If eating trash makes us sick, why do we keep eating it?

Catsheep wrote: »

But then comes the next day and it's back to the desire of having all the junk again despite the knowledge of what the result will entail. So how does one break this cycle? I truly have a desire to live a healthy and active lifestyle but I feel like I am self sabotaging and trying to fulfill my subconscious self prophecy that I will fail.

I don't eat "trash" or food that makes me feel bad. But I've eaten more than is ideal for health, definitely (and felt less than great afterwards sometimes), and done lots of other things not good for me, despite knowing they aren't good for me.

In a way this is a classic "why do we know the good but do the bad" question, and the answer is that it's something human beings are prone to. The link between what we think we should do and what we want to do or feel compelled to do (often due to habit) is not so perfect that our ideas always govern our impulses. Part of this, I think, is a difficulty of putting long term goals over short term ones in the moment, especially when our will power may be stretched thin on other things, which is why it's better if it's not a matter of always being forced to rely on will power, but forming more helpful habits and making the link between cause and effect more clear.

You are the only one who can answer why, in your case, you do this, but probably it's because in the moment you either forget the unpleasantness or think the pleasure from the foods will be worth it or convince yourself things might be different this time. One question is why the pleasure is so important to you--do you think that eating other foods can't be as pleasurable? Do you not have other foods easily available? Are you compensating for other things that make you feel bad and thus tell yourself you deserve at least this? I think part of changing something is trying to understand what is going on.

Fundamentally it's not that different than "why do I watch TV when I should be working, even though I know I'll be unhappy when I have to work on the weekend/feel guilty, etc." Or whatever other behavioral things you struggle with. Like I said above, it's part of human nature, but something we can work on too.

In...for addiction and evil food company conspiracies.

Mudler wrote: »

But my 'We're programmed" point. Apologies to the ones who escaped all the advertising over the years. Nice one, not me, they got me.

When I was a kid, the adverts on TV, never liked them but now 40+ years later I can still remember the taglines...

The only taglines/jingles I recall are for products I don't even use with the exception of some Coke ones. I do drink diet coke sometimes, but the ads have nothing to do with it.

Based on the discussion in the juicing thread, I kind of think you are fooling yourself here. Do you really think you don't like vegetables or don't eat the diet you think you should because you have been tricked by ads? That your taste has been programmed by what you see on TV? Does this affect the other products you use too?

I think there are ways to encourage your taste to change--for example, I find vegetables and fruits more exciting when I focus on seasonality and shop at the green market or get my CSA box and visit the farm they come from. I know that's a little silly but it does affect my thinking. But the fact is that I also just like most vegetables (because I cook them correctly!), and will happily eat broccoli from the supermarket too (as I did this morning).

Rather than us being programmed to like less healthy foods, I think a lot of food companies (for obvious reasons) pick up on tastes humans already like and--even more--the desire for convenience, since there's no way a boxed something or other tastes better than the homemade version, IMO--humans have been making delicious food forever. What's changed is that we have a lot more freedom and a lot more available to us. We can eat whenever we want, whatever we want, and don't have to put in the work if we don't want to. There are no set rules for many people about what a meal should consist of, about food being confined to meal times, etc. Many people eat alone or with others who eat just like them so there's no socially imposed breaks on eating. And on top of all this, even our basic traditions about eating are often based on ideas that come out of a time in which people were far more active and needed more food.

Mudler wrote: »

Moderation is the big word to stick to but there is science to it as well
Food companies are selling us drugs, sugar and salt.
They know that they can sell more and more.
The whole world is getting fat and ill as a result.
We crave them and we crave foods that contain them

I'm the worst, i love those foods and give me them all the time. I'm trying desperately to break the cycle but struggling and do give in to it occasionally.

I don't eat out of garbage cans. I also don't drink out of toilets so can we just skip that thread too?

Mudler wrote: »

i LOVE KFC... MMMMM greasy chickeny goodness!!!!

I love it as well but the coating is probably one of the worst things you can eat and the Chicken isn't chicken.
It's an approximation of what we used to think was chicken.
Certainly bares no resemblance to those feather coved birds that run around laying eggs all the time.

Hence the reason for it not being called Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore

Wut?