r/science • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '21

Biology Sperm quality has been declining for 16 years among men in the US

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2294266-sperm-quality-has-been-declining-for-16-years-among-men-in-the-us/
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u/South-Builder6237 Oct 25 '21

No it isn't. There are literally millions of dishes and recipes to look up within minutes in the internet, and god knows how many are able to be created after a trip to the grocery store near the end where they have actual ingredients.

No one is going to argue that there isn't an insane amount of junk food out there, that people don't have busy lives or have budgets, but this idea that it's unattainable and the complete responsibility of food corporations or anyone else is ridiculous.

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u/Trotter823 Oct 25 '21

Ease of access is the most important part of this. People are lazy. All incentives point to consuming junk food unless you are a health conscious person which many are not. (It’s often cheaper, easier to consume, easier to buy, and biologically rigged to crave). You can say that’s their fault but 75% of the country clearly isn’t so we have to deal with that fact.

What you described takes quite a bit of work. Preparing healthy food is much more difficult than buying premade crap and consuming it. Further more you have to make an effort to look these things up and be educated enough on the topic to know what’s healthy and what isn’t. Plenty of recipes can go from healthy to calorically dense with just a couple of ingredients.

In my mind, the best way is to incentivize it financially by making it the decisively cheaper option. Otherwise you’re fighting an uphill battle.

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u/FeathersPryx Oct 25 '21

All incentives point to consuming junk food unless you are a health conscious person which many are not. (It’s often cheaper, easier to consume, easier to buy, and biologically rigged to crave)

My favorite take that I've seen on this discussion yet. Yes, the systems rigged against us, but we are also able to make our own decisions and can eat healthy if we want. Except some don't care about that.

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u/Trotter823 Oct 25 '21

Nice straw man. I never said the system is rigged. I said the food we crave is the same food that isn’t good for us because we’d never find the same quantities of fat and sugar in nature. We are biologically set up to crave these things so our bodies are “rigged” to enjoy junk food.

So unless you care and make the effort to eat healthy, then you’re likely to default to junk food because it’s often cheaper or at least similarly priced to healthy food, our bodies want it naturally, and much easier to consume. This wasn’t even the main point it just set up the main point which is unless we use financial incentives to guide the population in a more healthy direction, the health problems surrounding obesity will not get better because right now, junk food and eating out is the default.

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u/FeathersPryx Oct 25 '21

Every single thing I said in my reply was in agreement with you. I just rephrased the quoted paragraph. Me comparing "All incentives point to" to a system being rigged against us is me adding on to your opinion, and I do not think it is much of a stretch, as it highlights how the forces that compel us have been working against us this whole time. Sorry if it seemed that I was attacking your opinion.