Knowing what the problem is before you can solve it

by Vince

Many people do not comment on the blog. When they do it is amazing because then I can see what they are struggling with. The truth is if you have a problem then other people will have a similar problem. It is very rare for a problem to affect only one person.

If you have been reading how some articles are carb based and other fat based this simply represents the 2 extremes that humans have had to endure on our long history on the Earth, Your genes eventually evolve to protect you (to some degree) so that you can pass on those very same genes.

Some eagled eyed readers will then say if you were to eat a very bad diet then somewhere along the line people would become more tolerant to it. (Although it is unlikely you would evolve to the diet, that would depend on your parents, grand parents and so on. It can take a long time to get the benefits.).

Aside from not containing enough nutrients it, your health would suffer but if we did do that then it is highly likely we would eventually get people that could have a higher tolerance to bad foods. But the mechanism works like this. There are people with genes that can protect them to some degree from getting fat. If the people with the least tolerance to junk food died and did not have children that leaves the people with some tolerance. If this continues again and again you would eventually have people that are very tolerant to the junk foods. It is not good for them but it does potentially less damage than if they did not have the same protective genes.

The places that had the highest sugar consumption in the past, for a sustained time, also can tolerate a greater excess amount before developing type 2 diabetes, in general. Those genes that have evolved to protect these individuals can take many generations. Also, some people can carry proportionally more fat before they develop health problems. Medicine was not so advanced in the past to save people that developed obesity related diseases. So many people would die before breeding - therefore could not pass on their genes. The people that survived had some advantage, so that they could pass on that advantage.

In the distant past, when food was scarce it would be an advantage for you to have genes that helped you store fat. The better your fat storage the greater your likelihood of surviving a shortage of food. Today, when very high energy foods are available all the time fat storage seems to be very detrimental. The problem is at different times genes have had different pressures to adapt to.

Medicine, sciences and technology can in many respects remove the need to adapt because they can give you more time to breed before you are removed by the pressure to adapt. It means that genes that are not adapted to the current situation can survive -even if it may be a disadvantage in this age.

You can't fix your genes but you can work with them well to enjoy excellent health. If a particular food makes you feel ill consistently then avoid it - get an alternative that has similar nutrients. If a particular diet did not work then perhaps it is not exactly what your body prefers. It could be a carb based diet or one higher in fat. You need to pick the one that helps you the most and appreciate that there is individuality in diets. One thing you can do is ensure you get enough nutrients in your diet - all the micronutrients. Consume whole foods to get a fuller range of nutrition - even the smaller amounts of compounds that scientists have not yet identified.

(Bad foods is used in this context to describe food that is heavily refined so that it has lost a large proportion of its nutrients so that it provides energy and little else.)