A few days ago I was inspired to go out and buy a 2 liter of Barques root beer, some creamy
Hagan Das vanilla ice cream and make a root beer float.
Since then I’ve probably had about four of them, and I don’t think I’m going to
stop anytime soon.
It’s just too damn good.
But why?
What makes food that is terrible for you so mouth-wateringly delicious?
Milkshakes, hot dogs, frosted flakes, cookies, brownies, etc.
Why is bad food, so good?
Hi everyone.
Thought Monkey here and today I’m going to be talking about why unhealthy food is
just so damn good.
The answer lies in how our genes have adapted to the conditions of our environment.
Bad food is usually made up of certain ingredients that are rare, yet have been vital to our
short-term survival since the dawn of mankind.
Our genetic makeup interacts with these nutrients in a way that makes them almost irresistible
to us.
Imagine being out on a hunt or gathering food for hours in a hot environment where food
is limited and water is even hard to come by.
In the distance you see a ripe plum tree.
What would you do?
I know that like a fly attracted to a light, I would be pulled into the tree and gorge
myself.
The problem today is different.
First, living to a certain age is a rather new concept.
The average lifespan of most of our ancestors before the invention of agriculture was probably
not more than 45 rather than today’s 78.
Therefore our genes didn’t really have longevity in mind, but instead the need to keep us moving
and doing activities like running, carrying, and thinking.
In our bodies mind, short term energy is better than long term health if you aren’t going
to live long enough to experience long term health problems.
The problem is that today, our access to unhealthy food is overwhelming while our lifespan is
longer than ever.
And the problem is that evolution has not been able to keep up with the pace of the
development of agriculture.
While humans took millions of years to develop – agriculture has only been around for about
10,000 years and has led to other developments like the industrial revolution which has made
our access to food all the more merrier.
If our genetics are working against us in today’s modern society, the answer to our
health issues then lie in finding a way to work with our genetics by modifying our environment
so that our behavior doesn’t cause us to eat ourselves to death.
Another problem is that we now can modify and extract the nutrients found in nature
that our genes so desire like delicious sugars, fats, and proteins to make them taste better
or make them harder for us to resist.
For example, back in the day sugar also came with fibrous and vitamin rich fruits.
However, now we can extract the sugars, the vitamins, and the fiber and use each for different
reasons.
We can extract pure sugar from plants to make our baked goods and beverages so much more
delicious.
And look toward the supplement industry to take pill forms of vitamins and even put a
scoop of fiber into our morning smoothies.
The problem with this is that we lose the other nutrients and compounds found in plants
during the extraction process and by isolating each, we tend to over use and then over eat
them – again not so bad in the short term but over time, over eating nutrients, whether
carbs, fats, or proteins, cause health problems.
Finally, having access to so much processed food like soda, cookies, doughnuts, etc. has
in a way dulled our palates.
Having a deliciously ripe and fresh orange right after drinking a cup of orange soda
sounds kind of disgusting.
But think about having that same orange right after a long hike without eating.
The same orange, put into a different situation and environment all of a sudden becomes mouthwatering.
With so much access to processed foods, we can one up what we eat every time we eat.
While it may only be one scoop of sugar in our coffee today, in three years it might
be three scoops as our palates get used to and desensitized to the taste of sugar.
Food in the U.S., and soon the whole world is a problem.
There is too much access to bad foods that are just simply irresistible.
But there’s not much any individual can do to stop the food industry from making such
deliciously irresistible foods.
So what’s the answer then?
The answer lies in adaptation – something that has proved to be the force behind human
progress and survival over the past hundred thousand years.
Humans have adapted to every environment across the planet – even Antarctica.
So to solve this food problem, we have to adapt once again.
Will power and discipline only go so far.
So the key is developing a environment that will support you to eat in a way that sustains
you on the day to day, but also keeps you healthy in the long run.
As for me, I’m going to go grab another root beer float, because really who cares.