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Comment by nissarup | Hacker News Reader

But "listen to your body" is exactly "eat whatever you feel like eating"!

Eating sugar releases dopamine. Is that not my body telling me it's good?

No, that's tasting good in the moment then feeling horrible and crashing afterwards. I understand his comments not very scientifically rigorous, but the message is pretty clear. Eat healthy, work out, feel good. It's pretty obvious when I'm doing something unhealthy, though maybe if you've had horrible diet/exercise your entire life you need to read up on healthy foods/workout routines

But "you need to read up on healthy foods/workout routines" is something completely different from "listen to your body".

The two statements are similar in one way, though: Completely useless as advice that will get people healthier. "listen to your body" will get people to eat what they wan't. "you need to read up on healthy foods/workout routines" will get people to read all sorts of bad advice. Like, for example: "listen to your body".

People might have to learn how to listen. Many modern diets don't really give kids an opportunity to experience different things. How can you know what your body wants if you never had the chance to try?

It is a question of being exposed to a wide array of options and and then of being able to feel what is needed. Compared to a violent craving for sugar and fast food the signal is much more muted.

So it's not just "listen to your body" it's more like "learn to listen to the specific right signals that your body is whispering very, very softly while yelling for more sugar". Is that right?

I'm sorry. This is horrible advice. In fact I would not call it advice at all. Basically you are just saying "do the right thing" without specifying what "the right thing" actually is.

It's not my advice, I know that for many many people it does not work. I'm just saying that's how I understand it and for me it does work. It is hard to imagine it is fundamentally impossible for most, but it might well be.

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