mendax.org

Lately, a number of people we know have gotten onto the weight-loss bandwagon, which to us seems about six-months early since we’re not even close to the holiday season yet, but to each their own. The methods we’ve recently heard for losing weight range from crazy dietary restrictions (like no alcohol!) to long-winded work-out routines. Even more recently, our friend Maxator started what he calls the “hunter gatherer diet”, which effectively cuts out processed sugar and flour, and potatoes. The diet has worked for him, as he’s lost 20 pounds in 30 days, with no other major behavioral modifications other than the types of food he eats.

While some of Maxator’s friends may have been surprised at Maxator’s weight loss resulting from his modified diet, we were less surprised, as his modifications are very similar to those described by other individuals. For example, StrongLifts.com proposes a similarly healthy diet, albeit with the goal to fuel fast muscle growth by increasing protein intake. The core phlosophy at StrongLifts.com is simple: earlier generations didn’t struggle as much with weight because they were constantly working, and the more manual labor done, the greater muscle strength is, and those with greater muscle strength tend to burn fat much quicker/easier than those who are weak and flabby. In other words, by building muscle and not taking in carbs/sugars that can’t easily be burnt off, weight problems will be minimal.

Both Maxator and StrongLifts.com refer to prior generations and their food intake. These comments remind us of Mean Genes, an absolutely excellent book, which we would make required reading if mendax.edu were a reality. In short, Mean Genes is a reflection of man’s behavior as it relates to many years of genetic programming/evolution. In other words, the authors pinpoint why people tend to do certain things based on the things our ancestors had to do to survive. While the scope of the book exceeds the subject of this post, there’s a chapter on health and beauty that refers to the foods modern man is drawn to, and why that is. For example, the western world prizes sugar, to the point where high fructose corn syrup is in a significant percentage of the things we eat and drink. We’re drawn to such sugary substances because ancient man needed a desire for then-rare sugars that occur in nature, such as fruits. These sugars weren’t just tasty, but they were tied to foods that had nutrients necessary for survival. Unfortunately, programmed to seek out sugar, modern man indulges in all-too-accessible sugars, which corporations exploit easily.

The point? Cutting down on sugars that we don’t need will help us regain a healthy balance in regards to our food intake. The willpower to do so isn’t always easy, but as Maxator has shown, is quite possible to gather. What we find comment-worthy about his ordeal isn’t the focus on weight-loss, however, but rather in the premise that natural foods are inherently better for consumption that unnatural ones. For example, a major tenet of his diet is the lack of processed sugars and flour, which many organic eaters have touted for years.

For those who don’t know about processed sugars, we’re not simply talking high-fructose corn syrup, though that’s obviously one of the worst kinds of sweeteners. Rather, even table-sugar is processed, which is immediately evident in its coloration: “pure” sugar isn’t white, it’s brown-ish. In fact, cane sugar is bleached just like flour is, to give it that super-clean unnatural whiteness that people are so fond of. In the case of flour, the processing is even worse, because not only is flour bleached, but most of its nutrients are ripped clean in the process. That’s why ingredients like “whole wheat flour” are so important, whereas the lack of the words “whole wheat” tends to refer to a much less healthy product. As for sugar, if cancer-inducing Splenda is not one’s cup of tea (it’s certainly not ours), consider using raw cane sugar, which can be found in most grocery stores, and also served in little brown packets at many cafes (Peets and Starbucks included). For home use, there’s also organic blue agave nectar, a syrupy substance that sweetens foods and drinks beautifully.

The health benefits of eating naturally aren’t the only gains for an individual, however: natural foods tend to taste better than processed foods also. For example, while we grew up drinking milk, at one point we stopped drinking a glass of milk a day, and for decades never considered going back. Sure, we’d eat dairy products and even put milk in our espresso drinks, but we simply didn’t find milk tasty enough to drink solo. That is, until recently, when we first realized just how much better whole milk was than the needlessly skim milk most Americans buy, and later in just how much better organic (and especially raw) milk tastes than the processed crap found in most stores.

It’s easy enough to point at natural foods as hippy foods, but this is a misnomer: they’re legacy foods that technocrats deemed unnecessary in order to promote capitalism and production over time-tested health benefits. That’s not to say that processed foods are without nutrients entirely, merely that they’re sapped of many nutrients one could otherwise find in a natural counterpart. And that’s not hippy, it’s ancestral.

Popularity: 8% [?]