Much easier to quit smoking than to quit eating sugar and other simple carbohydrates and unhealthy foods

Having quit smoking years ago and currently dealing with an addiction to sugar, I have noticed that it was much easier for me to quit tobacco than it is to quit eating sugar and other simple carbohydrates. Quitting smoking is what I term a problem that is hard but simple: that is, it is hard in the sense that the craving and physical and mental dependence do exist. However the actual breaking of the cycle is relatively simple, it is an on-off situation. The decision is binary: you either smoke or you don’t. It is either yes or no. It does not require cognitive processing. Whereas, on the other hand, food is a far more complex issue as one needs to consume food on an ongoing basis. It is not a matter of quitting but of constantly managing, which requires far more and continuous cognitive processing which is the major bottleneck especially in today’s situation of constant cognitive drain both at work and the battle for our attention by the attention economy.

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