Fat – stop getting flustered
Diabetes on the rise, heart disease on the rise, obesity on a never-before seen scale, largely sedentary lives and here I am, ‘bout to tell you to quit your moaning and eat more fat.
The fear-mongering is actually a thing to behold. The entire of the Western World has been moulded into a fat-hating society. And even if you do eat a lot of fat and/or oil, you still probably feel a pang of guilt when you do. How’s that?! A marketing machine – you can’t even eat something without thinking about where, on your body, it will deposit itself. And what’s the solution? Hit the pavement. 5 kms? Maybe 10 if you’ve been really bad! Burn that bulge in what most people find to be the least inspiring of physical activities. Or, get a bike (get run-over?). Or walking. Or any other of the innumerable calorie burning activities. Well hold on to your hips fatties, it’s time to question some long standing assumptions…
Fat is not bad.
Now, it’s fitting that we cover the topic, because as this blog’s title indicates, the offender in question is in fact Cal and mine’s beloved. But where has this all gone wrong?
‘Fat’ is a cheap and easy word we now use to describe a state of being. In its worst case: corpulence or morbid obesity. So from here on out, fat is not an adjective. It is a noun. That’s a start. If you are carrying too many kilos, you are overweight, not fat. What you should be eating for energy, what should comprise the bulk of your caloric intake… is fat. Holy marathon (or not) Batman! And now, quite appropriately, I think it worthwhile to delve into the human body and metabolism.
Lair of the lipid.
What’s a lipid? Not one thing, for starters. Lipids are a group of naturally occurring molecules including fats, waxes, sterols, vitamins (A, D, E and K). They function as stores of energy, cell membranes, and signalling molecules (popular ones include ceramide, sphingosine and retinol). Your body is made up of lipids. Erm, don’t you hate dramatic, simplistic and all-encompassing statements like that? But I digress. Your body is ‘largely’ made up of lipids. Specifically, every cell membrane that makes up your body, is made of lipids. There we go, that’s a little more accurate. There are a lot of cells in your body – there are a lot of lipids in your body. QED. Lipids however, are not the same as that pork crackling I’m dreaming of right now. Those are triglycerides (three glycerol molecules, glued together) and come naturally in two distinct for: saturated and unsaturated. Saturated triglycerides are much more stable – hence solid fat – and unsaturated refer generally to oils. Unsaturated triglycerides have kinks in their carbon chains, don’t pack together so well, are therefore generally liquids and less stable under heat. That aside, any sort of fat we generally consider bad for us. And in today’s standard diet, they are. Sorry folks. Go home. Show’s over. No pork for you.Diabetes on the rise, heart disease on the rise, obesity on a never-before seen scale, largely sedentary lives and here I am, ‘bout to tell you to quit your moaning and eat more fat.
The fear-mongering is actually a thing to behold. The entire of the Western World has been moulded into a fat-hating society. And even if you do eat a lot of fat and/or oil, you still probably feel a pang of guilt when you do. How’s that?! A marketing machine – you can’t even eat something without thinking about where, on your body, it will deposit itself. And what’s the solution? Hit the pavement. 5 kms? Maybe 10 if you’ve been really bad! Burn that bulge in what most people find to be the least inspiring of physical activities. Or, get a bike (get run-over?). Or walking. Or any other of the innumerable calorie burning activities. Well hold on to your hips fatties, it’s time to question some long standing assumptions…
Fat is not bad.
Now, it’s fitting that we cover the topic, because as this blog’s title indicates, the offender in question is in fact Cal and mine’s beloved. But where has this all gone wrong?
‘Fat’ is a cheap and easy word we now use to describe a state of being. In its worst case: corpulence or morbid obesity. So from here on out, fat is not an adjective. It is a noun. That’s a start. If you are carrying too many kilos, you are overweight, not fat. What you should be eating for energy, what should comprise the bulk of your caloric intake… is fat. Holy marathon (or not) Batman! And now, quite appropriately, I think it worthwhile to delve into the human body and metabolism.
Lair of the lipid.
You know, I bet even in caveman times, Grok was constantly being reprimanded by Grokette for lapping up the bubbling fat on his freshly slaughtered and roast deer. “Grunt grunt grunt, grunt grunt grunt!” Loosely translated: “Grok, leave the fat – you know what the doctor thinks of your eating habits”. Bollocks.
This little sojourn into caveman times brings me to a popular conscience doing the rounds currently – that of the paleo or primal diet. There are bajillions of websites out there – some well-known, some not so – preaching the virtues (and consequences) of such diets. But I think there’s merit to the hype…
Freak out - going Primal.
Now it’s ridiculous to assume we know precisely what humanoids like us ate 200,000 years ago, but these gleaming, sharp incisors of mine suggest strongly it wasn’t just berries, plants and nuts. In fact, go rustle up a steak and tear into it without the aid of modern utensils. I’ll take a punt and guess you’re going at it with them fangs. And rather enjoying it too?! Furthermore, I’m aware of no evidence that demonstrates early humanoids suffered from weight problems (hunched backs, poor posture, and stunted bone growth). On the contrary however, you could easily argue that as pure hunter/gatherers, over-eating was not only never a problem, but never an option. And I would agree. But the probability remains that when they did, as hunters, bring down an animal, or gathers, happen upon carrion, it would have been consumed very quickly, wasting not a morsel. And it’s all meat. And fat. And we’ve been doing it for over 200,000 years*. Altogether now: “yes, that’s plausible”. Plausibility is good. Let’s also say that this was the norm for almost the entirety of this period. Point of contention… “No, no, humans have been farming for ages, so they wouldn’t have had to continue hunting like that”. True, we have been farming for ages. But what is ‘ages’? Records indicate that agricultural farming has been around in an intense form for the last few thousand years*. Ages?
The very first signs of agriculture? Between 20-30,000 years ago*. Ages?!
Homo-genus beings consuming meat? 2 million years*. Ages!
Now for all those evolutionary theorists out there, which period is bigger? And which, do you think, has contributed most greatly to our current evolutionary state? (I’m brimming with anticipation).
Today’s dilemma.
We eat a lot of grain, starch and sugar these days, all of which are products of the last few thousand years – the agricultural revolution, as ‘twere. A time when grain and crop farming exploded; no, Grok didn’t wander through fields of wheat and barley – the stuff we eat today didn’t exist then and it certainly didn’t grow en-masse and definitely didn’t lend itself to set-and-forget bread baking. But we’re told now, after only a few thousand years of heavy carbohydrate consumption, the body has adapted? Gee, that was quick. Tell that to the ever-growing and evermore-aware gluten-intolerant population. Personally, I know no one with an allergy to fat. On the face of it, it looks as though as hue-mans have evolved to eat meat, fat, foraged plant matter and a little bit of fruit (berries) should we have been so lucky. And if this makes sense to you, the bulk of current diets (grains, rice, legumes, starch and sugar) should therefore comprise no part of our biologically ‘correct’ diet. Begs further questioning… why are we encouraged to eat x servings of cereals and whole-grains every day then? The phrase “because it’s healthy!” is starting to look tenuous, at best. Beyond the obvious fact that we’ve been told that our whole lives, why exactly do we believe it? This is where a favourite term enters the fray – ‘Conventional Wisdom’. It is a collective belief, is it not, that these foods are okay for us to eat. You no longer need documentary evidence to believe this, because your mum believes it, her mum believes it and her mum (did) too. Wrong.
Just because we can now cultivate an energy source, does that mean it should be eaten? Just because I can eat as much McDonald’s as I want doesn’t mean I should. Just because I can drive fast doesn’t mean I should. Just because I can smoke and receive health care doesn’t mean I should. Just because I can devour a bucket of Chupa-chups doesn’t mean I should. Just because I can have a muffin doesn’t mean I should. Just because I can eat a whole-grain sandwich doesn’t mean I should. My point? Just because I can eat foods that do not make up my evolutionary heritage, doesn’t mean I should. Nor should you. Far-fetched? Well, think about it… we only live sub-century-long lives, so 10,000 years is a long time. But for evolution to work its magic, 10,000 is no time at all. Like I say, have a think about it.
Here endeth today’s lesson. I shall pack up my collapsible soap-box, have some water to sooth my now-coarse throat, bid you all adue, and return to day-dreams of Meatza. Until next time Herr Doktor.
* DYOR research – there’s so much out there and these are hardly contested facts; plus you know I’ll just link to Wikipedia anyway.
As is customary on "Eat Fat. Be Awesome", a video contribution: might help in the gym as you lift heavy things. If not, good for a laugh (these girls must be drunk! Who the hell told them *that* was a good idea?!)
(In case you can't reach the video from this link (I'm getting copyright issues) - you can reach it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
