Jun 21 2009
Fat Is Not Your Fault
[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. ]
In this video I hope to shed some light on some provocative issues. First, craving fatty, sugary, high-calorie foods is not your fault. However, it is your responsibility—you have to learn to manage this vestibule pattern passed down through generations of DNA.
I have included a transcription of the video below. Enjoy!
Note: Thanks to too many years in scuba, I continually say “vestibular” in the video. The correct term of course is vestigial. But other than that… ; )
Please press the Play button to start the video…
Note: You can learn more about how to escape the “vestigial loop” covered in this video while still eating your favorite foods and losing all the weight you want by picking up my book The Ever Other Day Diet below…
TRANSCRIPTION
Hi, Jon Benson from Jon Benson Fitness dot com. Again, excuse the video-less video… my iCam is busted, but I’m getting it fixed this weekend.
If you missed the first video in this series, “Low Carb Lunacy”, be sure to check that out. Link below:
Fat is not your fault.
Craving foods high in fat is not your fault.
Craving foods high in sugar is not your fault.
Craving high-calorie foods is not your fault.
Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Well, it’s a biological and evolutionary fact.
BUT….
Guess what.
Just as a ruptured appendix is not your fault, it’s damn well your responsibility.
Just as your appendix is primarily useless; a vestigial organ no longer required for daily function, so is… yep.
Your cravings for sugar, fat, and calories.
Picture yourself living on the Savannah countless thousands of years ago. Everything you ate you either hunted or gathered—and for most of your days hunting was far more rewarded by your clan and by the females than gathering.
Gathering was the sign of a poor hunter. In fact, there’s an old joke: Vegetarian in the Cherokee tongue means Bad Hunter.
Turns out there may be more to this joke than you think.
On the Savannah, you might go days without food. Hunger and discomfort was associated mentally with “gathering” — picking up second choice. Is it any wonder so many of us as children seem to have a built-in aversion to vegetables? Our ancestors probably viewed what little vegetables were available during the warmer seasons as scraps from a table — not nearly enough calories, protein or fat to sustain themselves against the ravages of the day.
But bring home a nice tiger or lean game and presto: Hero status. The clan celebrated. The women swooned (great hunters were like rock stars in that day, or so I can imagine.) And the clan ate like crazy. Why? Who knew when the next high-fat, high protein, super-filling meal would come?
Folks, this same pattern, now just a vestigial mental organ if you will, is very much alive in your DNA. The problem? That tiger is now conveniently packed in your grocery’s freezer section. You may expend about 75 calories driving to the store, picking up a nice fatted piece of beef, drive home, cook it, and serve it. Hardly worthy of lavish praises from the female in your “clan”… but again, that genetic memory is a monster. It kicks in. The “provider” is still “worshiped” in the recesses of your DNA guys.
Unfortunately, it’s now a matter of economics, not hunting prowess. And being good with money rarely entails expending calories. So, that same drive to collect high-calorie, high-fat, energy-sustaining food is all but useless in today’s evolved society.
Same with sugars. When sweet fruits were in season on the Savannah, they provided the energy needed for the hunt. They tasted great. They were, as some anthropologists suggest, a type of early aphrodisiac. Sugar can trigger powerful “feel good” hormones, especially in its refined form. So, if you cannot eat filling food, how about a quick fix of feel good food?
Again, you were rewarded for this, albeit probably not as much — and definitely in different ways — back on the Savannah.
So you’re bucking eons of societal evolution folks… countless thousands of years of how humans ate, every time you sense hunger. Every. Single. Time.
Only now, everything is at your fingertips. Ladies, you no longer need a “hunter” — you can “hunt” for yourselves. Unfortunately you expend far less calories than males, both then and now. Some theorize than the females were responsible for preparing the meals. that, in and of itself, was very demanding calorically. Now… er… not so much. Guys, the hunt is over. All that’s left is brining in the cash to pay for the meals — one of the reasons, btw, many psychologists believe women are attracted to security of wealth. Yep — it all goes back to the hunting fields.
The obvious problem is that we now have these foods — but we have them at our fingertips and we have them on steroids multiplied by infinity. Our sugars are 100x sweeter than any fruit ancient man could have ever tasted. Our beef is loaded with hormones and unhealthy altered fats never known in the ancient world.
But our vestigial cravings are still there.
So, while craving foods that are high in sugar and fat makes perfect biological sense, it is no different than your appendix. It is a useless vestigial organ if you will, and it must be removed.
That part is your responsibility. It is the price we pay for societal evolution. But you can do it. As we’ve evolved, we’ve also become far more intelligent. More aware of our actions and their consequences. And we can fool the body quite nicely into thinking it has all the nutrients it needs.
I cover more about how to trick the body out of this historical “loop” of hunter/gatherism in my book The Every Other Day Diet…
Think about it. Comment below. Let me know if this resonates with you at all.
Thanks.
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