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Comment by an0malous | Hacker News Reader

Between all the coffee, nicotine, CBD, pain killers, psychiatric meds, hormones, nootropics, and micro dosing who’s even normal anymore?

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Most of what you mention isn't actually normal for most people. But it is possible to tailor your info feed to make it seem like it's normal.

2/3 of Americans drink coffee. I’ll grant you the rest of the list though.

We've also been drinking coffee for a long, long time.

To be pedantic, we've also been prescribing opioids since Ancient Sumer, 8,000 years ago.

Plus it isn't true that we've been drinking coffee for a long, long time.

Wikipedia:

> There is no confirmed evidence, either historical or archaeological, of coffee as a [missing word?] being consumed before the 15th century.

That's more than 600 years. That counts as a long time in my book.

It's basically infinitesimal in comparison to almost everything else we eat or drink.

(Also, an unknown point in the 15th century could be less than 600 years ago.)

How long have we been eating Twinkies

Going by the ingredients list:

sugar, wheat, barley, egg, soybean oil, starch, whey, salt, tallow

These go back before the beginning of history. Quite a long time before.

There are also quite a few additives and preservatives in a Twinkie.† If you're making a point about ultraprocessed food, you're definitely correct. If you're trying to make a point about basic foodstuffs, you aren't.

† https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcS3kQg5blw

Ultra processed over a very (relatively) short timeframe

I've read about Dandelion coffee being drank long before then in England.

I was on oxycodone for about 6 weeks for a growth inside my knee. After it was removed, I had to wean off the drugs. Wasn't too bad, took less than a week.

Soon after I thought I'd try to kick the caffeine habit. Went from 4 cups, to 1 over a month, then just green tea, then just water. I only lasted about 6 weeks on water only.

My god. I couldn't believe how unmotivated, soulless, and empty I felt. Judging by the reddit sub for kicking caffeine, this can last for over a year. It's terrifying

Imagine how hard it would be to kick oxy if you were taking it every day for 20 years. Habits and addictions get ingrained with time.

When I stopped coffee it was 3 days of being tired and that was it. Which, from what I read, was to be expected normal.

Wow. Can I ask how much you usually drank per day on average?

3 cups every day, sometimes more. A cup was a tee cup size (not a small coffee one) and I made it strong.

I drink about 3 cups of tea a day and no caffeine on the weekends. The reason I don’t have it on the weekends is because it’s not part of my weekend morning routine and I don’t even notice it’s missing.

15-20% of Americans have taken psychiatric medications in the last year

Can't forget the amphetamines

I think that falls under psychiatric meds

Don't forgot sugar, which is stronger than cocaine

I never sold possessions to buy more sugar...

... because sugar is extremely cheap. Even if it was legal, cocaine would be impossible to get that cheap, unless some DNA editing is done to make yeast shit it out maybe. If sugar cost $100/gram I could see crime happening to be able to taste some candy or non-sour bread.

The cheapness is due to the prevalence, and the prevalence of sugar caused sweetness receptors to be evolutionarily advantageous. There is no world in which sugar is extremely expensive, markets still function basically in the way they do now and humans experience the sensation of sweetness the way they typically do now. Cocaine and other types of "hard" drugs are qualitatively different in that regard.

Your example also doesn't really hold up because people typically don't process cocaine in the way they do with sugar and other carbohydrates. In your hypothetical scenario, we might see people consuming large amounts of pure sugar (or artificial sweeteners), but they wouldn't go to lengths of baking bread using it.

Back when sugar first appeared in Europe, it was only affordable to upper-middle classes and above. And yet, I haven't heard about any addicts robbing people so that they can afford sugar. I don't think it's holding quite the same grasp on people as some narcotics do.

You can eat one m&m or cupcake without having a freak out. Not the same for a line of cocaine. Which then leads to licking the bag and rubbing what you can on your gums.

> Even if it was legal, cocaine would be impossible to get that cheap, unless some DNA editing is done to make yeast shit it out maybe.

Not as cheap as sugar, but probably as cheap as coffee. Coca and coffee grow in the same climates, and in recent years the cartels have bred varieties of coca that grow outside of the traditional climate as well. Imagine what modern agribusiness would be capable of.

If heroin was $1/kg I doubt anyone would sell possessions for that, either.

A ton of people died over spices lol

Luckily industrialisation and the processed food industry has your back providing cheap abundant simple carbs for your pleasure and (later... discomfort)

Sugar? For snobs anyway. Corn starch for the masses.

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