For nearly the entire history of our species Sapiens have lived as foragers. An ancient forager is one who obtained all or most of their food by gathering wild plants, catching fish and hunting wild animals rather than practicing Agriculture.
For the past 200 years we have obtained our daily bread as urban labourers and office workers, with the preceding 10000 years as farmers and herders. All this is but the blink of an eye compared to the tens of thousands of years we have survived on this planet as hunter/gathers.
It is inevitable then that in our hard wire DNA is this Hunter/Gatherer inclination or desire or drive. The hunter/gatherer would roam from place to place eating a wide variety of grains and fruits and the odd animal kill.
30000 years ago the hunter/gatherer had only one type of sweet food, ripe fruit. If for example a band came across a tree of figs they would eat as many as possible before some other animal would eat them. The instinct to gorge on high calorie food is hardwired into our genes. This could be why modern societies which have such a wide variety of high calorie foods easily accessible are leading to such high levels of obesity.
Next take the grain, wheat. During the agricultural revolution wheat started to be harvested around the planet. This trend has continued no stop since.
Grains made up only a small part of the human diet before the Agricultural revolution.
A diet based on cereals is poor in vitamins and that combination of wheat and sugar could be driving us all over the edge towards Obesity.
Tips:
1. Read the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and get his take on these important aspects of life.
2. Reconsider your way of buying food, your supermarket is your fig tree, so change the way you move around the store. For instance, move quickly through the opening doors where the bread and pastries etc. are located and when you get to the checkout area don’t look at the sweets on offer. Just recheck your basket to make sure you have the essentials.
3. Plan your food storage so that you are not looking at sweets or breads or pastries every time you open a food press.
4. Come to the Get Back Health Chiropractic and Wellness Clinic this week and get your nervous system and spine adjusted and bring more focus into your body.
Yours in health John Keane Spinologist