That's not a valid argument, though. Firstly nobody lives forever. Second you don't have to exert all the effort at once, so the totality of effort doesn't matter. At any given time you just have to decide whether to have the snickers bar or the apple. And that's not an impossible effort. We don't live our entire lives all at once. We just have to be present for one moment at a time.
Edit: In my opinion it's hard for two reasons. We have cravings for high calorie foods. And no one candy bar will make you fat, so it's easy to think "I'll exercise more tomorrow to make up for this indulgence." But then you don't, because that's hard too.
> At any given time you just have to decide whether to have the snickers bar or the apple.
No, you have to decide to even think about the difference between them instead of thinking about something in your life that feels more important. It's a sort of cognitive opportunity cost. You have to consciously think about food (instead of something useful) forever, because your body's instincts are telling you to do the wrong thing and you need your rational mind to overrule it.
So for the rest of your life, every day, until you die you must decide to stop and expend effort making that decision instead of thinking about work, family, politics, or writing a new bit of code that will change the world. Most human beings can do it for a while, but not forever. The only way to do it forever is to get your body chemistry on your side and reduce that cognitive load.
> "The only way to do it forever is to get your body chemistry on your side and reduce that cognitive load."
That's how all creatures in the wild do it. That's how humans did it for the past quarter million years. And all creatures did it for the past hundred million years. Wait, no, it isn't. Then there must be another way. A way that doesn't involve manipulative abusive capitalists and advertisers destroying health in the name of profit while selling it as freedom.
> "or the rest of your life, every day, until you die you must decide to stop and expend effort making that decision instead of thinking about work, family, politics, or"
How much does that lifestyle sound like freedom to you?
>That's how all creatures in the wild do it... Wait, no, it isn't.
Neither creatures in the wild, or primitive man, have access to unlimited quantities of calorie dense foods. We could go back to that lifestyle, but billions would have to die and the overall human lifespan would decrease rather than increasing.
I think I'd rather take a perfectly safe drug than go back to wiping with leaves and hunting for worm riddled meat.
> How much does that lifestyle sound like freedom to you?
I'm not even sure I understand which lifestyle you're asking about here, but if you mean the modern lifestyle then it's certainly more free than the lives primitive man had. "Might makes right" was the rule of the land back then, and contrary to your imagination, you probably wouldn't have been the mightiest. Certainly not forever.
Hell, it's more free now than the lives most of our grandparents had. 50 years ago about half of all white people surveyed said they'd move away if a black person bought a house in their neighborhood, and gay people were routinely murdered for existing.
There were no "good old days", and Stardew Valley is just a game.
> "Neither creatures in the wild, or primitive man, have access to unlimited quantities of calorie dense foods."
And just like that, you've come up with another way.
> "I think I'd rather take a perfectly safe drug than go back to wiping with leaves and hunting for worm riddled meat."
That is some ridiculously hyperbolic panicked scaremongering at the idea of banning Coca Cola. I have literally no idea how restricting the unlimited calorie dense foods available would lead to hating black people and murdering gay people, but it's some more hyperbolic commentary.
> "I'm not even sure I understand which lifestyle you're asking about here"
The one I mentioned. Comparing the "free" lifestyle where you have adverts for Coca-Cola shoved into your face 24/7 along with adverts selling you a drug to help you ignore the Coca-Cola adverts. Vs. "non-free" where Coca-Cola isn't available for sale and you just don't think about it because you've never had it and don't miss it, and you go about your life doing the things you care about instead.
I interpreted your original comment differently. Based on the votes so did others. At no point did you suggest banning Coca-Cola, or otherwise limiting calorie dense foods. Instead it seemed that you were advocating a return to some mythical past when food was more like it is for wild animals.
I wonder if you confused this thread with another? Or maybe your sarcasm was misinterpreted?
I didn't confuse this thread with another; from the parent comments we have "diet and exercise works but nobody can do it because it's really hard" to "we can't do it because we have to think all the time about resisting ultra processed junk food" to my comment "we wouldn't have to think all the time about it, if we didn't have it".
I do see how it looks like a return to caveman times, and was unnecessarily sarcastic. Practically, the times when I don't have junk food in the cupboards, I don't have to think constantly about resisting junk food because there isn't any to eat and that makes a difference. Extending that out to national levels, schools shouldn't have vending machines full of junk food, hospitals shouldn't have coffee chains, coffee chains should have restrictions on how much sugar can be in coffee, soda shouldn't be a thing, breakfast cereals shouldn't be a thing, and keep going as far as necessary. In the argument between Nanny state and Laissez-faire it's very clear that the food industry will kill millions of people and ruin the quality of life of billions millions, hiding behind smiley friendly packaging, exploiting human biases in ways we have no defenses against, and it's not nanny-stating to regulate killers harshly.
> we wouldn't have to think all the time about it, if we didn't have if we didn't have it ...
You literally did not say those words in the comment I replied to. You didn't even seem to imply it. Either that or there's some kind of shadow ban thing happening and I can't see the same thing you are.
Edit: In my opinion it's hard for two reasons. We have cravings for high calorie foods. And no one candy bar will make you fat, so it's easy to think "I'll exercise more tomorrow to make up for this indulgence." But then you don't, because that's hard too.