It’s extraordinary what humans will put into their bodies
Over the past 10,000 years, our physiology has not changed much from the hunter-gatherer wandering around a jungle constantly looking for food. The human body has evolved purely to consume natural foods in a natural environment.
… Enter the modern world!
Many of our modern dietary choices are based around processed, packaged muck masquerading as food, often with graffiti written on the side of the box such as “low-fat” or “no cholesterol” to make you falsely believe that there are some health benefits from consuming this rubbish. Also, there is now increasing evidence that the synthetic chemicals used in the packaging may cause significant health issues but also many of the preservatives, artificial sweeteners and other ingredients in the food itself, appear to be contributing to modern illnesses and other significant health issues.
One of the great scourges of our modern world is that of substance abuse. Whether this be alcohol or illegal drugs, the abuse of any substance can cause significant health and social problems for not just the abuser but also his or her loved ones, friends and also in the work place. For a number of years, I have been calling for the banning of energy drinks. A recent disturbing report from the US has revealed that 1/3 of teenagers aged between 12–17 regularly consume energy drinks and that males in the 18–34 age group have the highest consumption. There have been many associated adverse health effects reported such as headaches, cardiac rhythm disturbances, flushing, nausea and lethargy along with loss of consciousness and even death. A few years back, I had a paramedic ring my Melbourne radio segment stating he had just been to the unsuccessful cardiac arrest of a 15-year-old girl who had consumed 3 energy drinks over the previous few hours.
This study from the US looked at 1100 young adults and followed them for 4 years up to the age of 25. It had already been previously reported that there is a clear link between energy drink consumption and drug and alcohol dependence but this was the first study that looked at the amount of energy drinks used and this issue. Disturbingly, it was found that 51% of young adults in this age group were regular users of energy drinks, 17% were occasional users and 11% were trying to cut down. 21% were non-users. The study showed clearly that the higher the use of energy drinks was associated with a higher dependence of alcohol and drug abuse. Surely these drinks are completely unnecessary and should be banned.
Another equally concerning study around artificial sweeteners, (which are strangely called “diet soft drinks” which is clearly an oxymoron) showed that if drinks are perceived to be of high sweetness but low calorie, this tricks the body into believing that it needs more calories. This is one of the explanations for where you may feel quite full after a meal but are still happy to tuck into the dessert. In nature, the intensity of sweetness reflects the amount of energy in the food consumed. For example, fruit is quite sweet because of the fructose content but this is quite proportionate to the number of calories in the particular fruit. Unfortunately, in our modern world with this sweet taste perception and calorie mismatch our brain’s reward circuits do not register the calories that have been consumed and thus a significant contribution to overeating.
Finally, and just as disturbing, is the pervasive effect of many of the preservatives and other common chemicals that are so ubiquitous in our modern world. One of the most commonly used preservatives is Butylhydroxy toluene (BHT) which is used in foods to prevent fat from turning rancid. Perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) is used in cookware and carpeting. Tributyltin(TBT) is used in painting but often ends up in the water supply and subsequently in seafood. A recent study showed clearly that all of these chemicals have a profound effect on human stem cells and block the signals between the gut and brain to make you perceive that you are full. It appears from this work that there is a link between the ingestion of these chemicals and obesity, clearly one of the scourges of our modern society.
There is no doubt that if you want to lose weight it is “calories in” versus “calories burnt”. Calories in is the food and fluid you consume and calories burnt is exercise, movement and metabolism. It appears from the last two aspects of this report that metabolism is also affected by many of the chemicals we do not even consider when we are ingesting that food or fluid. With all the evidence I have recently presented regarding the pervasive effects of the containers our food is stored in, along with the increasing recent evidence about the enormous amounts of synthetic chemicals used to colour, preserve and thicken our food, it is my opinion there needs to be a total rethink on the way of food is produced, stored and marketed to the public.
Until we start demanding these changes, we will continue to see the rampant increase in Diabesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
