Hacker News Reader

Comment by williamtell | Hacker News Reader

Sure but it is rather paradoxical as healthy lifestyle things are far more available like every other consumer option. There's just the higher probability of choosing the more immediately satisfying new choices and/or of envying those who do.

View on HN

Do you mean healthy foods as well? They vary from "much more expensive than" normal" food (not necessarily just highly processed/worst), to "impossible to purchase at all" due to living in the place that doesn't offer these options.

On top of that there's time cost - making healthy meals form scratch takes far more time than making them from store-bought "parts" (eg: to get boiled beans I need to soak them, them boil for hours. For this I need time, more time and a lot of energy)

I think you're not taking the average human's reality.

I think you are not aware of the average human's reality before 1980. The food deserts of today affect a small percentage of people. If you want something almost as healthy as the produce but prepared/processed you can buy it today but couldn't in 1980. You would also be spending considerably more of your income on food before 1980 no matter the quality. It's fun to blame scarcity of needed things but this has no reality. There is an abundance of preferred things.

Depends on the country.

In '80s in mine we had mostly only healthy foods. Crap sold as food today was completely unavailable; the most unhealthy would be a birthday cake or additional slice of bacon on a plate.

I think I am aware and I posit it's very hard for people on low I comes to even be able to buy a quality food.

Unprepared food was pretty much the only healthy food in shops before 1980. Poor people were more likely to need two bread winners..

The memes you are repeating do not match actual US or world statistics. They do make everyone feel better all around. I.e. even free enterprise and freedom of choice stories work worse when we are genetically tuned to choose ourselves to death and market tuned to profit from it. (A bag of potatoes is far more available globally than decades ago but a bag of doritos has a far more impressive availability increase.)

What memes?

And you didn't even engage with my main point, it's very hard for people especially on the low income to not just eat but even access healthy foods.

I did engage with your main point. Healthy prepared food did not exist in 1980 at a grocery store, the lowest income was more likely to need dual income and therefore not having more free time than now unlike richer people since 1980.

Here is the actual data that says people were spending 50% more on food despite more prep time and lower health food options:

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/110333

Your point is very socially satisfying but has no accuracy for why the majority of Americans are overweight or why the trend is global. (People buy expensive brand trash food but could in fact afford and find healthier food for less of their income now than in 1980.)

“System prefers lower-energy state” is not paradoxical at all.

It’s just about the most fundamental law in the entire universe, in fact.

I didn't say what people prefer is a paradox. There is more availability and use of health related choices that violate this "law" but much more use of things that satisfy it. It would take a hell of a lot of healthy living to make up for cancer rates in 10% of the population having all the options and a dopamine addiction. Pretty remarkable the cancer rates are as low as they are.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com