Exactly, good systems do not rely on willpower. They rather make obvious habits effortless.
Deviating from the mean is hard. Bad food and sedentarism are the norm.
Deviating from the mean is hard. Bad food and sedentarism are the norm.
Making the good choice the easy/only choice is the only way to solve this problem long-term (without drugs)
It seems clear enough to me that there is something - something - in the ecosystem that messes up the body's weight / energy homeostasis and we haven't identified the culprit. It might be a food additive, but it could be something to do with artificial light in the evening or plasticizers in our plastic products or who knows what.
Just my pov as non-overweight person who doesn't exercise (other than flipping my four year old around), doesn't walk or run long distances (but a 5 mile walk every couple of months doesn't phase me), eats very few fruits and vegetables, generally eats mostly meat, pasta, bread, cheese, cream and potatoes, and ends up in a fast food outlet maybe once a week on average.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NRrbJJWnaSorrqvtZ/on-not-get...
it doesn't have to be just habit, but cultural/learned factors likely play a huge part.
each generation eats more, gets bigger, obesity runs in the family, (many obesity associated genes are mostly expressed in the brain ... the typical cursed environment-gene interaction), portion sizes got bigger, it became normal to gulp down a lot more sugar, etc.
I wouldn’t call taking the stairs in a pre-elevator world “effortless”, rather it was just the only option.
I also think better food handling/storage/treatment/blah means we absorb & retain more of the calories that we consume.