Poverty and Diet

[Jade]

Ah, I have a hard time pigeonholing humans. Again, sure you can correlate the addictions with taste, but it's not the only relevant factor and genuinely people just sometimes have different tastes in food. My point is that I disagree with any apparently 'universal' explanation because I just don't think any applies.


But don't you see how this can be frustrating? As you say, you already had a predisposition to that enjoyment so of course it 'makes sense' to you, but that's not the case for everyone. Sure it's possible, but you also have major biases towards certain things which make it easier for you to get in to. So the way you explain it seems catered to your own biases.

My point again here is that while it may seem 'easy' and obvious to you, that is dependent a lot on your palette.

That being said, for me a huge factor is time and largely why I don't spend more time on preparation.

I guess you are missing my point that food is currently manufactured to create tastes that are addictive, and to alter your brain/taste bud chemistry to reinforce that. It's obviously more complex than sugar tastes good so I have to eat it, of course. It's many layered but I just don't see the distinction you make between the taste of certain foods having beneficial emotional and mental effects so not being able to relinquish it, and being addicted.

Dairy, for instance, is literally addictive, because it's meant to be a food for newborns so there is a built in reward mechanism to encourage an infant to eat. In fact, there are even "lactose-free" "cheese" products out there that still add casein to the final product, because casein is the addictive chemical, and the reward driver for eating dairy. There are plenty of other "artificial flavors" and even "natural flavors" that never have to be listed on a label that are specifically only added to create an addiction feedback loop in your brain associated with the food.  This is what I mean when I say processed foods are addictive.

We're all in this trap. I'm sorry if I make it sound easy. This is four years worth of conscious dietary choices in culmination speaking. And it's an attempt to uphold the law of responsibility, because once I know these things, I can't unknow these things. I also have to teach what I learn. When threads about diet come up, I engage because I've spent a good deal of time studying and learning about what goes in our food, and on the whole I feel like my body complex functions in a healthy manner so I feel like I must be doing something right.  I know it's a combination of mental, physical, and spiritual, and I enjoy exploring that relationship with everyone.