Evolution makes us fat (Knew it!)

The Telegraph ^ | September 27, 2007 | William Leith

[DaveLoneRanger]

At the start of this sensible book about the "weight and fitness crisis" in America, the Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett tells us some shocking things. By 1995, she says, two-thirds of Americans were overweight, hundreds of thousands were dying fat-related deaths, being overweight was people's most common gripe and obesity was poised to overtake smoking as the biggest cause of preventable death. All of this, she says, accounted for $99 billion in medical costs.

...

The problem, in other words, is bad, and it's getting worse, and we can't seem to stop it. So why does fattening food – sugar, starch and fat itself – have such a grip on us?

The answer, says Barrett, lies in the study of evolution. As animals, we are genetically almost identical to our Stone Age ancestors. We live in advanced societies, with supermarkets and cars and lifts, but we are built to be hunter-gatherers. We are programmed to seek out fat, sugar, starch and salt, because, in the Stone Age, these things were hard to come by. When they turn up in abundance, our bodies, for the most part, can't say no.

...

So you can see what's happening – to put it simply, human beings are evolving much more slowly than the food we eat. And the food is tricking us. We think it's what we need, but it's just what we want. What can we do? Eat sensibly and exercise, of course. One thing we have to do, though, is "not to listen to your body" – because it craves food that, in abundance, is bad for it.

[DaveLoneRanger]

Related: Evolution led to obesity pandemic

And my personal favorite, Errant tee shots? Blame evolution

[edcoil]

So my thin daughters and wife are not as evolved as a fat person?

[popdonnelly]

Some of us have evolved more than others.

[mpackard]

I just keep “evolving” can someone make it stop????

[EarthBound]

I guess that means I’ve de-evolved over the last 8 months. I’ve lost 55 lbs! 215 down to a trimmer 160.

[popdonnelly]

Obesity allows you to carry around your own food supply. When times get tough, you’ll be the last one to starve. ;)

[mpackard]

WOW WOW WOW, congrats!!!!!

[ConservaTexan]

I have a hard time believing that Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnel are more evolved than myself.

[DaveLoneRanger]

You have been pinged because of your interest regarding news, debate and editorials pertaining to the Creation vs. Evolution debate - from the young-earth creationist perspective.
To to get on or off this list (currently the premier list for creation/evolution news!), freep-mail me:
Add me / Remove me

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Some very interesting articles, some of which you'll probably be hearing about in the next couple of days:

Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life’s Origin (Dawkins and his perennially knotted knickers)

"The God Delusion" Debate 7 PM in Birmingham, between Dawkins and some lightweight apologist named Dr. John Lennox who apparently has an MA, another MA, a Ph.D., a D.Phil., and a D.Sc.

Scientists' Use of Woolly Mammoth DNA May Unlock Evolution of Elephant (DNA sat dormant inside mammoth hair kept at room temperature for years)

Oxygen on Earth: 50 to 100 Million Years Earlier Than Scientists Thought (Evidence is drastically warping evolution once again)

[EarthBound]

aw shucks, thanks. The hard part is exercising restraint on what I eat, and then exercising everyday.

[itsamelman]

"I ain't fat dammit! I'm fully friggin' evolved!"

[mpackard]

I keep thinking that God is preparing us for an ice age or something. We’ll be warmer and less likely to starve. Ha!!! if this is the case we’ll really show the French, wont we!!!

[DaveLoneRanger]

Ye’ll be Cro-magnon before long, mate. How tall are you, and what is your target weight?

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“When times get tough, you’ll be the last one to starve. “
Or the first one to be eaten!

[walford]

I dispute the “we are programmed to” assertion, but the author is correct that our dietary needs haven’t changed much since upper Paleolithic times. What has changed very recently is our ability to survive w/o much physical exertion.

That we can do something about. Those of us with Amerindian blood are even more challenged because we have the ‘thrifty gene’ that makes it so we can get by with very little. Our ancestors’ day was basically a decathlon and their diet was very high in fiber and low in fat/carbs.

So, if we want to stay trim, we must simulate the diet and exercise of our forebears as much as possible. Going around hungry won’t work — our bodies will simply cut back on our activity level by making us feel tired and thus lower the metabolic rate.

Obese people have been known to maintain their weight even on 1000 calories a day [which is very little indeed].

You MUST replace the fat and carbs with fiber and reduce the salt intake. A local physician has had a radio show for years and has a good selection of recipes that will do the trick:
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/recipeListType.html

After awhile you get so used to it that if you try to cheat, you actually feel sickened at the fatty foods you once enjoyed.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“I just keep “evolving” can someone make it stop????”
I can’t stop “revolving”, and I’m starting to feel queasy!

[EarthBound]

Only 5’6”. My target was 165, before that it was 170. Not sure I want to lose any more. Mostly trying to gain muscle mass.

[wintertime]

Ping

[bannie]

Two recessives got together...

[bert]

Their ability to withstand winter, drought and other famine is diminished.

Come any of the above, they might perish and not survive.

[50sDad]

Or the first one to be eaten!

This assumes what I have is muscle...Hah!

[dfwgator]

[raygunfan]

it’s just like the libs and their BDS, the pointyheaded intellectuals have ECE (evolution causes everything)

[Enchante]

Apparently not, and all the “super models” and Hollywood starlets are very un-evolved too (or at least they are fighting hard against their evolutionary genes). We now have to look at Rosie O’Donnell and Hillary’s cankles as the new models of where our current stage of evolution takes us...... /s

[racnpartsales4u]

[VRWCer]

Those recipes look great, thanks for the link!

[VRWCer]

No, its not that they’re unevolved - its that they’re *so* evolved, that they have the ability to reason themselves out of their evolutionary dietary tendencies. Good on ya!

[mikeus_maximus]

Then I guess we thin people are DEVO. D-E-V-O. Are we not men?

[Turbopilot]

Is this news? I thought it was common knowledge that our abundance of high-calorie food and sedentary lifestyle was problematic for bodies that evolved in an environment where food was scarce and people had to exert themselves continually just to survive and obtain that food.

In any case, it’s something I’ve been aware of for a long time. Seems pretty self-evident.

[Elpasser]

What a pile of malarkey. Is this really what passes for science today? All the author has to do is package a phenomenon as evolution and we are suspend our critical analysis?

If humans have trouble handling sugary, fatty foods, it is just as plausible that we were designed for a healthy diet as it is to say we “evolved” that way.

The author says more than he realizes when he tells us that “We are programmed to seek out...” Ever see a computer program itself?

Also, there is no evidence that man is currently “evolving.” If so, what individual’s descendants are growing in number today on the basis of what physical advantage, and which group is in decline.

I’m so tired of such rubbish I could upchuck.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

It does NOT say that evolution makes us fat.
Humans have NOT evolved much at all since the time when humans had to work hard for and fight for their food.
Physiologically, humans are still back in the time when we had to hunt and plant and fight to eat.
The overabundance of food today is handled just like it was thousands of years ago - it became fat.

[uncbob]

After years of exhaustive research on part I am making the results of my study on why Americans are fat available ,at no cost to the taxpayers, to the government

WHY AMERICANS IN GENERAL ARE FAT

1. Food tastes good (especially junk food )
2. There is an abundant supply of food ( especially junk food )
3. Food is easily affordable ( especially junk food )
4. Most Americans lead sedentary lives
5.Most Americans do not like to exercise

[Enchante]

Brilliant work, I think there is a Nobel Prize in your future!!

[Between the Lines]

[editor-surveyor]

"You MUST replace the fat and carbs with fiber and reduce the salt intake."

That is a guaranteed formula for an early death.

Reduce the carbs all you want, but don't cut salt or fats (not natural fats anyway). Cutting salt is the first step in accelerating your death. Cutting salt cuts your production of HCl which is absolutely necessary for digestion of food, and for cleansing the intestines of pathogens.

This leads to the shutdown of the most important part of your immune system. The first symptom that this is happening is lung disease. It can be just a constant cough that shows up everytime the weather cools, or as it gets worse, walking pnuemonia that extends into the summer. Ultimately it can become lung cancer.

Cutting fats, particularly animal fats, is also dangerous, and leaves you prone to cognitive loss, joint stiffness and joint inflammation; for some even fibromyalgea. The fats of bovines fed on their natural diet, green grass, is rich in omega 3, DHA, and vitamins B-12 and C. Most of the important nutrients are only accessable to our bodies through animal fats.

[SunkenCiv]

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The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat by Loren Cordain	NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body by Raymond V. Audette with Troy Gilchrist foreword by Michael R. Eades

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[SunkenCiv]

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Metabolic Man: Ten Thousand Years from Eden: The Long Search for a Personal Nutrition From our Forest Origins to the Supermarkets of Today by Charles Heizer Wharton	Health Secrets of the Stone Age Second Edition by Philip J. Goscienski

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[doc30]

If you take editor-surveyor's advice seriously, don't forget to use his renowned coffee enemas!

[editor-surveyor]

You seem to be unaware that the majority of internists fully recognize the value of said enemas (I have never had one myself, but I know several people who have avoided the most foolish surgery of the modern era, removal of the gallblader, through their use).

[walford]

What I mean by reducing the salt and fat is to that of our forebears rather than the hyper-amounts of those that we eat today.

We should bear in mind also that the meats that we eat are not only in greater quantity, pound-for-pound they are a lot fattier than those eaten by our cave-dwelling ancestors. Not only have we gotten fat, so have our ‘prey.’

[Elsie]

I salute you!

May have your self-discipline when you are done? ;^)

[Elsie]

Somewhere there’s a BIG camel who is missing a toe!

[EarthBound]

Sure, be prepared to enjoy the guilt that comes with it when you eat something bad for you once-in-a-while or don’t run those last 2 miles tonight! =)

[taxesareforever]

And I thought obesity was due to global warming.

[editor-surveyor]

The issue WRT fats is how did the animal put the fat on?

If it was from eating grain and silage in a pen, then it is definately deleterious, but if it was from eating grass, or alfalfa growing out of the ground, then it is healthy beneficial food.

[tyke]

Brings to mind one of my favorite comedy come-backers of all time. It's from the British comedy "Absolutely Fabulous":

Eddie: What you two don't seem to realize is that inside of me, inside of me, there is a thin person just screaming to get out.

Gran: Just the one, dear?

[curiosity]

I long suspected this, so it's hardly surprising to me. We're evolved to live and eat like cavemen. Our dietary preferences lead us to eat like cavement, but we don't live like them. That this should create health problems is almost self-evident. I'm tempted to put a "captain obvious" post on this thread.

[curiosity]

That poster is very good, and unfortunately, all too true.

[DaveLoneRanger]

Although absurd on the face of it, you’re right, this logic actually makes sense if you accept evolution. But I should like to point out a couple of things.

First, this assumes that humans are no different than animals - that we are merely subject to our bestial instincts, and are a product of our nature. Who (or, should I say “what”) we are is a consequence of our ancestry and our environment, nothing more, nothing less. You make no distinction between animal and human. I do.

Secondly, this conclusion (”evolution makes us fat”) is comprised almost entirely not of evidence but of logical induction. IE, it is merely a series of assumptions and conclusions, all assuming evolution is true. Now, if you ask me, it is sound if you believe evolution is true. But I hardly find this process scientific in nature, and I certainly do not find it to be sound in reality.

[curiosity]

Although absurd on the face of it,

Why do you find it absurd?

First, this assumes that humans are no different than animals - that we are merely subject to our bestial instincts, and are a product of our nature.

It assumes no such thing. It merely assumes that we have bestial instincts that are difficult to overcome. Difficult, however, does not mean impossible. Hence the argument above in no way rules out the fact that we can overcome such instincts, as many people in fact do.

Surely you don't deny that humans possess bestial instincts, and that some of them are difficult to overcome? If you do, talk to anyone who has ever struggled with a weight problem.

Who (or, should I say “what”) we are is a consequence of our ancestry and our environment, nothing more, nothing less.

Wrong. All the argument assumes is that our ancestry and environment influence who we are. It in no way rules out the possibility that there could be something more.

You make no distinction between animal and human.

Yes I do. Stop making assumptions about me; it's irritating.

Secondly, this conclusion (”evolution makes us fat”) is comprised almost entirely not of evidence but of logical induction. IE, it is merely a series of assumptions and conclusions, all assuming evolution is true.

That would be logical deduction, not induction. Yes, the argument follows from certain assumptions about evolution as well as the environment in which our ancestors lived. There is ample evidence to justify these assumptions published elsewhere. The article does not cite this evidence because the fact of evolution is not its focus. It is perfectly reasonable, when making an argument, to assume facts that others have demonstrated.