A History Of Diets - Why We Diet?
For over 3 million years mankind has lived by carrying out two basic activities of hunting (or fishing) and gathering edible items of any kind (from fruit to insects). But as history shows consistent food supplies have never been guaranteed. With the supply of such meals being subject to the vagaries of nature and luck, our ancestors lived with the real possibility of starvation. The human body is designed to easily adapt to changes in our lives, and the reason for this is simply down to survival. The fact is our body must adapt in order to stand any chance of surviving sudden changes to the environment. So it is not surprising that our bodies learned to stockpile food when it was abundant, in anticipation of harder times. Unfortunately this evolutionary legacy remains with us today and when we eat more food than we need, the body stores any extra calories, just in case.
The types of food we now eat have also changed enormously. Prior to the 18th Century foods were not refined in any way. Since most naturally occurring foods have at least a little protein and fat, even when food was scarce people managed to scrape by. Today's diet is highly refined and processed; as such our consumption of sugar, salt and fats is much higher than in previous generations. For most people living in the western world food is in ample supply, the problem now is having too much, which the body is still programmed to store as fat.
For over 3 million years mankind has lived by carrying out two basic activities of hunting (or fishing) and gathering edible items of any kind (from fruit to insects). But as history shows consistent food supplies have never been guaranteed. With the supply of such meals being subject to the vagaries of nature and luck, our ancestors lived with the real possibility of starvation. The human body is designed to easily adapt to changes in our lives, and the reason for this is simply down to survival. The fact is our body must adapt in order to stand any chance of surviving sudden changes to the environment. So it is not surprising that our bodies learned to stockpile food when it was abundant, in anticipation of harder times. Unfortunately this evolutionary legacy remains with us today and when we eat more food than we need, the body stores any extra calories, just in case.
The types of food we now eat have also changed enormously. Prior to the 18th Century foods were not refined in any way. Since most naturally occurring foods have at least a little protein and fat, even when food was scarce people managed to scrape by. Today's diet is highly refined and processed; as such our consumption of sugar, salt and fats is much higher than in previous generations. For most people living in the western world food is in ample supply, the problem now is having too much, which the body is still programmed to store as fat.
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