Inactivity and Processed Foods.

I recently read a book called " The Story of the Human Body: Evolution Health and Disease" by Daniel E. Lieberman.   There were some very interesting thoughts from the author about how we, as humans, have  evolved to be active, long distance walking hunter/gatherers who have high levels of exercise and whom eat a variety of foods that are low in sweetness.  He theorized  how, because of the nature of our existence,  (where the next meal was coming from was uncertain),  we have evolved to have a higher fat content in our bodies as a way of storing up energy for times when they are needed.  He also said that we are evolutionarily inclined to crave sweet food for the energy content that they contain.  He pointed out that as hunter gatherers,  the primary source of any sugar would come from honey, which is not easily found and difficult and potentially dangerous to gather.  As a result, we  have not evolved to be the consumers of sugars that we are today.  

Our modern society, however,  has imposed challenges on our bodies due to modern food and conveniences that go against the nature of  our human evolution and as a result are causing  unnecessary health issues.   We can live a life with little exercise and can have as much sweet foods as possible (and crave those sweets).   It does not bode well for our health,  and as a result,  we are succumbing to diseases caused both by inactivity and the increased consumption of sugars  such as Diabetes 2.

Basically,  we live in a society where we wake up tired on a warm bed,  take a shower,  eat processed foods for breakfast, go into the garage,  use the automatic garage door opener, drive to work, eat processed foods for lunch,  take the elevator to our desk and sit down for eight or nine hours, have a big lunch in between,  drive home,  automatically open our garage door, eat processed foods and factory processed meats for dinner, then sit in our easy chair to watch TV (and maybe have an ice cream while doing so) and finally retire to our nice warm beds for six or seven hours of not enough sleep to start the process all over again.   If this sounds familiar it once was for me too.    My only exercise was mowing the lawn, shoveling the snow and shopping.

It is relatively easy to start adding some walks,  taking the stairs and other activities that will put some exercise into one's life.  For myself,  the struggle is to look at all the processed foods that I eat such as pasta, bread and cereals and to decide if the consumption of these is detrimental to my long term health.    The biggest thing that I have done  (and can easily be done by anyone) is to reduce the number of foods that we eat that contains sweeteners.  (I think elimination is quite extreme) The number of foods on our shelves that contain sugars in various forms are staggering.   Many of the "healthy" cereals and breads we eat  contain either high fructose corn syrup,  cane sugar,  brown rice sugar, maltose, molasses, honey, agave syrup and maple syrup among others.    I have always been an ingredient reader,  mostly looking at fat and sodium content but I now mostly put down the package if it contains some form of sweetener and I now put down a good amount of packages.

Take a look at what is in your pantry.   Pull 10 items randomly and check the ingredients.     You may  be surprised to find sugars in each of the following.

Vinegar Based Salad Dressings
Bread  (especially Whole Wheat breads)
Soy and Almond Milks
Jarred Spaghetti Sauce
Ketchup
Dried Fruits
Cereals  - Even ones touted as healthy
Many Peanut Butters like Jiff.  Choosy mothers should not choose it..


Taking the time to reduce the unnecessary sugar in your life means a better you.   It also means less guilt for that dark chocolate bar..




Namaste.