How our genes cause us to overeat and what to do about it

There is such a theory, which is increasingly recognized by anthropologists, is the theory of optimal gathering. The method to which our ancestors came, because gathering itself is not a very effective thing. Especially hunting when it is necessary for someone to run for a long time.

The task for our ancestors was simple: to spend the least amount of energy and get the most calories, the greatest amount of food. This principle we can observe almost all animals - get as much power as possible and then fall down and relax. Our brain and our genes have kept the same impulses, but our environment has changed very much over the last couple of hundred years. Now we need to either open the refrigerator or go to the store to get food. You do not have to walk for long in the forest or try to catch or hunt someone.

How our genes cause us to overeat

The environment has changed, and the impulse that turns on when we see highly energetic food, especially if it's a combination of carbohydrates and fats - has remained. We get the internal signal to eat as much as possible, because at the cell level, at the gene level, we do not have the confidence that tomorrow we will have the same amount of food. That is why anthropologists and people who write about nutrition in terms of genetics and our predispositions, believe that obesity is somehow the success of evolution. That is, a person does what he is programmed to do in thousands of years of evolution. Our genetic evolution did not manage to catch up with the changes in the external environment that occurred in the last 200-300 years, when food appeared in abundance and in the world there were no longer starving people, but people suffering from excess weight and obesity. A couple of years ago, my husband and I were in Argentina, sailing the ship to the islands, where about 8 thousand years ago there lived local tribes.

There still are no settlements and nothing, except the ship, can not get there. Landed on one of the local islands, looking around, you understand that there is really nothing to collect. It's definitely not a supermarket !. Grow some dandelions, berries, which are absolutely not sweet. It was possible to hunt in the cold ocean and the tribes ate a great deal of sealed fat, which was the main source of energy and nutrition. When there was no seal fat, the local people ate mushrooms growing on trees, which by calories and carbohydrates can be said to be "empty." That is, eating to simply fill the stomach. Fasting was the norm, and not a rare exception, as it is now in modern society. When you look at such an environment immediately comes the thought: Well, of course, if we came out of this, it's not strange that as soon as we see something sweet, beautiful, tasty, then we immediately start the impulse to eat it. To some extent, the emotional work to get rid of the attachments in food that we have to do is work with those inherent fears and those impulses that you can control at the moment when the subconscious mind takes over and consciousness, the logical mind retreats. This happens when you are tired, when you experience stress or when the environment is so familiar that the pattern turns on-you suddenly find yourself in the process of doing something that you did not intend to do, and you realize it when the process has already begun. It's not your fault, it's not a failure of willpower, it's the genes, the evolution that is inherent in you for survival and which you received as a gift from your ancestors.

The need for a variety of flavors

The second very important point is the genetically inherent desire for a variety of tastes. Why? Because earlier for our ancestors it was the only assistant in getting enough trace elements. Theoretical knowledge was not. Our ancestors could not open the book and read everything they need on Vitamin A, B and C. They could rely only on internal impulses. We still have an "internal detector", which forces us to reach out to different tastes that stimulate taste buds. For our ancestors, this instinct not only provided an opportunity to obtain all trace elements, but also helped to avoid a large overload of certain toxins. Many plants that they collected contained useful substances, but some were harmful and sometimes toxic. For example, if we look at the majority of legumes or many cereals - they have toxins that, if we do not soak them properly, will irritate the intestines, can cause increased intestinal permeability. Now we know about it. Our ancestors did not know about this. Therefore, this desire for different tastes helped them to avoid the fact that the body was overloaded with toxic substances.

What has changed in the environment since then?

Let's start with what was good

• Earlier, our ancestors ate about 20 grams of sugar a year. Now we eat 53 a day. 53 grams a day! This is if you consider sugar from fruit. That is, now we have a daily Western norm that exceeds by 3 times what people consumed earlier in the year. It is because of this that our hormonal response to food is not adapted to such consumption and we quickly gain weight.
• There was a very large variety of diets. People ate about 200 different foods, mostly plants a day. Now we have 20-30 plants in our diet: several kinds of cabbage, potatoes, but practically no wild plants. Therefore, we now lack the sources of many microelements. One of the reasons for this - farms and plants is simply unprofitable to grow small beds, it is advantageous for them to plant a whole field of carrots, and due to this the choice of root crops is very limited. In Peru, for example, there are still 2,5 thousand varieties of potatoes. But in Peru there is no global agricultural crop, there is only family farming. This is on the one hand an economic mistake of the government, on the other hand it has allowed to preserve such a wide variety.
• People spent more time on the street, more played, the environment was less polluted, there was more live communication, more physical activity, plus there were natural day and seasonal cycles. If you leave a little bit from the city or in a country where up to now you often mess up the light, you will feel that it is very easy to wake up at dawn, because you fall asleep almost immediately, as it gets dark.
• There was less access to food, but there were more minerals, vitamins in food. Now the amount of trace elements in the products has decreased very much, because the soil in most regions is severely depleted.
• There was much more bacteria and dirt. Now sanitation greatly affects our flora and impoverishes it. On the one hand, we have stronger medicine, on the other weaker immunity. .
• In the diet was about 100 grams of fiber per day and a lot of omega-3 of wild origin. Now a lot of autumn 6 and very few people have more than 15 grams of fiber per day.

How did everything change?

Sanitation, pasteurization kill a huge number of bacteria, this is evident from the difference in the number of bacteria that our ancestors had and how much remained with us. Relations have changed and communities (families) have become smaller. There was more sugar, purified flour appeared, fewer trace elements in food, more access to empty and unpleasant food. The cycles of the day and seasons are absolutely knocked down. We consume less fiber, catastrophically less (from 100 grams went to 15). Less physical exertion on the air, more omega-6, which creates more inflammatory effect than anti-inflammatory, which creates omega-3. Pollution of the environment, stress, lack of play and information congestion. All this leads to an imbalance of almost all body systems. That is, even if you consciously understand what to do, then doing it in the current environment is much more difficult. The environment does not support us the way it used to, because earlier this choice was made literally automatically. Due to this, chronic diseases, depression, excess weight, diabetes, and craving for products that are unnatural for us appear. In recent years, the density of microelements has changed. After the Second World War in the States, when mass farming started to appear actively, when farms became huge, rather than family farms, since the 1950s it was found that the amount of trace elements has changed very much due to the depletion of soil, while the percentage of sugar content greatly increased (sugar content not only in fruits, but also in root crops). If we look at calcium, calcium decreased by 27% between the years 1950 and 1999, iron by 37%, vitamin C by 30%, vitamin A by 20%, potassium by 14%. If you look at what was 50 years ago, now, to get the trace elements that our grandmothers (just two generations ago) were getting from one orange, now a person needs to eat eight oranges. That is, we get a lot of sugar and very few trace elements. And it is this that acts strongly on the cellular hunger, on the hunger that is responsible for saturation, because we do not get micronutrients. If you compare the industrial production of fruits and vegetables with wild fruits and vegetables, the difference in the content of trace elements between the wild apple and apple, which is bought in the supermarket - 47000%. This is due to the difference in microelements and minerals in the soil. I'm not exactly a supporter of superfoods, but when I look at these data, I understand how important it is that the food is saturated with microelements, because the density of trace elements has fallen dramatically over the past 50-100 years. That's why, when we look at the overall indicators, it turns out that 70% of the population lacks magnesium. And this, unsurprisingly. Because if we do not intend to try to get this deficit through food, then it's not hard to do it deliberately.

Recommendations:

• If possible, find a farmer, find someone you trust, who does not have an industrial farm.
• Also pay attention to how you store the products. Because for a week spinach, for example, which lies in the refrigerator, loses a huge amount of trace elements. There are special packages that help maintain freshness.
• Try to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables and preferably grown in your area.
• The cooking method is important. The cooking method has a very strong effect on the bioavailability of microelements. If possible, the ration should not have burnt products, because when something burns, especially meat, it is more filling the stomach than getting useful micronutrients.
• Properly store oils and nuts. They are very rich in trace elements, but if the oils are stored in light bottles, if the nuts are not stored in the refrigerator, then most likely the effect will be negative, because they simply rancid and deteriorate. The oils decompose, oxidize and there is nothing useful in them.

Please, ask yourself again - why or for what do I eat? Because this will determine more and more how and how you eat. If you eat just to satisfy hunger, you can satisfy your hunger and something that only remotely resembles food, for example, snickers. And if you eat in order to maintain energy, in order to have a good mood, in order that you look the way you like, it will influence your choice of products and how and what you prepare. If you want to learn how to maintain your body in our modern world and feel the best way, then you have a unique opportunity to go through the seven-day program of conscious nutrition "Rainbow on a plate" for free. The offer works in a short time. You can register here.