Being attracted to junk food is a feature turned bug. But nourishment is only one exploit being hacked, for which we are paying with our lives.
Junk food by evolution
Why we crave junk food (processed to have too much sugar, fat, salt) is fairly known.
The short version is we are far from our cave-dwelling forefathers, but not evolutionary-far. We have the same body/brain and so the same “drives”. Optimized over a million years towards survival in conditions slightly harsher than a modern suburb.
You find food with a lot of calories? Excellent! Eat as much as you can. Leaving your cave to hunt and gather is dangerous and you might not find more soon. It also came directly from nature – so you can trust it contains fibers and vitamins and is good for you as a whole.
Fast forward 990,000 years – to the invention of agriculture – obtaining food by producing it is slightly easier but yields little surplus. So eating while it lasts is still a good idea.
Fast forward again – another 9,900 years – food is much easier to make and more surplus is generated (for the lucky among us). But evolution – the one responsible to adjust our body to the changed reality – works on a different clock. It takes a million years to make a lasting change so ravaging the kitchen at night looking for something sweet to snack on is still very natural. Modernity needs to last another million years to provide natural immunity to the fridge.
Remember the surplus – created by our technological innovation? A few economic and political steps later – voilà – we have modern capitalism. Along with many great things (we live longer, healthier, safer lives) it created a misalignment between corporate goals and human goals. So the food industry and its supporting ecosystem optimized their performance (for the benefit of their shareholders) to produce what humans will consume in optimal quantities. Optimal for the organization. Not the humans.
Terms like “bliss-point” – the sugar-salt-fat quantities causing people to consume more sans-nausea – are researched and optimized to generate Dopamine (the hormone our body produces to signal “Yes! That’s what I need! More of that!”) and subsequently modify habits in a self-propelling feedback-loop of more more more.
At this point you must think thank god we found a solution for that.
But our relation to food is not the only thing evolution did not get the memo about.
Rest by evolution
The other side of the equation – burning them calories – has also evolved during the same million years with different problems in mind. And as you are guessing – it does not only work against us – it is also being taken advantage of.
First, why. It is the same rare fruit and hungry lion outside the cave to blame. If we spend too much energy – we need to eat more. Eating more = difficult and dangerous. Hence wasting less energy is a good idea. Evolution promotes rest.
The organ consuming the most energy for its size is the brain. Taking 2% of our body but consuming 20% of the energy. Making it a good idea to keep it as quiet as possible. The heart? Taking 0.4% and using 9%. Muscles? Taking 36% and using 20%. Sounds reasonable? It jumps 50-fold when exercising vigorously. Idly relaxed is the preferred evolutionary state. Thinking, learning, creating, exercising? As little as possible, thank you.
See where this is going? Anything that will make your brain and body NOT exert an effort gets a bonus by evolution. Here comes junk food for the brain. Junk Attention.
Junk attention, for profit
Coca-cola? PepsiCo? Kraft Heinz? McDonalds? There is a whole new set of incentives for companies to leverage human evolutionary configuration to rest. Netflix (“sleep is our competitor“), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, the news (you think it is always bad news because the world is getting worse?), Xbox, WhatsApp (your “staying in touch” and “up to date” is mostly entertainment). And – surprise surprise – most of your work email, Slack, Zoom and physical meetings. You get the kick from feeling you “work” and “produce” but mostly it is only the rush of “completing a task” (answered a push notification, replying on chat, attending a meeting) without exerting too much brain-related calories. They are all easy, addictive, trillion-dollar-incentivized to optimize.
So what to do?
Do we want to fight back?
If evolution, your body, world’s largest companies, modern society and your spouse are all conspiring against you – what chance do you have to not consume junk food and disperse junk attention?
First – who said you should do anything? Ok – junk food is bad – but junk attention? C’mon. Why should we do “something better” with our time? What importance does it all have if we anyhow live in a simulation? And what is wrong with a little Daoism?
Say we do
Let’s say we want more of our attention and time.
First – we need to be aware. To be aware that great forces are working against us (which are not evil once we buy their stocks). Then – monitor screen time. See what we spend it on. Remember it is out of waking hours, not 24. The hours left after sleeping and other cannot-do-while-holding-a-screen activities.
Next – we can go back to the sofa, rest and wait for the regulator. It took governments about 70 years to start acting against cigarettes and junk food from becoming aware they are not “good for you”. From your sofa you can set the alarm clock to 2084 or so. Alternatively there are a few techniques that work “with” our nature and not “against” it.
Try Ulysses Contracts. No need to tie yourself to the coat hanger to avoid going to the kitchen for snacks, simply do not buy them (also remember to never go shopping for food when hungry or nature will prevent not-buying from happening). Do buy apples and bananas. I guarantee you will get hungry watching Netflix at night and be disappointed to find only apples with their lousy sugar content, but I can also guarantee you will be too lazy to get dressed and go shopping for ice cream. And while you are at it – remove your credit card and delete food delivery apps.
Try social pressure. Tell your friends and family you plan to do social detox. You will feel more “bound” (pressured) to keep your word. Appearing online recently, uploading or viewing a story, commenting or liking immediately will feel “shameful” and not doing so will also feel “ok” since you “told them, so they do not expect”. At work – be away on Slack and consider replying to emails at 24h intervals. Avoid meetings as much as possible. Ignore all the above work-related advice if the job is less about creativity and more about service.
Work against the algorithm. Close as many notifications from as many apps you can. Think of every click on a notification as costing money. Because they are, even if you do not see it coming immediately from your account. All notifications are carefully crafted and timed not by altruism but because they were found to make money. Remember the bliss-point? Exactly the same. Take a little revenge and say no to cookies (making you more resilient to pickpocketing by advertisers).
Try overlapping activities. Commuting to work? Do not play a game, read or listen to the news. Listen to a book. A podcast if you have to (they are an inferior source of knowledge as producers by nature make less effort compared to writing a book. You pay with the same amount of time and mostly get a smaller reward).
Try to start small. Want to start training? Do less than your current level of ability allows. Aim for something so easy your mind will say “that was it? It is almost like resting!”. Same with everything that is “against our nature”. Fool yourself. When you do it consistently enough another mechanism will go into gear – habit. Actually – it is the same mechanism. We do not want to think about what we do (too much energy) – so we make habits.
Try DNA implants. Take this new pill that updates the DNA (I think version 3.23 is out of beta and available now). Heard there are two versions – Blue – makes you not care. Red – makes you aware.