“Still Counting Calories? Your weight loss plan may be Outdated”
From The New York Times
I’m going to comment on this article in bits and pieces, because I will put off doing it as a single piece.
The statement “But those compulsions may stem from biological systems over which the individual has no control.” Is rooted in the human belief that the body must be doing things wrong therefore we must either correct or “control” it. At some point in our evolution the human species saw itself as separate from everything else, even each other. In other words, self conscious. In The Bible that event is put into the story of the Garden of Eden. From that moment on humans have set themselves up as having to manage Nature and all things natural, instead of seeing themselves as part of Nature and operating within the laws of Nature.
That “biological system over which the individual has no control” is doing what it evolved to do perfectly. Fat is the most efficient energy storage unit. During the entirety of Human existence there have been times of plenty and times of famine even up to the present. Large amounts of fat are rare in Nature. So the body has evolved a system to detect and store concentrated energy for the lean times.
I come from the position that the body’s sole function is to survive, or continue to exist, in the healthiest state possible. To this end it’s most important ability is the ability to adapt through evolution. I believe that every function the body has evolved is in response to a life threatening circumstance beyond the body’s control.
Note that the rats were not craving fats until they were fed an unusually high concentration of fat. Far more than they would ordinarily encounter in Nature. This indicates to me that it is only possible to trigger this system with abnormally high amounts of fat. I would guess that Nature created the trigger point so that the rats would not under normal conditions crave fats because they would be getting enough in their daily diet. The body senses an opportunity to store up energy for the lean times which it has encountered enough times to develop a system to deal with it.
Assuming that humans have the same system, instead of immediately declaring the system to be operating against our well being, we should work with it, and not trigger that set point which we now know will set of an unwanted chain of actions. We get enough fats from non animal foods in perfect balance with the other nutrients to meet all our nutritional need for fat.
Get in touch with your body and listen to it. Only the body knows what it needs , how much it needs and when it needs it . The system is set up to tell us, not the other way around. That is what thirst and hunger are about.
I am thrilled to read this article because it finally answers something which has puzzled me every since I became a vegan. When people ask me “How do you handle cravings”. I can be honest and say “I don’t have cravings” and tell them why. I don’t reach the trigger point to set off that system.
The article goes on to say;
“There are good foods and bad foods, and the advice should be to eat the good foods more and the bad foods less,” he said. “The notion that it’s O.K. to eat everything in moderation is just an excuse to eat whatever you want.”
I look at things differently. There are real foods (found only in Nature), and products made from real foods. Products made from real foods are not foods. Man does not know how to make real food. He can only take real food and alter it, and in the process create a food- like product which is inherently unhealthy because our bodies evolved to use real food. Peanut butter and yogurt are not found in Nature. I believe the only healthy foods are real foods.