Comment by scottious | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scottious | Hacker News Reader

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It is a bit crazy that everybody seems to agree that diet and exercise are important, and yet it seems like society is hell bent on making those things very hard to do well.

I went to the mall recently (big mistake) and I had to get lunch at the food court. I don't think there was a single gram of fiber across the 10 or so restaurants. So much of America is drive-thru garbage. Yup -- you don't even have to stand up to get your Big Mac. You can endanger other people by eating it while you drive.

We tell people to get exercise and then force them to have 9-5 desk jobs that have a 45 minute car-commute each way. And what's so much worse is that people are paying a ton of money for that car that's slowly killing them. It's not entirely their fault though -- that's just the way our society is set up. Walkability is a luxury only the rich can afford.

Then, 20 years later you show up to the doctor and the standard course of action is to prescribe a bunch of medications. The doctor says "you should exercise more and eat better" and many people just don't.

So much is broken.

There's no master plan, it's just that technology is making life more efficient, and more productive. It's also the downside of freedom: you're free to make bad choices too.

Should we ban cars to force people to hike uphill to work? It would mean people would have to live in smaller apartments in cities, and the workforce would have less talent. But we could do it.

Should we ban rich foods in the mall? Do we want to live in a world where the government forces healthy choices on people? Many would argue the downsides outweigh the benefits, and most of us live in democracies.

Society is not obligated to make the choices you want to make easier for you. That will never change, so you might as well focus on yourself and your own habits.

I'm not saying we should ban stuff.

I'm saying that we could enact policies that encourage better habits by default. For example, we don't have to build car-dependent suburbia. Car-dependency is a choice we made. We've largely outlawed the building of walkable cities through zoning codes. There are literally millions upon millions of people who are forced into car-dependent suburbia and stuck with 9-5 jobs where they have to spend 1.5 hours commuting. It's no wonder people find it difficult to exercise. Add kids into the mix and it becomes almost impossible to find the time to drive to a gym to exercise 5 days a week. Many of these suburban cities are openly hostile to people not in cars.

That whole thing I just described is a series of policy choices. We can't save people from themselves but we can encourage better lifestyle choices. People would walk more if there were more stuff to walk to. People would bike to work if it were made possible.

Also, honestly, a world with fewer cars would be a much better place.

Exercise is taxing, and healthy food isn't as tasty or easy as junk food.

Humans are natural experts in min-maxing calories spent vs calories consumed. Then we solved food ~100 years ago and its been a kid in a candy shop ever since.

Gotta find exercise that is fun though. Don’t just try one thing and give up, it takes time to find what you enjoy.

I’ve been swimming for 15 years, but only got into bouldering 1.5 years ago. I tried running and cycling but it always felt like a chore so I could not stick with it.

The food problem is much harder to solve for IMO, even shops are designed to get you to impulse-buy junk. Although one minor tip is to do groceries when you’re full, not when you’re hungry.

> healthy food isn't as tasty

Mediterranean cuisine tasty and healthy. But it’s not as cheap as ultra-processed food.

The Mediterranean diet is tasty, but its supposed health benefits are mostly bunk; the whole "blue zone" longevity secret has far more to do with bad record keeping, pensions, and shoddy research than with diet.

"Ultra-processed food" is a vibes-level concept that is likewise more scam than science.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/mindandbody/the-real-secret...

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/research/harvard-ultraproces...

The alternative hypothesis is that their 100yo are healthy enough to scam the state out of their "120yo" parents' pension.

I've been in many of these miracle health countries and seen many 90yo walking around.

They all have some just–so story about a particularly awfully–tasting vegetable or drinking English gin every morning or whatever.

It most likely entirely genetic but we aren't ready to accept that we are what our genes are.

An important factor there is “walking around.” It’s a very healthy thing to do.

Agreed, but we don't need it to explain why people who lied about their age seem to live longer than average.

Except when you start eating real food made fresh from quality ingredients. Or sauces being cooked for proper times. There is so incredibly much more flavour to all of that food. It is seriously rewarding both from a nutritional point of view and a mental health side.

We really don’t need to eat so much as we do for the lives most of us lead. Yes, farmers doing heavy labour and cyclists riding the tour du France need to consume 3000 to 6000 kcal because that is the actual labour they perform.

Take small portions of high quality food that you enjoy. Pay attention to what you eat and how it tastes. They will last you longer both in appetite and in the mind.

I know junk food is almost the only thing obtainable on low budget and that is the real poverty. But not having the time to well prepare meals nor having the money to buy the proper ingredients and store them in a cost-effective manner. It is one of the costs of being poor. And it is a sad thing we have the world in that state while we have multi billionaires roving around as well.

A lot of healthy food is much more tasty because it's mostly plants, which is where almost all flavours come from. The trouble is a lot of the time it it's branded as healthy it won't have much salt or oil etc. They make it taste bad so you think it's good for you. But food consisting of mostly plants can be both healthy and delicious, you just have to prepare it like Indians or Italians.

People are ignoring climate change too even though they know about it. It’s hard to make good decisions over these long lifestyles, which is why pay as you go taxes or structured retirement savings as part of your paycheck work better than just telling people they should be prepared.

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