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Comment by wepple | Hacker News Reader

> But if Facebook was running our diets, their algorithm would long since have "optimized" its way to junk food for all of us.

I really, really like this comparison.

If we fed our bodies in the same way we let tech company algorithms feed our minds, we’d have three Big Macs for breakfast washed down with a shot of whiskey and a couple lines of cocaine

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When I read that, I kind of thought "hasn't that already happened"? The most enduring symbol of American capitalism is caffeinated sugar water. Our athletics competitions are sponsored by fast food conpanies.

We live in an obesogenic environment. Yeah, people with reserves of health, wealth and wisdom can buck the trends by applying time and energy to fighting against the tide but if the average person is falling for this stuff, the battle's already lost as the insanity becomes normal.

It's not because there is a shortage of healthy alternatives. It's because people are free to choose.

Yeah people are free to choose but to go full circle many of us let ourselves be manipulated by advertising[0] and dark patterns[1] to make unhealthy choices. That's why USA is so obese.

When I look at countries like Japan I don't see a limit in food choices, but I see a lot more healthy people.

[0] https://theconversation.com/how-marketers-condition-us-to-bu... [1] https://cspinet.org/protecting-our-health/nutrition/unhealth...

I might argue someone is not "free to choose" if they haven't been taught how to spot dark patterns in rhetoric and advertising.

I don't think people completely lose their agency just because they saw a Coca Cola billboard.

Sure, but I didn't say they completely lose their agency.

I feel like on the nutritional side there's been a (not total, but significant) reversal over the last decade. Some of that gets eaten up by marketing (food that isn't any healthier gets packaged in muted shades of green and brown to make it appear more grounded and wholesome), but some of it is real (I no longer know a single person who drinks soda on a regular basis).

Maybe in another decade or two we'll see a similar shift in the digital space.

That might also be a factor of where you're living at.

I don't think that's the whole story. Even national brands like McDonalds have subtly changed their packaging to feel less artificial and more "earthy", for lack of a better term, even if the product itself hasn't changed. There's an awareness of a cultural shift.

I would guess that processed/high-sugar foods today are where cigarettes were in the 90s. Everybody knows and accepts how bad they are, many people have changed their habits accordingly, many people haven't.

Digital media on the other hand is more like where cigarettes were in the 70s. Most people know roughly that they're bad for you, but few do anything about it.

I have definitely noticed this (healthy) trend pop up in the last few years as well. Very much welcomed in changing from the old, unhealthy food.

'conpanies' is a great word. Perhaps a mis-type, but perfectly sums up today's corporates.

> three Big Macs for breakfast washed down with a shot of whiskey and a couple lines of cocaine

That was essentially what Hunter S Thompson used to have for breakfast, just with cigarettes instead of McDonalds [1]

[1] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/33487/hunter-s-thompsons...

>we’d have three Big Macs for breakfast washed down with a shot of whiskey and a couple lines of cocaine

But that's a normal breakfast?

Maybe it's more like eating only rabbits: rabbits for breakfast, rabbits for lunch, rabbits for dinner until you starve

I dont't understand the analogy with rabbits, what with the staving and all.

Back in UK history there were paid rabbit hunters, who'd roam a farmer's land hunting rabbits. They ate a lot of rabbit. It turns out that rabbit meat is not nutritionally complete and some of them died.

https://fourtallpalms.com/why-rabbit-meat-is-not-the-best-su...

Rabbits are plentiful and easy to catch, but they are not nutritionally complete. If you eat only rabbits, you'll go crazy and die

>If there are enough rabbits, the people eat till their stomachs are distended; but no matter how much they eat they feel unsatisfied.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

Traditional american breakfast..

The traditional American breakfast is great if you need carbs to do manual labor.

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