#vegetarian #vegan #evolution Originally shared by Sean P. O. MacCath-Moran +Eve Volve: "Meat allowed us to evolve" Really? I think you're mistaken to believe this is a certainty, but what causes you to believe this is so, +Eve Volve ? As I understand it, there have been healthy, thriving vegetarians and vegans for as long as there have been humans. Some were so due to moral or ethical concerns, others due to resource utilization issues, others due to cultural taboos. All other factors being equal, the veg(etari)ans have thrived, and continue to do so. For some more recent historical examples of vegans, we can look at Pythagoras, the "Pythagoreans" (as vegans were called for the following 1300 years), along with a plethora of like-minded contemporaries (e.g. goo.gl/lgDBL ). Buddhists, Jainists, et al., have been doing grand as veg(etari)ans since around the 6th century BCE. Prior to this, there's compelling reason to believe that most people were veg...
Those Vitamin D capsules have pretty much beaten my tiredness...
ReplyDelete*Do you suffer from any of the following*
ReplyDeleteTiredness is the most common complaint cited in doctors’ surgeries today. A shocking 50 per cent of all UK adults are overweight and the number of seriously obese adults has trebled in the last 20 years. The amount of adults diagnosed with diabetes has doubled in the past 20 years and those developing heart disease has increased by 25 per cent since the late 1980s, resulting in 2.65 million people now living with this crippling condition. These are frightening statistics but perhaps even more frightening is the fact that we are not alone. Take a close look at almost any Western country and you will find a similar picture emerging.
WHERE ARE WE GOING WRONG?
The real key to understanding why so many of us are experiencing such health problems lies in our past. The diet and lifestyle of Westerners have changed almost beyond recognition over the past century. This in itself wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that our basic physiology and biochemistry remain almost exactly the same as those of our ancestors 1,000 years ago. Consequently, there is a mismatch between the foods that we eat and the foods that our bodies really need.
Although our ancestors ate the same amount of calories as we do today, if not more, they were much more active than we are and obtained considerably fewer of their calories from carbohydrates. The carbohydrates they did eat came in the form of beans, vegetables, wholegrain cereals, fibrous fruits and berries. Lack of refrigeration and little knowledge of food processing meant that much of this food remained relatively unchanged from the field to the plate. Consequently, most of the processing of their food was done by the body after they had eaten it. This took the body a long time, resulting in a gradual, sustained release of sugars into the bloodstream, leaving them feeling full and satisfied for longer.
By contrast, today flour is ground as thin as talcum powder to enable us to bake the lightest, fluffiest cakes and breads. Preferred fruit varieties are those that are high in sugar and low in fibre because they taste better. Cereals are so highly processed that they become unrecognizable, then refined sugars are added to them to make many of the foods we see on our supermarket shelves. Fibre-filled pulses are often absent from our food cupboards. Instead they have been replaced by highly refined, fatty, fast foods that take little time to prepare and even less time to digest
As a result, almost every meal we eat contains the sorts of carbohydrates that break down quickly and release their sugars rapidly into the bloodstream, such as baked potatoes, chips, easy-cook rice, biscuits, cereals, cakes, breads and fast foods. And it is these foods that are contributing to many of our health problems. While it may not be possible or even desirable to return to eating habits of old, thanks to extensive testing of carbohydrate foods by leading researchers, we can now monitor the sorts of carbs we eat by referring to something called the ‘glycaemic index’.
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH EATING HIGH-GI FOODS?
The sugars in high-GI foods are broken down quickly so they do not supply a sustained source of energy. Instead, they cause our blood sugar levels to rise rapidly. The body has to respond to this by making large quantities of the blood sugar-lowering hormone, insulin, and releasing it into the blood. Unfortunately, insulin is often too good at its job and instead of just reducing blood sugar levels to a desirable level, it sends them plummeting to levels lower than they were originally. This sets up a yo-yo effect as the body then responds by making us crave fatty, sugary foods in an attempt to make our blood sugar levels rise once more. Many of the symptoms listed on page 8 can be linked to fluctuating blood sugar levels caused by eating too many carbohydrate foods that score high on the glycaemic index.
ReplyDeleteFood cravings and lethargy
Many of us experience this yo-yo effect as the ‘mid-afternoon lull’. We eat a high-GI lunch – sandwiches or a baked potato, for example – and by 3.30pm we are not only feeling tired, lethargic and lacking in concentration, but we are positively craving something sweet to give us that much needed energy boost. This often happens again after the evening meal when we find ourselves heading back to the kitchen for a dessert, some chocolate biscuits or a glass of wine just a short while after having eaten.
Weight gain
A diet rich in high-GI foods can cause you to eat more calories (and therefore gain weight) for two reasons. The first is that high-GI foods are quick to break down. The quicker a food breaks down, the sooner you will become hungry and the more likely you will be to want to eat again. Secondly, high-GI foods will cause your blood sugar levels to rapidly rise and then fall, which in turn will result in strong urges to eat fatty, sugary foods shortly after a meal. Both points are compounded by the fact that another of insulin’s main roles is to promote fat storage, so the more insulin you have in your blood the more likely you are to store any excess calories you eat as fat.
Lack of concentration and mood swings
The brain is entirely fuelled by blood sugar. Therefore when levels drop as a result of the excessive production of insulin, it becomes more difficult to concentrate. Research has also found that low blood sugar levels are often linked to mood swings, reduced reaction times and even depression.
Diabetes
Diabetes is one of the most common health problems in the world, but it is most prevalent in Western cultures where we tend to eat a diet rich in highly processed, refined foods. It is thought that the stress that high-GI foods place on the body to keep blood sugar levels constant can result in either the insulin not working properly or the pancreas, the manufacturing site of insulin, becoming less efficient at producing it, sometimes giving up altogether.
Heart disease
As we have already seen, a diet rich in high-GI foods can result in people becoming overweight or developing diabetes. Obesity and diabetes are two of the principal risk factors that can lead to heart disease. In addition, high levels of insulin, which are brought about as a result of eating high-GI foods, are strongly linked to increased blood pressure and cholesterol (along with other blood fats), both of which are also major contributing factors to heart disease.