Chapter 20                                 The Overweight and Obese

 

 

 

There is an ‘obesity epidemic’ in the developed world, where 60% of adults are obese or overweight, so why don’t we look at that problem a little closer. For the individual we will need to consider more attractors, and the main ones, it will be found, are exercise, food and state of mind. This statement is ‘giving the game away’ because I want to approach the problem from the direction of helping the overweight and obese solve their problem. This is the ‘obvious’ way to proceed and it does explore some of the factors. More elegant solutions to the problem will be indicated later in the chapter.

 

From the previous chapter, there is a simple answer, and that is, we need to live the way that we were designed to live, the way our genes expect us to live. But the Paleolithic provided the three crucial inputs, above, where the food was natural, fresh or dried, we had to walk long distances every day to get it and the mind was concentrated on finding enough food and avoiding predators etc. The modern world has changed, so let us look at how we could possibly ‘fix’ the obesity epidemic.

 

Letter to the Editor:

 

I would like to mention a (possible and simple) logical ‘cause’ for the obesity epidemic of the developed world. Modern ‘foods’ and snacks are designed to sell and are packed with the ‘addictive’ elements of salt, sugar/carbohydrates and fat instead of the nutrients that our body demands and as found in the hunter/gatherer lifestyle that our genes are designed for. Sixty per cent of the adult population is overweight or obese. We all suspect that if these people ate ‘properly’ and exercised ‘sufficiently’ they would not have a problem. But, what part of the body causes (indeed forces) us to eat these snacks that are not good for us?

 

The ‘seventh sense’ of the mind says ‘eat more’ to get that nutrient that is in shortest supply to keep the body working. ‘Processed’ food does not contain the ratios of nutrients found in a Paleolithic diet, so the brain functions in a ‘drought’ scenario and tells the body to eats as much as possible to try to get the missing nutrients. Literally, the body is faced with a life and death situation, which is why it is so hard to lose fat! The causal fact is that the mind is concerned, even screaming that the body is dying from lack of nutrients and it does not know what to do but eat more!

 

Removing or reducing body fat requires eating less and the brain’s thinking goes deeper into ‘survival mode’! Dieters, effectively (and literally), ‘lose’ their will‑power. In doing so, the body, of course, ingests excesses of the nutrients that the body was not designed to handle. Paleolithic animals, fruits and vegetables had not been bred (or fed) to contain large amounts of certain nutrients, such as salt, sugar/carbohydrates and fat. Consequently the body stores the resulting overabundance of nutrients that it has, to the mind, ‘lucked’ upon in a drought!

On a personal note, I consume 30 different seeds, nuts and fruit in the morning and 30 different vegetables, herbs and spices in the evening. I suggested a change to my dancing partner’s breakfast and her (long‑term) repetitive strain injury to her elbow cleared up, her hair is growing longer and her skin has improved. Also, her speech problem has improved to the extent that I do not need to ask her to repeat things. Is this improvement in speech a case of the ‘seventh’ sense, bringing her mind back to the ‘normal’ childhood nutrition levels (of 40 years ago) or due to the fact that she is now, literally, ‘in the spotlight’ on the dance floor!

 

This proposed ‘solution’ to the ‘obesity epidemic’ is simple, but indicates that hospital food, as a ‘cure’, may not be of sufficient ‘quality’ to be an answer for the majority of the obese. The obese, in particular, are costing the economy, the welfare system and the health system enormous amounts of money, so why not try this simple method?

 

Regards from a reader.

 

Taking this letter as a starting point, for simplicity, the seventh sense is the changing of our thinking as our food supply changes, and has been discussed previously. Its reference here is that with an improvement in diet, our thinking changes to the period when we last enjoyed that diet. There can be little argument that processing food destroys or removes nutrients. This mismatch of nutrients to fats and carbohydrates means, as stated above, the body is forced to consume extra nutrients. Unfortunately, people want to do what they want to do, but often do not realize the chain of events that their actions entail. The approach above is a rational solution using previous information, but is it the best solution?

 

So, what was life like in the Paleolithic? No refrigeration meant that food had to be harvested daily with much walking to get it, areas near the cave or camp would have been picked over and carefully ‘farmed’. Food species in the wild are sparse on the ground and only a proportion can be harvested if the supply is to renew itself. As groups moved around, different herbs and vegetables would be collected. Notice that vegetables, familiar to us were ‘undeveloped’, small and sparsely growing. Vegetables were herbs and herbs were vegetables with no excess storage of nutrients above what was necessary for the plant to survive. Outside skins were thick and full of phytotoxins to stop insects from chewing through. A larger proportion of the vegetable was fibre, and so, much fibre would be ingested in order for the body to access the nutrients. Today’s vegetables have been bred to have thin skins and large stores of nutrients. Pesticides protects the plants, so skins have thinned through lack of attack by insects etc. Less fibre means less food for microbes and less variety of chemicals available for us to absorb.

 

Further, fruits were smaller and performed the function for which they evolved, to have the minimum of flesh to entice the animal to eat it to spread the seeds. In particular, the pomegranate contains masses of seeds with each seed surrounded by a sac of juice and the nutrition (for humans) comes mainly from eating the seed, which is not the aim of the tree! Another fruit that has been cultivated for a long time with nutritious seeds is the fig. An attempt has been made to rank fruits in terms of nutrition and other factors (Superfruits, Paul Gross) and (in decreasing order): Mango, Fig, Orange, Strawberry, Godji, Red grape, Cranberry, Kiwifruit, Papaya, Blueberry, Cherries, Raspberry, Seaberry, Guava, Blackberry, Black Current, Date, Pomegranate, Acai and Prunes.

Looking at pollutant impacts in modern times, ‘transport of chlorinated hydrocarbons, mercury, and many radionuclides is predominately through the atmosphere – so they rapidly achieve a global distribution and rain down all over the planet. These substances are generally relatively insoluable in water but are absorbed onto particles and dissolve in lipid, such that they are readily taken up by the phytoplankton at the base of the food chain, grazed, and rapidly transported into deep water via the grazers’ fecal pellets or their vertical migrations…. However, mercury pollution appears less tractable, since it is released largely as a by-product of coal burning, waste incineration and smelting ores. Although mercury use has decreased, the anthropogenic contribution to the global environment is still about twice its natural inputs.’ (The Silent Deep, Tony Koslow, pp 155-156)

 

What was the diet likely to be in the Paleolithic? ‘Terns … eggs … mussels … limpets, and tide pools of anemones … clams (The Valley of Horses, Jean M. Auel, p 10) … pluck leaves, flowers, buds, and berries while travelling … digging stick to turn up roots and bulbs (p 13) … dried apples, some hazelnuts … grain plucked from the grasses (p 18) alfalfa and clover … sweet groundnuts … milk-vetch pods … edible roots … buds of day lilies … currents have begun to turn colour … new leaves of pig-weed, mustard, or nettles for greens. Her sling did not lack for targets. Steppe pikas, souslick marmots, great jerboas, varying hares … giant hamster … low flying willow grouse and ptarmigan (pp 21-22) hare … wild carrots (p 53) trout … blueberries … apple tree … cherry tree is full … sunflower seeds …hazelnut bushes … pine trees are the kind with the big nuts … start drying greens. And lichen. And mushrooms. And roots… Coltsfoot tastes salty, and other herbs can add flavour. (pp 91-92) picking grain from the tall einkorn wheat. Emmer wheat grew in the valley, too, and rye grass …(p 125) willowbark tea … fresh peeled thistle stalks and cow parsley, and the first wild strawberries. (p 387) collecting grains of broomcorn millet and wild rye … two row barley, and both einkorn and emmer wheat.’ (p 433)

 

 

There is the question of ‘correct’ thinking, because, as we all know, except for a few people with disabilities, the majority of people that do not over-eat and exercises adequately will not become over-weight. This, of course will only happen if people know that they are eating ‘proper’ food, and the paragraph above indicates that a (very) wide selection of foods were eaten So, people have to know what is ‘appropriate’ food and that requires education. However, the government allows processed food to be sold and does not educate users in schools. Unless this is done the obesity epidemic will always be with us.

 

 

Similarly, most people hate to exercise, and yet exercise is necessary. The basic logic of life is simply ‘use it or lose it’ or conversely, ‘need it then grow it’ because no animal (or plant) can afford to carry around excess baggage, simply because it makes them less efficient and more vulnerable to predation. However, humans are not subject to predation and the obese and over-weight are with us. This brings us to the core reason for the epidemic, which is a lack of survival of the fittest.

 

The norm of the population is changing and the only way that the trend can be reversed is education to put everyone on a level playing field. The TV game shows such as ‘Biggest Loser’ provide a monetary goal to lose weight, but what happens after the game is over, do they revert? Where do people learn how to succeed? There has to be training that takes into account food knowledge, a way of life that provides exercise and the determination to stay thin.

 

At the moment, fat people are attracted to fat people because of an attraction to a group of people that eat the same way, do not exercise enough and think the same way. How can good information be passed down through families when parents are unable to balance their lives. One can only wonder where we, as a race are going, so let’s look at other derivations.

 

To this point, as mentioned above, we are trying to ‘improve’ the overweight and obese and have found ourselves in a messy situation. If we apply a logic to the derivation, the situation rapidly clarifies into a solution as stark as survival of the fittest, for example, under a Superman games or super-eusociety, women choose to have children using the IVF system from men who are clearly superior and most probably slim. Women that are too overweight or obese to be able to, or do not wish to rear children are automatically excluded, and the fitness, mental staunchness etc. of the population increases over time. The payoff to a person that is ‘successful’ in eating ‘properly’, exercising ‘properly’ and having a ‘proper’ state of mind is, as shown in the previous chapters has the chance of a (possibly much) longer, happier life with genes that pass into the (far?) future under these systems!

 

However, this is not a perfect world and so let’s look at a worst case scenario. The majority of adults (currently 60%) are overweight or obese, so what will happen to them? In terms of survival of the fittest, they will die out and their genes will be lost. Sounds obvious, but it doesn’t tell us who will be the winners, and how it will probably come about. The Law of Life indicates that we use the logic which underpins our society which started not in the Neolithic (10,000 years ago) but 30,000 years ago, well before farming started. This is where survival of the fittest broke down and population climbed because of a fortuitous run of good climatic conditions.

 

But first the concept of Survival of the Weakest, or perhaps better, the Survival of the Waiters! ‘Gibraltar was not a very nice place in which to live during the Victorian era…. period between 1873 and 1884… The detailed records allowed Larry to work out where children under the age of one year, many of whom died from weaning diarrhoea, had lived. From a detailed house-by-house survey carried out in 1879 he could determine whether the child had come from a house with a cistern, well, both, or neither. His results were stunning. As we would expect, childhood mortality during normal conditions was highest among the poorer people who only had access to the worst water and it was lowest among the better-off ones who could get water from wells and cisterns… severe drought limited access to good drinking water … he found that it was the poorest people who survived best under these conditions! These people were used to coping with the strain of having to survive drinking bad water all the time so when drought hit, they felt the effects least of all. As long as years were wet, wealthier people were fine, but as soon as things got bad they simply could not cope.’ (The Humans Who Went Extinct, Clive Finlayson, pp 19-20)

 

‘Those on the edge had to constantly adapt to variable conditions; they were jacks of all trades and could even stay put when conditions worsened. In fact if such conditions persisted it was these jacks (or innovators) that fared best, their numbers augmented and their geographical range expanded.’ (p 20) ‘These super-survivors could deal with the risk of an unpredictable supply of food or water better than any others of their kind so that when climate changed and made matters worse all round, it was they and their offspring who fared best. The earliest form of risk management seems to have involved living on the edge of two or more habitats or in a patchwork of habitats… this allowed them to exploit a wider variety of foods than if they lived in a single habitat.’ (p 215) ‘Further, the starting point was not the Fertile Crescent of 10 thousand years ago but the Russian Plain and its 30-thousand-year-old Gravettian culture.’ (p 216)

 

Well, the ‘successful’ people who were our ancestors and survived the multiple climate changes in Europe, survived because they ate a wide range of food, as mentioned above, when I listed a few of the wide range of foods available in the Paleolithic. A wide variety of food is the basis of our success and that ties in nicely with the above. When an upheaval, of some description, occurs, the survivors will be those who eat a wide range of foods, because there will be more food available in those niches that improve with the climate change!

 

‘In 2006 nine volunteers with dangerously high blood pressure spent 12 days eating like apes in an experiment …. And ate almost everything raw. Their diet included peppers, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, grapes, dates, walnuts, bananas, peaches and so on – more than 50 kinds of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. In the second week they ate some cooked oily fish, and one man sneaked some chocolate. The regime was called the Evo Diet because it was supposed to represent the types of food our bodies have evolved to eat. Chimpanzees or gorillas would have loved it and would have grown fat on a menu that was certainly of higher quality than they could find in the wild…. The aim of the volunteers was to improve their health, and they succeeded. By the end of the experiment their cholesterol levels had fallen by almost a quarter and average blood pressure was down to normal.’ (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, Richard Wrangham, p 16)

 

It seems strange, but our ‘strength’ in surviving infections is enhanced by the food that we ingest because we use the phytotoxins in the food, that the plants use to defend themselves against attack, we use to protect ourselves. For example, ‘resveratrol, a polyphenol compound found in red wine activates sir2 in yeast, mimics the effects of caloric restriction.’ (The Genetics of Human Longevity, Warren S. Browner, Arnold Kahn, Elad Ziv, Alex Reiner, Junko Oshima, Richard Cawthon, Wen-chi Hsueh, Steven R. Cummings) This paragraph is alluding to the comments earlier that ‘I consume 30 different seeds, nuts and fruit in the morning and 30 different vegetables, herbs and spices in the evening’.

 

The patterns for survival are coming together. Living a long time when the going gets tough and when food is scarce, eating a (very) wide-ranging diet as a safeguard against the tough times and keeping the body supplied with the necessary phytotoxins etc, the seventh sense that moves our thinking into the ‘correct’ pattern for the local conditions and Survival of the Waiters points to the survivors of the regular bouts of climate change.

 

So, what have we derived? Again the simplicity of the logic points to the fact that the over-weight and obese peoples’ genes do not have a place in the future, and ‘the answer lies in the way in which we got to the present, not as evolutionary superstars but as pests that invaded every nook and cranny that became available.’ (The Humans Who Went Extinct, Clive Finlayson, p 214)

 

The derivation above of the Survival of the Waiters is simply recognition of the existence of the gene pool that is set up by having two sexes. A result of this is that those without the genes struggle on the edges of society, until eventually a change occurs such as climate, change in predator, innovation that brings these genes that were not suitable into their own and a change occurs within the population. Modern living and modern diets are (literally) killing off those that do not have the willpower to succeed in that environment and is leaving the field to those that do. Again it is a tragedy for the individual, but the group or population is automatically maintained.