Dopamine is easy to get from doom scrolling on your phone, watching Netflix, or playing video games. You don’t even have to leave your chair. Exercise is hard. It requires you to exert yourself and it requires training over time to see tangible results.
Same thing with food. Going through a McDonald’s drive through is easy and the salt, fat, and sugar taste good to most of us. Cracking open a cook book, putting together a shopping list, and going to the grocery store is hard. It requires planning, it requires thought. Then you have to come home and cook the food, which requires even more effort. If you cook something healthy, it won’t be loaded up with all the salt, fat, and sugar that people have become accustomed to.
Getting enough sleep requires discipline and sacrificing time. Time you could be spending doing activities that release dopamine, such as playing video games, or watching videos.
Developing a healthy social support network is difficult too. It’s easy to post things or like things on Facebook or Hacker News. It’s much more difficult to get out there and be part of clubs or doing group activities and meeting and engaging with people in the real world. You have to leave your house. You have to put yourself out there and be a little bit vulnerable. It’s particularly hard if you’re an introvert. Nurturing strong family relationships takes a lot of effort too. You have to be the mean parent that kicks your kids off video games to play board games or go on a nature hike together. It’s a lot easier to let a screen babysit them all day.
I’m only talking about middle and upper class social dynamics of course. I’ve been fortunate enough to never experience poverty or food insecurity. I’m sure it’s not nearly that simple for people in that situation.
That's extended to all facets of life and has bought us a lot of luxury time, which of course has led to a rise in dopamine factory applications, goods, and services to fill that time.
Many people honestly believe "why would i spend time grocery shopping if i can just pay someone else to cook for me?"
There's something to be said for the effort of doing things.
It's not victim blaming to point out that "can't" isn't reasonable language. Life is hard. Doesn't mean we "can't" have some control over these variables. As I said, there are edge cases that deserve sympathy but they don't represent the bulk of scenarios.
You say this, but you also say, "Most of that 70% has enough control of these factors to reap their benefits"
70% and "most of 70%" are still either a majority or at the very least a plurality; so, I have to strongly disagree that they don't represent the bulk of the scenarios.
Is your argument that most people are lazy and should suck it up and get over it and fix themselves?
- Afford to eat healthier foods. Rice, potatoes, bell peppers, onions, lentils, ground beef, pork chops, eggs, are not expensive. Time is a bigger factor but I don't buy the time argument in most cases either. Just need to prioritize.
- Improve their sleep. Most people have terrible sleep habits and there is a load of free information available for anyone who wants to make a positive change.
- Exercise. Walking 30 minutes each day yields most of the available benefit. Strength training is also available for most of the population. A secondhand kettlebell is like 20 dollars. Calisthenics are free. Some gym memberships go as low as 10/month.
>Is your argument that most people are lazy and should suck it up and get over it and fix themselves?
If you want to phrase it that way in order to paint me as the bad guy, then sure. But I would prefer to start with not giving up personal responsibility. Not throwing our hands up and blaming externalities, big food, and big pharma. If someone has that attitude, what hope do they have? Do you not believe in empowering people? If we validate every single persons' victim card, they will eventually believe they have no control over their lives. And that's just not true.
I have been in that place myself for most of my life and for able-bodied people it is possible to get 150 minites of low-intensity excercise a week, more sun, leafy greens, a can of sardines each day, and such low-effort interventions which have a high impact on health and well-being.
My advice to those people would be to start slow and not beat yourself up about having a milkshake and such. It takes time to build habits and good habits tend to cascade and encourage you, especially when you are happier with what you see in the mirror.
Yes most adults are extremely lazy and undisciplined.
If you do not believe this statement, ask the opinion of any medical provider you know.
And yet they don't, so it suggests to me that "it's not that simple". It's better to imagine that people _are_ doing what they can and it's still not enough, so rather than victim blaming, we can discover what's actually going on in these people's lives that's stopping their ability to reach it.
Are they so downtrodden that it's not worth the effort anymore? Are they actually working 2-3 jobs and 100 hours of unexpected time a week so they literally don't have time? Do they live so far away from work because they can't afford to live close such that all their time is spent commuting and they have no extra time anymore?