the requirement for it, the engineered everydayness of it, the desensitizing of taste which actually diminishes the enjoyment of the very thing that was meant for pleasure. Ironically if you really want pleasure from food, you use taste artfully and consciously as components, not requirements. The food does not "have" taste. What tastes the food? 

 

[Zeroguy]

21 hours ago, mandyjw said:

The problem isn't sugar, fat and salt, it's the requirement for it, the engineered everydayness of it, the desensitizing of taste which actually diminishes the enjoyment of the very thing that was meant for pleasure. Ironically if you really want pleasure from food, you use taste artfully and consciously as components, not requirements. The food does not "have" taste. What tastes the food? 

 

What? 

Have one tip for you. Don't turn everything into non duality. 

Fast food or low quality nutrition is still low quality nutrition. 

Excessive amounts of sugar is not good for your health even if it pleases your senses. 

Wake up call. 

[Zeroguy]

I myself spent short time working for one of these sugary companies and wanted to burn whole place.down.

That's how economy works.if people don't demand it noone will produce it. 

So responsability at the very end is on you. 

[mandyjw]

7 hours ago, Zeroguy said:

What? 

Have one tip for you. Don't turn everything into non duality. 

Fast food or low quality nutrition is still low quality nutrition. 

Excessive amounts of sugar is not good for your health even if it pleases your senses. 

Wake up call. 

You missed the message. But I'd still bake you some cookies.

Pleasure is not inherent in or found in the food, neither is its opposite.

[Goldzilla]

I would not call fat shitty. 

People are doing it because of social influence. 

Go in nature, stay 1 month, you will see that the craving for shitty foods dissapear. 

So, transcend the influence of people around. 

[hamedsf]

let's take the example of sugar. sugar looks like porn. men get addicted to porn because the brain thinks it's doing the evolutionary obligation while men deceiving the brains! 

sugar for our taste bud means lots of energy!

we consume it because we feel we could get lots of energy just because in our evolution process, we got rewired so! it happened because natural sugar were and are still the best, like sugar coming from fruits (watermelon) but our body confuse the artificial sugar with the natural sugar and that's why we get rewarded and addicted so fast.

 

[SQAAD]

Shitty food has tons of calories and releases more dopamine. The brain rewards you MORE for eating a double cheeseburger rather than eating spinach or kale. Why? Because your brain isn't stupid.

It knows that you would have to eat 10-20 pounds of spinach in order to survive , plus it would take up all of your time chewing up that spinach.

So instead the brain wants you to eat the double cheeseburger which has tons of calories and basically in 5-10 minutes you get all the calories you need for the day.  This is why a burger tastes better than spinach. Because it is 'better' for survival.

If you want to learn more i highly recommend learning more about the Pleasure Trap. 

 

[NorthRise]

On 7/15/2021 at 0:08 PM, mandyjw said:

But I'd still bake you some cookies.

This made me giggle?

[Village]

How can you lump all of these together in one category?

You crave fat because you are literally made out of it and it is absolutely necessary for survival and health. Even if you avoid fat and eat carbs instead, your body will do whatever it can to convert the carbs to the saturated fat you tried to avoid.

You crave sugar because it's a quick source of energy, which in nature was scarce (tiny wild fruit in season and honeycombs). The modern sugar industry preys on your natural senses and bastardizes them, which leaves us confused at why something tasty is so bad for us. Our bodies were made to utilize these natural sources of sugar in the small amounts they were available at. Eating pounds of processed white sugar every year is a whole other story.

You crave salt because you are mineral deficient. Eat plenty of raw dairy, drink celery juice, and eat oysters - see how disgusted you will grow of salt.

Your senses are made to guide you in nature. Unnatural foods were created to confuse your senses and have you happily digging your own grave.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Village

[Roy]

If you start eating healthy for a while, you'll likely become disgusted by shitty food, or at least react badly too it.

I haven't been able to eat McDonalds for 10 years even if I craved it. Yea it would still taste good, but if I ate a big mac meal with a coke, it would make me physically ill.

 

[Windappreciator]

So we can overcome it

[Enlightenment]

On 21.08.2021 at 1:27 AM, SQAAD said:

Shitty food has tons of calories and releases more dopamine. The brain rewards you MORE for eating a double cheeseburger rather than eating spinach or kale. Why? Because your brain isn't stupid.

Well, it kind of is. I often fool my brain with aspartame, the brain gives me pretty much just as much pleasure for it as for sugar