In a hunter gatherer, surviving in the wild sense.
In a survivalism situation, stuff like salt and fat and sugar are rare, hard to come by, and your body needs then to survive.
This is why they taste really, really good.
Humans are smart though, and we made it so that we can get all the food we need and more.
But we still have the same survival programming that’s telling us that salt, fat and sugar are rare, even though we can get those easily.
So we eat way too much of the stuff, because our brains are telling us it’s rare and to get it while we can.
Fast food companies know about this and use it to get you hooked on their food, and have scientists and psychologists fine tuning every aspect of the food, packaging, restaurant and advertising to make their brand as addictive as possible.
So even though fat, salt and sugar are actually healthy in smaller amounts, too much is bad for you, but monkey brain doesn’t know that and capitalism exploits that fact.
It’s also that these things have really bad ratios of satiation signifiers to calories. If you try to go full “ape found a ripe tree with nobody around” on fresh fruit, good luck. If you really gorge yourself you might be able to eat 3-4 pomegranates in a sitting, or like 5-6 apples. Lots of fiber and lots of nutrients tell your body to slow down and that you’ve had enough. Your body wants to get a bit fat, but it’s not looking to eat every remotely scarce food it can get. That said, yeah drenching something in fat and salt can change the equation. It’s a lot easier to eat several potatoes fried than the same number baked.
Because it is good for you!
In a hunter gatherer, surviving in the wild sense.
In a survivalism situation, stuff like salt and fat and sugar are rare, hard to come by, and your body needs then to survive.
This is why they taste really, really good.
Humans are smart though, and we made it so that we can get all the food we need and more.
But we still have the same survival programming that’s telling us that salt, fat and sugar are rare, even though we can get those easily.
So we eat way too much of the stuff, because our brains are telling us it’s rare and to get it while we can.
Fast food companies know about this and use it to get you hooked on their food, and have scientists and psychologists fine tuning every aspect of the food, packaging, restaurant and advertising to make their brand as addictive as possible.
So even though fat, salt and sugar are actually healthy in smaller amounts, too much is bad for you, but monkey brain doesn’t know that and capitalism exploits that fact.
It’s also that these things have really bad ratios of satiation signifiers to calories. If you try to go full “ape found a ripe tree with nobody around” on fresh fruit, good luck. If you really gorge yourself you might be able to eat 3-4 pomegranates in a sitting, or like 5-6 apples. Lots of fiber and lots of nutrients tell your body to slow down and that you’ve had enough. Your body wants to get a bit fat, but it’s not looking to eat every remotely scarce food it can get. That said, yeah drenching something in fat and salt can change the equation. It’s a lot easier to eat several potatoes fried than the same number baked.