Chapter 6Cerebral Junk Food
10 Reasons Listicles Are Bad for Your Health
More often than not we know what we should do. We are well aware that we should choose salad over French fries, water instead of soda, and take the stairs rather than the escalator. Everyone knows these things, and yet in that moment of choice, no matter how many times we've said, “never again” or swore an oath to ourselves and others, we simply can't resist. Many times our very own bodies are actually working against us, nudging us to make the wrong decisions. The mere sight of something sugary or salty automatically triggers the production of excess saliva, hence the term mouth watering. To make it worse, because we tend to have a natural preference for the wrong option, it doesn't take much to tip us over in that direction and very often it's our friends and family, the ones who should be helping us do the right thing, who play the role of that little devil whispering in our ear, “You only live once. Go for it. You know you want it.” And so we do. We rationalize the irrational act and postpone the difficult choice for some time in the future when we will do better. “I promise.”
Unfortunately, it isn't just our physical wellbeing that suffers as a result of our poor choices, our mental fitness is also plagued by many of the same bad influences. The surge in popularity of the “listicle” is an example. The listicle is to your brain what a bag of greasy, sodium‐packed chips is to your waistline.
What are ...