No the analogy is more like “if you smoke you will get lung cancer. So stop smoking”. Most people in the US used to smoke 50 years ago. Now they don’t. Collective lifestyle changes are possible.

The problem is with smoking, you can go "cold turkey" and the cravings will go away after a while and you just have to avoid starting again. Not easy but achievable. With food, you cannot stop eating so no "cold turkey" and you have to keep a watch on what and how much you eat all the time. Much easier to slip. Not to mention the variance in food calories for similar looking foods that can easily tip you over the max goal. It is like walking through a mine field all day every day, it never ends, you are never "out of it".

> With food, you cannot stop eating so no "cold turkey" and you have to keep a watch on what and how much you eat all the time. Much easier to slip.

Agreed. In today's world it's easier to stop smoking because cigarettes are not everywhere like they used to be, whereas it's hard to escape junk/highly processed food. It's like being an alcoholic when every vending machine and store sells your favorite whisky.

And that's why a social change is needed to stop pushing this garbage on everyone, starting when they are kids.

Nonetheless, there's a lot of low hanging fruit in terms of cutting out the very worse offenders (soda, high sugar foods, chips, snacks, etc.) and substituting with healthier alternatives, without having to do some crazy diet or skipping meals.

My biggest worry is for the next generation--when you grow up on garbage, it's hard to break that craving. (In our house we have a zero soda policy, and very little high carb and high sugar processed foods, but we always make sure to have fresh fruit and dried fruit and nuts readily available so the kids can grab that for a snack. But it's more expensive to do that and we have to forego other expenses, and sadly it's not something that's accessible to many Americans--and __that__ is where we need to see change.)