Things have gone wrong in a number of ways over time. Grain storage is credited as the transition technology of nomadic humans to civilization humans...for the first time we did not have to migrate with the seasons, with distinct advantages to staying in one place with permanent structures, eventually leading to government buildings, libraries, schools, etc.
But grains aren't a food humans can pick in nature and eat directly, it must be hulled and cooked first. Some health experts use a thought experiment to quickly evaluate how "efficient" a given substance is: how much energy is expended finding and converting to an edible form, then once in the body breaking it down and converting to fuel and nutrition. If you found it growing "in the wild" could you make a meal of it in the original form you found it in? Could a child eat it? Would they want to? Animals in nature are hungry and looking for food a good bit of the time, but they don't eat just anything. Each animal has a "species specific diet", and knows what and what not to eat based on instinct, look, smell, and taste.
Digestion of food uses a lot of the body's energy reserves, which explains why we can get tired or sleepy after eating "heavy" meals. Heavy foods are not efficient foods, a lot of energy is required to convert them to usable energy.
The first vitamins were discovered in 1912 and initially thought of as "accessory factors". As they came to be understood as "essential" the assumption was made we had at last discovered the cause of health, and if we simply take these single chemicals out of foods their beneficial effect could be concentrated. "Fortified" foods would give us all we need, and even further these nutritional concentrates could be put into pills and capsules, taken daily, and et voila! disease would be banished forever.
Digestion of food uses a lot of the body's energy reserves, which explains why we can get tired or sleepy after eating "heavy" meals. Heavy foods are not efficient foods, a lot of energy is required to convert them to usable energy.
Grains are carbs, therefore calories, which is the basic fuel supply we need to get through each day with energy. Fuel comes first, without it nothing else happens, and we are wired by nature to seek calories. An empty calorie is of course not good because it has little to no "micronutrient" content (vitamins and minerals). White rice will provide fuel, but without nutrient density eventually health will decline.
Whole grains do have some micronutrient content, but are not the most nutrient dense food we are adapted to. The broad range of fruits and vegetables better meet our need for both fuel and nutrition.
And this is the first step in how we started going wrong, a dependence on foods that are not sufficiently nutrient dense. Whole grains are not devoid of micronutrients, but they are not high in micronutrients either. Humans used stored grains at the beginning of civilization to get through winter. Then in the spring, summer, and fall would shift to more nutrient dense foods to build up their internal store of vitamins and minerals and get through the next lean months of winter.
The next major step in "going wrong" came with the industrial revolution and with technologic refinement of foods into concentrated substances. This hurt intrinsic value of foods in two ways. First foods could be refined to the point they were completely devoid of micro nutrients, creating the first empty calorie "food-like" substances. Grains became white flour, vegetables became oil, certain fruits and vegetables became sugar. These empty calorie food-like substances do provide "fuel", but ultimately their lack of micronutrient content catches up and health begins to deteriorate.
Empty calories go a long way toward explaining why so many of us now suffer from so-called "post-industrial metabolic syndrome" diseases, which are degradations of the intricate and complex metabolic pathways in the body, resulting in the most common killers of developed world populations (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, auto-immune diseases).
Empty calories go a long way toward explaining why so many of us now suffer from so-called "post-industrial metabolic syndrome" diseases, which are degradations of the intricate and complex metabolic pathways in the body, resulting in the most common killers of developed world populations (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, auto-immune diseases).
Something happened on the way to paradise however, as Dr. Fuhrman points out (author of Fast Food Genocide: How Processed Food is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It), the advent of supplements coincides exactly with the sudden rise in cancer rates in developed world populations.
https://www.amazon.com/Fast-Food-Genocide-Processed-Killing/dp/0062571214/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Fortification of foods may have some value in certain cases, but as an overarching mechanism to improve human health it has been an abject failure. Contemporary nutrition scientists such as Colin Campbell (author of Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition) point to current studies that indicate nutrition only becomes effective when "nested" within the context of the many other hundreds of individual nutritional chemicals in a single whole food (like an apple). Their beneficial effect depends on collaboration. Dr. Campbell compares it to a symphony orchestra, an entity much greater than it's individual constituents.
Dr. Campbell also points out how extremely complex biology and nutrition are, and that much is still not known, but what we can know is that "nature's design" actually works quite well (else we would not still be here), and better than anything we are likely to come up with. His ultimate point perhaps is that biologic and nutritional systems are considerably more complex than currently appreciated, and this underappreciation impedes our approach to truth, sending us instead chasing down one blind alley after another.
Dr. Campbell also points out how extremely complex biology and nutrition are, and that much is still not known, but what we can know is that "nature's design" actually works quite well (else we would not still be here), and better than anything we are likely to come up with. His ultimate point perhaps is that biologic and nutritional systems are considerably more complex than currently appreciated, and this underappreciation impedes our approach to truth, sending us instead chasing down one blind alley after another.
The next and final big step in "going wrong", was the advent of the food engineering industry with a focus on sales and profit instead of nutrition and health. These engineered "foods" can be thought of as "pleasure traps", purposely designed to subvert the interactive complex of instinctual biologic mechanisms that tell us when we've had enough, and what to eat and what to avoid. (A brilliant discussion of this in greater detail: "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health and Happiness"). The purpose of these engineered "foods" is to create "return customers" by "cultivating" addiction.
https://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness-ebook/dp/B001A38YCC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511125973&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Pleasure+Trap
https://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness-ebook/dp/B001A38YCC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511125973&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Pleasure+Trap
Nature does not provide food trucked in 24/7/365 in unlimited quantities. Consequently we evolved in nature to seek calories. It works because it's almost impossible to over consume calories in nature (where no engineered substances loaded with concentrated fats and sugars are available). Purveyors of engineered food-like substances can (and do) use our instinctual responses "against us" for profit, creating wide spread health destroying addiction in the process. These engineered substances actually have way too many calories, and way too little usable micronutrient content, in a context our biologic instincts tell us to eat more of. The final insult is these calories are contained in goo-like substances that clog up our intricate metabolic pathways, and make us sick.
The whole thing is a nasty business that for the most part we have been unaware of. In my opinion it is no stretch to say we have been victims of unscrupulous marketing practices, sanctioned by governing regulatory bodies charged with protecting us from such practices. Instead they protect GDP and most significant revenue streams...has it ever been different? Moral? Educate and protect yourself.
When we eat these engineered substances until "satisfied" we are on a fast track to gain weight, develop insulin resistance, and eventually fall victim to one or more of the various so-called "metabolic syndrome" diseases that put individuals on an expensive merry-go-round of doctors, medications "you'll have to take the rest of your life", and suffering, ending lives decades prematurely.
The whole thing is a nasty business that for the most part we have been unaware of. In my opinion it is no stretch to say we have been victims of unscrupulous marketing practices, sanctioned by governing regulatory bodies charged with protecting us from such practices. Instead they protect GDP and most significant revenue streams...has it ever been different? Moral? Educate and protect yourself.
When we eat these engineered substances until "satisfied" we are on a fast track to gain weight, develop insulin resistance, and eventually fall victim to one or more of the various so-called "metabolic syndrome" diseases that put individuals on an expensive merry-go-round of doctors, medications "you'll have to take the rest of your life", and suffering, ending lives decades prematurely.
It doesn't have to be this way. The first thing to realize is every individual is responsible for their own health, while also realizing (unfortunately) there is a forest of misinformation put forward by purveyors (and other economic beneficiaries) of industrial food products. And we love to hear good things about our bad habits, which is important to remember as we weigh and consider what we learn about the foods and practices that are responsible for the creation of health.
The solution is actually more simple, easy, and (shock!) enjoyable than one might think. Reading books such as those mentioned above can help tremendously with overview, perspective, and motivation.
The solution is actually more simple, easy, and (shock!) enjoyable than one might think. Reading books such as those mentioned above can help tremendously with overview, perspective, and motivation.
