In modern-day culture, being healthy is commonly associated with dieting. This is somewhat ironic since most diets leave us starved emotionally or physically. How did we come to believe that struggle and deprivation equal vitality and health?
Delving into the history of dieting, we can discover why diets have not worked well for us and how we continue to get caught up in their cycle.
At the beginning of the 20th century, with the cultural increase in weight gain, our solution was a low-calorie/ low-fat diet. The assumption was that cutting out all fats would resolve our weight issues. Thankfully, the body's natural intelligence prevented us from starving ourselves to death and we began to experience strong cravings for fat and sugar. Deprived of fuel for energy we craved sugar. The craving for fat was the body's natural attempt to stabilize the erratic blood sugar levels that were being created by a fat-free diet. Furthermore, fat cravings intensified due to the lacking feeling of comfort and fullness that only fat would satisfy.
A severely limited calorie intake led to bingeing on fats and sugars. Contrary to what we believe, cravings and binges are not an indication of being flawed or weak. Binges are extreme responses to measures of restriction at levels that are unsustainable by a healthy human body.
Finding ourselves back in the cycle of fats and sugars, we turned to the high protein diet. This "worked" for a while, but since the body needs carbohydrates to stay balanced, we once again found ourselves bingeing on the carbs.
As a solution, the high carb diet was created. What seemed a well balanced idea, ended up sky-rocketing our cholesterol levels. The result: the low cholesterol diet was born, bringing back the low-fat diet. And so the cycle continues. Years later these diets have returned modified through modern food supply. Although historically unsuccessful, each of them continues to be heralded as the new greatest diet.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
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