What Are We to Do?

For most of our evolutionary history we have not had access to unlimited calories. We belonged to hunter-gatherer societies and burned a lot of energy in everyday tasks. Our ancestral human diet varied for different groups of our forebears who lived in different habitats. It was a diet that was mostly vegetarian, with very little fat (probably about 10% of total calories) and very little sugar. Sweet flavors were rarely encountered – they typically occurred in ripe fruit or wild honey – and meat was a rare luxury and was usually quite lean when it could be obtained. For inland peoples, salty flavors were almost unknown. In many locations intermittent famines were regular occurrences, so when energy-dense foods containing fat and sugar were available, it made sense to gorge on them to establish a body fat reserve for anticipated hard times.




Now that we have test kitchens, restaurant chains, commercial bakeries, and other food production corporations, the average weight of an adult in the United States has increased by about twenty-six pounds between 1960 and the present.



Believe it or not, our brains wiring in the pleasure center is contributing to the problem as well. The substance leptin and dopamine receptors or lack thereof can all play a role in the obesity battle.



So, what are we to do?



• Be informed! Know as much as you can about your body & brain.

• Decide what it is going to take to transform into the body of health and fitness.

• Read labels, shop mainly on the outskirts of the grocery store.

• Cook from scratch, select and eat lots of vegetables and fruits, as close to the original state as possible. Cooking is still necessary of course, but eat raw when you can.

• Decide which habits and activities need to change, and then, ‘Just Do It.’

• Repeating a behavior about 22 times starts a new habit.