Beating a Bread Horse

Am I allowed to eat bread or not? I’ve been overwhelmed by the “knowledge” about dieting in circulation these days. Low carb is the latest craze, but low fat was another one popular in the late 80’s. I think that’s how Snackwells became so popular. We frame the dieting discussion in term of what we shouldn’t eat rather than what we should eat. After all, we know that we should be eating more fruits and vegetables, but we’re lazy and uncommitted to making ourselves healthier. The “better” idea is that if we refrain from eating particular foods, then it doesn’t matter what else we eat. At the very least, we trick ourselves into thinking that we are working ourselves towards a better eating lifestyle.

Or are we? The problem here is that most people know what they should be eating. When we go to a fast food chain and order a low carb version of a burger, we think that we’re eating healthy simply because we’re not eating carbs. I hope we don’t really think that. That’s stupid wisdom. Next to a bowl of fruit or a plate of grilled vegetables, we can’t possibly think that a low carb fast food burger is healthy. Can we? Unfortunately things seem this way.

Here’s a secret: our bodies can adapt to our eating habits thanks to our metabolism. The same reason that Michael Phelps can eat 10,000+ calories a day is the same reason that a starving child in Ethiopia can survive on 200-300 calories a day. Once our bodies start eating less or more, it gets used to eating less or more. However, for someone that isn’t active, there’s only so many calories the body can handle. The only way that we can consume more calories without gaining weight is by burning the extra calories. This can be done through brute force (exercising) or by doing things that increase our metabolism. Increasing our metabolism means that our bodies burn more calories just by doing the basic things to keep itself going. That’s right, a high metabolism means you’re burning calories just by sitting around.

What some people don’t realize is that our metabolisms can slow down too. This is a huge problem because we consume less and less (through dieting), which leads to short term weight loss, which then also leads to a slower metabolism. Once our metabolism slows down, we’re screwed because returning to our normal eating habits shocks our bodies. Our body became accustomed to eating less calories. Depending on the diet, maybe our bodies got used to eating no carbs. So when we change our eating habits, our bodies go, “Hey, wait a second. I’m not used to this. This is way too much, what’s going on here?” And as a result, dieting leaves us unsatisfied because we end up even heavier than we started.

Look. Dieting is not easy. Therefore, a fundamental change in the way we eat and live will be infinitely tougher. But think of it this way. The human body has survived thousands of years. Convenience foods haven’t been around for that long. Think of the caveman. He or she probably ate nothing but fruits, vegetables, and meat. The caveman was out all day doing lots of manual labor just to survive. Our lives are much easier than that now, and we think ourselves to be much more sophisticated than the caveman (we are). Therefore, at least doing a fraction of what cavemen do shouldn’t be that hard. Eating whole foods and using our bodies on a daily basis is an easy thing to do. It has become harder because of the way society has shaped our lives and expectations about eating.

Instead of trying to quickly lose some weight, which leads to dissappointment, we should commit to treating our bodies as a home for our mind and soul. Imagine the sheer quantity of food that we eat in one year. If that much food is going through me, I want it to be good quality food, not garbage that costs less than 25 cents to process and produce. Everyone knows that eating more produce, less sugary and fatty foods, and exercising regularly is the right thing for our bodies. It’s hard to leave a life of eating junk food and being lazy, but it’s not impossible. The question is whether you can commit to doing it. Everyone is capable of the action, but not everyone is capable of the commitment.