"'No-Fad Diet' offers hope for the weak"

[conuly]

The weak? Excuse me?

Oh dear. It's time for me to break out Connie's Theory of Eating.

See, way back when we lived in the real world (that is, not this world), we couldn't be sure if we'd have food tomorrow. So our bodies wisely evolved to say "eat today, there may not be enough later". Eat the food now, when you're not hungry, and maybe tomorrow you still won't be hungry.

There was never enough fat, and never enough salt, and you can always use a quick bit of energy, so of course we evolved to crave the things that there was just never enough of. And, of course, once we had the technology to produce enough food to gorge ourselves, that's what we gorged ourselves on. Fatty, salty, sugary foods. Why not?

And, of course, going hungry makes things worse. Now your body isn't just saying "Hm. Food tends to be scarce. Better eat up", it's going "OMG! I WAS STARVING! I NEED TO EAT! I was hungry before, and I will be hungry again, and I need to eat as much as possible now to prevent this from happening".

So when you try to cut yourself down to 1,200 calories a day, and cut out all the foods that your body is convinced it lacks, and then you find yourself gobbling up burgers and ice cream and who knows what else, that's not you being weak. That's your body being smart. Okay, so it's being smart for a time that, for people who need to go on diets, probably will never exist, but historically speaking people have been much more likely to die from lack of food than from surfeit.

Weak. Such a stupid word.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Well, once you become overweight it's very hard to lose it, because your body thinks that's a part of you and fat cells never go away. But if you don't become overweight, I think many people can avoid it by simply eating and exercising in a reasonable manner. There are some caveats - first, not everyone can, some people have health issues or weird genetics. Second, definitely not everyone can be the US standard for not-overweight, I meant not overweight by your own body's standards, some people are designed to be heavier, that's the way it goes. Third, if you do get overweight, that's not necessarily your fault, there are lots of reasons that can happen. Fourth, if your parents gave you horrible habits and encouraged you to become badly overweight as a child, yeah, that sucks and there's not much you can do.

But the thing is - people don't actually crave unlimited fats or sweets. At least, rats don't. What they do crave and will eat in unlimited amounts is a 50-50 sugar-fat mixture. Think cake, cookies, ice cream, etc. Most people do not know this, but it is learnable. Those things should be kept in limited supply and used carefully with forebrain enabled. Your body will lie to you about them.

But, in general. your body will tell you when you're hungry and when you're not. And if you stop eating when you're not hungry you can prevent a lot of problems. Yes, once you have weight, it's incredibly hard to lose it and a massive cutting of calories is going to lead to all sorts of hellish problems. And yes, also, in the US it is cheaper and easier generally to eat in an unhealthy manner than a healthy one. Being fit is, in many ways, a luxury. And people who make rude comments - well, you can just stop there, they're rude. But people who make rude comments because people can't afford things are just really, really stupid or evil.

So, anyhow, I pretty much agree with you. But I don't think people naturally would eat everything given unlimited staples. The problem, in part, is we have an industry designed to sell stuff at any cost and we don't have an industry designed to educate people at any cost. So you get lots and lots of sugar-fat mixtures for sale everywhere and you don't get lessons on nutrition (real ones, something more sophisticated than eating vegetables is good for you), exercise, or actual health.