IT’S THE FAULT OF OUR GENES
To understand the roots of obesity we need to go millions of years back in time and look to see how our ancestors lived and survived. Without the ability to gain weight ancient man would have died and the human species become extinct.
In the world of our prehistoric ancestors, the hunters and gatherers, food was not always plentiful. When fruits and vegetables were in season and animals there for the killing our ancestors ate well – and they fattened up.
Then during seasons when food was hard to come by, they relied on their stored fat to see them through the lean hungry times.
Nature designed two biological systems to help ancient man as he struggled to survive this perpetual cycle of feasts and famine:
1. When there was an abundance of food his body efficiently stored body fat
2. When there was less to eat, his metabolism was slowed to adjust to the smaller quantities of food and the number of enzymes that promote fat storage increased.
Of course today in the industrialized world no longer do we struggle through periods with very little food – thanks to modern farming, manufacturing, shipping, preservation, and preparation methods. On the contrary we live in a constant feast – eating seasonal foods all year long.
Even in winter we have exotic foods from all around the world on the supermarket shelves and every year food manufacturers offer us new and exciting convenience foods that our taste buds just can say no to. This means for most of us our bodies are constantly on the store mode – especially with a 24 hour 7- eleven just around the corner or the pizza man on the other end of the telephone.
Rarely are we on the use-up-the-extra fuel (calorie) mode – except of course when we are on this month’s new diet. Dieting results in your body lowering its metabolic rate, increasing the number of fat storing enzymes and singing to nature’s uncontrollable call to eat – resulting in little long term weight loss and being hungry all of the time.
Your body reacts to diets as a famine and a threat to its survival – resulting in it trying to regain all its lost weight and more in preparation for the next food shortage, just as it did for our ancestors.
In ancient times it was an advantage to be blessed with fat storing genes – those who lacked them mostly died. Unfortunately these genes have been passed onto us! Our genes have evolved over millions of years of evolution and unfortunately for us have not caught up to modern living, exercise and eating habits
Lesson 1 – We have to be aware of our fat storing genes, understand that diets don’t work and do everything we can to keep our metabolic rate high (explanation comes later).
NUTRITIONALLY DEFICIENT FOOD
While a century ago all farming was “organic” today on average each of us consumes 10kg of chemicals and 75kg of sugar each year, all added as we grow, package, transport, and cook our food.
In addition the modern western diet consists of largely over processed foods manufactured by the food industry with convenience as opposed to our health in mind. These are known as “skeleton foods” – they are just calories with most of their nutrients (fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes etc) removed by processing. They are little more than fat, carbohydrate and protein skeletons of their original form.
Yes we are getting fat from consuming far too many of our daily calories from sodavand, is, slik, chocolate and chips etc. Sales of slik, is og choc have rises by 50% from 1975-99 and sales of sodavand has exploded in the last 10 years. Eating and drinking all these synthetic, chemically flavored, colored and preserved food is causing more and more food intolerances and other health issues.
In addition all the focus on reducing fat intake had caused even more problems. Den har fået folk til at stirre sig blind på light-produdukter, fyldt med kunstig farve of sødestoffer og alt muligt hokus pokus I stead for at spise gode sunde basisfødevarer.
Lesson number 2: Learn to eat healthily by going back to basics and following the tips in the healthy eating section of this fat loss guide.
“If there is any deficiency in food or exercise, the body will fall sick” Hippocrates
LACK OF EXERCISE
Ancient man had to work for his supper (from running away from hungry tigers to hunting wild deer etc. or finding fruits and vegetables) where as western man can enjoy 3 meals per day plus snacks while exerting very little energy.
Today we are leading increasingly sedentary lifestyles, thanks in large part due to modern technology. While our forefathers traveled by foot and horse, we travel by, car, train and plane. We spend too much time driving our cars, sitting at computers, watching TV, using the elevator instead of the stairs. In many cases this lack of exercise creates an energy imbalance – we consume more calories than we burn resulting in expanding waist lines.
Lesson 3 – Just as our ancestors were physically active so should we be
LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
A 100 years ago people led slow-paced lives close to home, today we travel daily to the office often miles from where we live, sit in rush hour traffic, and communicate to each other via impersonal modes such as email and mobile phones.
It’s clear to see in a 100 years we have created a very different world. There has never been a time in the history of mankind that we have developed so rapidly – bringing with it environmental health hazards such as air and water pollution, nutritionally deficient foods, lack of exercise and stress.
Stress has been a known contributant to poor health for decades – yet our society only encourages more and more stress-producing lifestyles.
Lesson number 4: Be aware that a stressful lifestyle can negatively influence your health and do something about it – tips coming in next month’s magazine.
THERE IS NO MAGICAL PILL
Today’s medicine is guided by an impersonal philosophy that’s largely based on the treatment of the symptoms via prescription drugs rather than preventing the source of the problem – often a person’s lifestyle or what they put in their mouth.
Drugs provide a quick treatment. A doctor can write a prescription in 30 seconds, whereas discussing nutrition and other preventative measures – such as exercise, lifestyle etc. could take hours to educate the patient. Furthermore even if he had time most local GP’s don’t have the knowledge of how to eat healthily or exercise properly? Take a look at his or hers waistline and you will see what I mean!
Of course prescription drugs have their uses, nobody would deny this, the point I am making here is that we would get much better results, focusing on prevention via educating society on how to eat and live healthily so as to avoid disease in the first place. And when disease such as obesity does occur we need to again focus on lifestyle changes as a first priority and drugs or surgery as a last resort.
Implementing this philosophy will require a shift of thinking of traditional medical doctors, and the treatment we expect from them. We as patients are also part of the problem as we go to our doctor expecting to be given a pill that will fix the problem and let us carry on with the bad habits that caused the disease in the first place.
The rewards of preventing disease such as obesity may be bigger than you or I realize. How much of tax payer’s money could we save via – fewer doctors visits, less money spent on health care and less time off work?
Lesson number 5: There is no magic pill
WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN?
Is obesity the legacy we want to pass onto our children? It’s a sad fact more and more children are overweight. I en undersøgelse fra Odense over ti procent af ni til 16-årige born er så overvægtig, at de har forstadier til sukkersyge.
Adults have a limited number of fat cells. What happens when we get fat is these cells expand. However unlike adults, children unfortunately have the ability to grow more fat cells.
This is very, very dangerous as with more fat cells it’s even harder for them to maintain an ideal body fat as an adult. Parents have to be very careful over this so as not to predispose their children to obesity in adult life.
Lesson number 6: Don’t kill the kids!
CONCLUSION
The biological self-preservation mechanism that helped our ancestors store and regain fat – and thereby survive cycles of feasts and famine – is probably the major factor running our health and killing us today.
Obesity is a complex problem, overcoming the bulge requires an understanding of why we are at risk of becoming fat, being aware of the health risks of being overweight – and therefore changing our eating, lifestyle and exercise habits. In the following sections we will provide you with practical advice on how to obtain long lasting results.
