Monthly Archives: August 2013

A while back I posted a blog on why it is so easy to gain weight. Several, several responses resulted. Mostly split down the middle. Unfortunately that meant that 1/2 of them felt that the only reason we were overweight in North America was because we ate too much and exercised to little. Many simply felt that calories in and calories out was the sole responsible reason our population was so large.

Have a look at the percentage of the population that is overweight per decade since 1940 and you will realize how incredibly quick we have grown in the last 60 plus years. What happened at that point that changed the course of our health. Logic would conclude by the above paragraph that all of a sudden, the entire population of North America just said, “I’m going to be lazy now and just sit home and eat all day.” Do we really believe this? Was there some big meeting we had that decided this?

What happened at this point in our history that made this change in our health? If someone asks you what the most important historical event in the 40’s, what would you say. Probably the biggest is World War 2 and it’s completion in 1945. Anything else world wide happen then? Not to that scale.

So what effect did this have on us starting to die early in 2013? Well everyone came back home, baby boomers were born, businesses started, money was made, homes were built and bought, life’s pace gradually started to rev up. Mid 60’s early 70’s saw these baby boomers move out into the world. Things got busier and technology expanded. 1990’s saw the kids of these baby boomers moved out. We needed to drive more, move more, work inside more, eat faster, get back to work after babies were born. Companies capitalized on this and made food for us that would be ready instantly and everywhere. We were a dry cleaning, chemically cleaning, antiperspirant applying, sunscreen slapping, microwaving, teflon cooking, makeup using society. We made plastics that were cheap to make and distribute, microwaves to zap our food quickly, fertilizers to grow our food quicker, wheat that was modified to grow wherever we wanted, pop was invented, fruit drinks became popular, breakfast cereals were well into their prime, pesticides and herbicides became popular to grow everything more efficiently for a growing and prospering environment. Before we knew it we had completely changed our intake of food in just a few generations with just a handful of large corporations leading the way. We had never eaten this way before - ever. In fact, the most obese countries in the world are in North America, Europe, and Australia. How does this compare with their involvement in the war? Fairly close. How many people had gym memberships in the early 1900’s? We find them necessary now because of the lack of time available in the day to actually move.

Did you ever notice how most animals never really change their appearance? When was the last time you saw a giraffe? How different did it look from the last giraffe you saw? How does it differ from a picture from a giraffe from 100 years ago? They all look identical. Have your ever seen a fat giraffe? How about a squirrel? They’re all the same. Animals must look at humans in a strange fashion - “dude look at that human, he must be sick or something”. Do they think each person is a completely different species? It must be confusing. My point here is that the war had little effect on them. They continue to eat as they always they always did. A deer is a deer and they all weigh what we expect a deer to weigh. Why do humans have such a large range of weight? In fact most of the under or overweight animals we see are domesticated ones that are mistreated or over-treated by humans! Are human’s really that different from any other animal to someone looking down from space?

Of course overweight humans have always existed, but you cannot deny the change in the percentage of them. We eat more omega 6 and less omega 3, we spend less time in the sun and produce less vitamin D, we move more frequently and lose our close knit group of family and friends, our inflammation increases and we die earlier of various diseases (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and others). Before the war we were essentially living like countless generations before us, with some exceptions. We certainly not living like cavemen, they didn’t farm or raise cattle or chickens. This farming step was the first big change in direction for humans. The end of World War 2 was the second. If this war never happened, what would the health of industrialized countries look like today. We have the best medicine in history but our life expectancy is dropping. Even the Chinese who have such a low incidence of breast cancer start developing it when they move to our continent. Chinese and Indian cultures with low incidence of cancer undoubtedly eat a much more protective food than we do here. So much so that we feel we can catch up to them simply by supplementing with cur cumin or eating brown rice.

Until we learn to boost our diet with omega 3 and supplement with vitamin d the longstanding human threats of diseases will continue to catch up with us. Eating more fibre, reducing the chance of uncontrolled stress, eating lower glycemic index foods and realizing that supplements are necessary because it is difficult to get to where you need based on the amount of nutrients in your food. Cancer treatments can save lives but don’t prevent them from coming back. While I don’t believe meditation and green tea will cure cancer, I definitely see the benefit of changing your lifestyle once you get cancer. We all have cancer cells in our bodies, every one of us. It is what we do to keep those cancers from taking hold in our bodies that matters. Whether you are in relapse from a previous cancer or never had the disease - does it really matter? Some are satisfied to know that from their genetic test they are going to get cancer regardless or that they are in a low risk group and are safe. We all have a different chance of getting cancer with the lifestyle we have. The goal should be to change the lifestyle to someone in the 30% group that doesn’t get cancer.

So considering all of these changes that we have experiences seemingly as a result of the ending of World War 2, do you know anyone who has died as a result of this recently? Are you on your way to being a casualty of an event that happened nearly 70 years ago?