There’s
no doubt about it, the size of our waistlines have increased dramatically over
the past few decades. Everywhere you go,
you see food advertisements posted on billboards and convenient drive-thru
restaurants on every street corner. Is this the sole cause of the obesity
epidemic that we are seeing run rampant through America? Contrary to previous
beliefs, it may be a little more than just the low quality, high calorie “food”
that we are consuming on a daily basis. We may actually be predisposed by evolution
to be fat and therefore our current lifestyle of sitting and binging may be
killing us.
From an evolutionary standpoint, our
ancestors led an extremely different lifestyle. In the Paleolithic era, the
cavemen foraged for their own food. They ate simply: fruits, vegetables, and
protein from the animals they hunted. They had to learn to survive on small
portions, as well as infrequent eating schedules because it was never certain
when they would be able to find their next meal (Turner and Thompson 2013).
This created an evolutionary adaptation to create a better system to store fat
in the human body. Research has shown that there may be a “thrifty” gene
responsible for our increased ability to store fat (Tabarin et al 2005). We
obviously perceive this to be a bad thing in our day and age, but in
prehistoric times it was absolutely necessary for survival to convert foods into
fat more readily.
This adaptation of our “thrifty”
gene helped our species survive through extremely taxing environments. So the
question is now, how can something that was fundamentally important for our
survival be such a nuisance in our day and age? The answer: the food we are
consuming and the lack of energy we use to retrieve it. Ask yourself this,
how many servings of fruit do you eat a day? Vegetables? Natural protein? Maybe
an easier question is, how many of your meals consist of processed foods? Did
you completely prepare that dinner from whole foods or did it come from a box?
The Paleo diet considers the way our
ancestors survived and it takes into account all of the reasons that their diet
was advantageous. If you follow the Paleo diet, it consists of 3 main sources
of nutrition: fruits, vegetables, and animal protein. If the cavemen were able
to forage for it, you should eat it. Everything in the Paleo diet is pure from
nature, whole foods. Our bodies were built to consume and extract specific
nutrients from these sources of foods to aid in our survival (Turner and
Thompson 2013). Just the same, our bodies were meant to use energy to obtain
our food. If we still consumed these types of foods and incorporated moderate activity,
this “thrifty” gene wouldn’t be such a monstrosity. The problem is that we are
eating such high-calorie, high-trans fat, low nutrient foods that our body is unable to recognize and break down efficiently (Frassetto et al 2013). On
top of the poor amount of nutrients, food is so readily available that we are
not required to work hard to get it anymore.
When you’re sitting down to eat a
meal, take a look at what you’re really eating. Did it come from a box? Is it
something that was purely produced by nature? Is it full of the vitamins and
minerals that the body needs? The combination of our “thrifty” gene along with
our unnatural food sources is a huge problem for our country, with obvious
health concerns like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancers, etc. (Lemonick and Bjerklie 2004). Luckily for us, with the demand for organic foods increasing, the
ability to live like our ancestors is becoming easier by the day. We could all
be much healthier if our country was able to focus on consuming a whole,
balanced diet while leading an active lifestyle, instead of sitting in the car and
going through the drive-thru for dinner.
You are the only one in control of how you treat your body. So, put down the bag of chips, grab an apple, go for a walk, and realize that with
the proper nutrition and activity, this “thrifty” gene could be your friend and
not your enemy.
References:
Frassetto,
L. A., L. Shi, M. Schloetter, A. Sebastian, and T. Remer. "Established
Dietary Estimates of Net Acid Production Do Not Predict Measured Net Acid
Excretion in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes on Paleolithic–Hunter–Gatherer-type
Diets." European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 67.9 (2013):
899-903. Retrieved March 29, 2015 from Ebsco Host
Lemonick,
Michael, D. and Bjerklie, David. “America’s Obesity Crisis: Evolution- How We
Grew So Big” Time Magazine. 163
(2004): 58-60. Retrieved March 29, 2015 from Ebsco Host.
Tabarin, A,
Diz-Chaves, Y., del Carmen Carmona, M., Catargi, B., Zorrilla, E., Roberts, A.,
Coscina, D., Rousset, S., Redonnet, A., Parker, G., Inoue, K., Ricquier, D.,
Penicaud, L., Kieffer, B., Koob, G. “Resistance to Diet-Induced Obesity in the μ-Opioid
Receptor- Deficient Mice: Evidence for a “Thrifty Gene”. American Diabetes Association Journal. 54 (2005): 3510-3516. Retrieved March 29, 2015 from Ebsco Host.
Turner,
Bethany L., and Amanda L. Thompson. "Beyond the Paleolithic Prescription:
Incorporating Diversity and Flexibility in the Study of Human Diet Evolution."
Nutrition Reviews 71.8 (2013): 501-10. Retrieved March 29, 2015 from
Ebsco Host
This was an interesting piece to read and it makes sense. Our ancestors led very different lives from the ones we live now so the adaptations they developed are not as useful to us these days. The foods that the cavemen had to eat were all natural and thus healthier than what we many people eat today. In addition to us eating more fat and processed foods than our ancestors did, we are also less active which has also had an effect on the growing rates of obesity. While this diet does make sense and sound very logical, it would be interesting to see a study done to compare results. There could be a group of people who follow the Paleo diet and eat all natural fruits, vegetables, and lean protein and then a different group who tries to diet in some other way. The results would help to show how effective this diet is and could provide insight into the best ways to follow it.
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea that our bodies have just gotten better at storing fat due to evolution and that now it is just up to us to fill it with the good fat. This really goes along with how society wants us to look a certain way but our bodies want something different. There has been a lot of controversy revolving the Paleo diet so it was really interesting to read this post. Many argue that our ancestors had an extremely low life expectancy and that part of that was due to the restricted diet. I feel like the Paleo diet works for some, but not others. As someone who has tried the diet but also runs a lot and on a daily basis, it was not something that worked for me. By only eating fruits, veggies, and meats I wasn’t able to maintain the energy needed to go on my long runs everyday. I think more importantly than adhering to a very specific diet, it is good to just understand nutrition and what is good for you and be able to follow a healthy lifestyle instead of a specific diet. I think another big problem that has caused our population to become more obese is the cost of healthy food. The Paleo diet is pretty expensive to follow and isn’t affordable to many people. A really good follow up would be discussing what types of body and people need more of which nutrients. Maybe how to come up with a personalized diet based on someone’s individual lifestyle. Everyone is so different on how they live their life that I don’t feel like there is one diet that fits all people. Really good article overall and really well written!
ReplyDeleteI have never thought that part of the reason obesity has become such a problem could be partly genetic. This is a really interesting way to think about it. From a natural selection viewpoint it makes a lot of sense. Like you said people use to need to hold on to more fat since there was not as much in their diets. This leads to where we are now absorbing too much of the fat that we have in abundance now. However, will the increase in fatty foods lead us to lose this thrifty gene? Since we have the fat now available will that lead us to not need that gene as much? We may not have enough generations for that to occur if the push for more organic foods continues. This would maintain the benefits of the thrifty gene and keep it in the population. This was a very interesting way to look at a problem that is a huge part of society.
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