Whenever I discussed diet with normies they always steer the conversation towards weight loss/weight gain
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Whenever I discussed diet with normies they always steer the conversation towards weight loss/weight gain
"being slim"
"being fat"
"burning calories"
It seems like almost nobody cares about health or disease prevention these days. The only thing that people associate diet with is the cosmetic aspect/appearance, looking slim and "fit" etc
Why is the average person out there so shallow?
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I'm probably one of those people. It's almost impossible to be truly healthy without being lean.
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@Ray-Peat-Fanboy I dont think most people are aware how intense your whole consciousness and reality can be affected by nutrition/food. It seems most people understand that certain "non-food substances" can do this like beer, coffee, cigarettes, etc. But not to the full extent of food.
There's also an aspect of this where people seem to think there is a "limit" to their health. For example, if they have no cold or flu, good blood work, no glaring pain, and are aroused often, they assume they are in "optimal health" and theres nothing else to it. Many other symptoms are simply blamed on a lack of discipline (although this is true to some extent) and moral failings that cannot be aleviated by anything but their own will/personality.
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To the OP, i think you've at least partially answered your own question. How average people associate healthy eating, or simply dealing with a shallow knowledge level. But there is another facet at play here, bioenergetic discussions challenge their personal paradigms, narratives, brainwashings, whatever you want to call it. So when you start going into detail they fall back upon their personal dogmas.
Keto and Carnivore folks have scratched the surface with many knowing about seed oils, gluten, meat/fat digestion etc etc. Twice i recall their enlightened befuddlement after directing them to Ray's website. It was the same way i felt too, and am still amazed by the new things i read.
We can only lead horses to water.
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I think mostly people use weight as a proxy for real health. When people talk about being "thin" they usually implicitly mean lean, not malnourished. Our innate beauty standards reflect in large part a healthy organism (symmetry, body fat %, and so on), although there is certainly a strong cultural element.
I don't see it as a bad thing - it's a starting point to have deeper discussions around health and wellbeing. I think many of us had similar starting points. The problem is where people tend to be too dogmatic around things like CICO.
As an aside - sometimes the "normie" view can be an effective check on fringe health arguments. If someone has a compelling theory but their fizeek is shit then we should question the validity of their theory.
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Alternative diets, whether Peating, keto/carnivore, vegetarianism/veganism, or anything else, alienate normal people because refusing commonly accepted food makes other insecure in their (never examined) decision to consume it. Thus, normies instinctively steer away for any recommendations that imply having to permanently switch to a "weird" diet and face social rejection.
Focus on weight loss avoids that, because it's commonly see as a question of calories and thus only a requirement to eat less instead of differently. Furthermore, it can usually be dismissed or limited to a certain time periods (i.e. trying to lose weight before some important event).
