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The obesity problem has become a bandwagon of causes
from blaming the food industry to centers in the
brain. How modern humans use sugar and fat calories
was developed in prehistoric humans to assure their
survival. There must have been long periods of time
between meals, that is, fasting period, and there
were times in which they had food available, the
“fed” period. During this fed period, carbohydrates
were used within two hours as quick source of
energy. Extra carbohydrates were stored first as
glycogen in the muscles and liver and then any
excess converted to fat and stored in the adipose
tissue (the fat around your middle and elsewhere).
This stored fat was then available for energy during
the long fasting period.
Modern humans have inherited this way of handling
these fed and fasting periods. This process assured
the survival of prehistoric humans but has now
become one way that obesity is developing in humans
today. Too much food is available all hours of the
day and night, and eating it is a pleasure.
To avoid adding fat to your body, any
carbohydrates you eat should be used up as a caloric
source before the next meal. Any carbohydrates that
have already turned into fat and any fat in your
diet itself should be used for energy within the
cell during the fasting period. Eating a snack
between meals means adding additional carbohydrates
into the system before any of the fat from the
previous meal has been used for energy. It ends up
adding to your adipose tissue. If you weight
yourself before a hearty meal and again the next
day, you may find you have gained a pound or two,
the amount depending on how much food you ate and
the fat you stored.
As much a meal may also contain excess salt, some
of the weight gain can be due to excess water you
stored. Millions of dollars are spent to try to get
rid of this stored fat, the government is planning
to spend millions more dollars to solve the obesity
problem.
Prehistoric humans had no choice in controlling
the time between fasting and fed periods because
they had no refrigerators, fast food outlets, or
supermarkets to run to. Modern humans do have this
choice. More time between the fed periods that is
between meals may help with the obesity problem more
than spending millions on funding MD’s at medical
school blaming the “sugar centers” in the brain or
the food industries, which have stocked super
markets with an abundance of food.
Fred A. Kummerow is a
retired professor from the department of Food
Science and Nutrition, Emeritus. He is a writer of
more than 300 publications. He has been the Honorary
Member of Purkinje Society of the Czechoslovakian
Medical Society, Romanian Society of Physiology
National Academy of Science, and Visitor Exchanges
to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and the FSU Chairman,
two National Science Foundations Sponsor, cell
membrane workshops (Cluj, Romania, 1981; NY, 1982)
Reviewer, USDA and NSF proposals. He is the writer
of “Cholesterol won’t kill you but Trans Fat could”.
For Further information on his articles kindly
contact Dr. Kummerow at
fkummero@illinois.edu
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