zlacker

I think a lot of people are struggling with this. Look at the obesity epidemic. Nobody is forcing you to buy ultraprocessed foods. Nobody is forcing you to overeat. You can still cook with fresh vegetables at home. But many/most people in Western countries struggle with their weight.

An even better analogy is the slot machine. Once you've "won" one time it's hard to break the cycle. There's so little friction to just having another spin. Everyone needs to go and see the depressed people at slot machines at least once to understand where this ends.

>>globul+(OP)
Nobody is "forcing" but billions of dollars on the best psychologists and marketing is doing their hundred year long best to get as close as they can to it.

They (collectively) have thousands of employees, billions of dollars, and tons of things to play with (taste, texture, appearance, mouthfeel, snappiness, salt, sweet, sugar, packaging colours and styles, slogans, marketing, brand associations, shop placement, advertising) all you have is willpower to fight against 4 billion years of evolution telling you that fatty, sugary, energy dense food is important, and a whole pile of biases and weaknesses that you aren't really aware of and they are very aware of and trying to maximally take advantage of.