Now I've taken Cultural and Physical Anthropology, and it sure answers allot of questions I've had on obesity and our nation. Not just our nation but in general.
Here's the thing. Humans were once a majority of nomads. We traveled the earth and hunted for food. We were scavengers, took what we could find. Food was not as readily available as it is today. Then, whatever you found, you'd eat it and you'd go on. You might not have food for days, but when you found it you ate it. Naturally, our bodies store food. In this state, eating irregularly, our bodies start storing food and goes into starvation mode, where any time you eat, it will not flush out the food as quickly as eating on a consistent basis will.
Today, food is readily available. It is everywhere. You say, well we had food in the 1940s too, even during wartime. Aye, yes we did, but remember that was mostly homemade food. Today there is fast food everywhere. After watching Supersize Me, I was even more convinced at how fast-food is bad for us. But it is not just about fast food. It's how food in general is available. Through evolution has obviously taken place, our bodies still think that when food is placed in front of us, we have to eat it. For a long time it was a survival tool. You say, but we eat regularly, why are we gaining weight? Well, not only are we not exercising as much as we used too... we use are cars and other modes of transportation... anything to make sure we are not on our feet, however, some of us eat irregularly, turning on that old survival involuntary mechanism in our bodies that will take whatever we have and store it even though we are not necessarily starving.
Our bodies are taking in more carbs and fats, mostly saturated and not nutritional. Reason two for why we crave fast food; it does not keep you full because it lacks the necessary energy and nutrients we need for the day.
Stress is another factor. We are working more, sleeping less, and having less time for doing things to de-stress us, like exercise or hobbies. By the time we get home from work or school we are so beat from mental education, we have no energy to physically exercise.
"Why does your brain feel tired when you think a lot?
Your brain consumes a lot of energy - as much as a fifth of all the energy you get from food. Brain scans show that thinking uses up a lot of energy (as revealed by increased blood flow). Your brain can't store much energy, and because it is tightly enclosed inside your skull, there is a limit to how much blood (and therefore energy) can be supplied to active areas. So thinking hard tires your brain." - Your Brain
So if we are not eating food that provides us with enough energy... we become more tired. Learning takes energy too, even though we are sitting down, our brain is a muscle and going to school and working gives a big work out for that muscle if you use it for 6 hours a day on hard core learning.
Fast food may be one of the reasons to blame for our obesity, but I think we, ourselves are to blame. Our society has changed over night it seems, and we have not changed our lifestyles to accommodate those changes. We need to make time for ourselves, exercise and make healthy eating choices. It's not all about food; it's about living. It's not all about sitting down and sleeping; it's about time management. In this day and age, we have too. We need to stop stressing and worrying. We have only one life; why are we wasting it sitting down?
