Perhaps eating isn’t a major pleasure of life for everyone.
I’m imagining an analogous argument about exercise. Someone formulates (or claims to, anyway) a technique combining drugs and yoga that provides, in a sweatless ten minutes per week, equivalent health benefits to an hour of normal exercise per day. Some folks are horrified by the idea — they enjoy their workout, or their bicycle commute, or swimming laps; and they can’t imagine that anyone would want to give up the euphoria of extended physical exertion in exchange for a bland ten-minute session.
To me, that seems like a failure of imagination. People don’t all enjoy the same “pleasures of life”. Some people like physical exercise; others hate it. Some people like tasty food; others don’t care about it. Some people like sex; others simply lack any desire for it; still others experience the urge but find it annoying. And so on.
I’m imagining an analogous argument about exercise.
It’s a weak analogy as humans are biologically hardwired to eat but are not hardwired to exercise.
Some people like tasty food; others don’t care about it. Some people like sex; others simply lack any desire for it; still others experience the urge but find it annoying.
True, but two comments. First, let’s also look at the prevalence. I’m willing to make a wild approximation that the number of people who truly don’t care (and never will care) about food is about the same as the number of true asexuals and that’s what, 1-2%?
Second, I suspect that many people don’t care about food because of a variety of childhood conditioning and other psychological issues. In such cases you can treat it as a fixable pathology. And, of course, one’s attitude towards food changes throughout life (teenagers are notoriously either picky or indifferent, adults tend to develop more discriminating tastes).
Perhaps eating isn’t a major pleasure of life for everyone.
I’m imagining an analogous argument about exercise. Someone formulates (or claims to, anyway) a technique combining drugs and yoga that provides, in a sweatless ten minutes per week, equivalent health benefits to an hour of normal exercise per day. Some folks are horrified by the idea — they enjoy their workout, or their bicycle commute, or swimming laps; and they can’t imagine that anyone would want to give up the euphoria of extended physical exertion in exchange for a bland ten-minute session.
To me, that seems like a failure of imagination. People don’t all enjoy the same “pleasures of life”. Some people like physical exercise; others hate it. Some people like tasty food; others don’t care about it. Some people like sex; others simply lack any desire for it; still others experience the urge but find it annoying. And so on.
Strong agreement—I’ve read enough from people who simply don’t find food very interesting to believe that they’re part of the human range.
More generally, people’s sensoriums vary a lot.
It’s a weak analogy as humans are biologically hardwired to eat but are not hardwired to exercise.
True, but two comments. First, let’s also look at the prevalence. I’m willing to make a wild approximation that the number of people who truly don’t care (and never will care) about food is about the same as the number of true asexuals and that’s what, 1-2%?
Second, I suspect that many people don’t care about food because of a variety of childhood conditioning and other psychological issues. In such cases you can treat it as a fixable pathology. And, of course, one’s attitude towards food changes throughout life (teenagers are notoriously either picky or indifferent, adults tend to develop more discriminating tastes).