I am going to post this in a Permaculture location because I believe that Permaculture is about living sustainably. And I don’t believe that living sustainably is focused on spending time and money and then using chemicals from petroleum and a lot of energy on producing food items that have little or no food value. I mean _really_?
I’m extremely lucky in my metabolism, yet I very much sympathize with people that have to worry about their weight, but I also think that while diet food is not sustainable I also think it is somewhat of a scam.
I also believe that Permaculture is about building community and as a community we need to share knowledge and ideas as much as possible.
Read the article and then come back here and I’ll tell you a fourth reason why calories today seem to have more of an effect on us…..
I would bet you a fair amount of money that low calorie foods are not actually low energy. And the reason for this is because the calorie designation is an industry and political pingpong ball. And has no connection with the net energy we receive from the food item.
Would you actually buy that diet food product if a serving had 500 calories instead of the hundred twenty five that was listed?
It is a well known fact that suppressing an animal’s microbial flora will cause it to gain weight faster. This is the reason behind so much antibiotics in the farmed animal system. It doesn’t keep them healthier. It simply makes them gain weight faster and thus they are more profitable.
The reason for this is somewhat convoluted in that our gut flora is very beneficial to us but they steal some of our food energy to live. Our biology has worked all this out over eons and we expend energy to keep our gut flora happy because they keep us happy. We eat for 0.30X10e14 individuals (+1) :-)
And as a quick aside this is what is completely disgusting about the Farm Lobby insisting that they need antibiotics to keep the animals healthy. By adding antibiotics to feed, they are actually making the animals more likely to be sick by suppressing their normal microbial flora. And also directly causing antibiotic-resistant microbes. And they do know this, but profit is a warm bedfellow.
We know very little about how our gut flora metabolizes the things we eat. We know that they _do_ we just don’t know _how_.
So …. What happens if we eat fake fat that _we_ don’t metabolize, but our microbes _can_ metabolize (Positive)? The answer is that the microbes use it for their energy source and don’t need to “steal” as much energy from us and thus we have more energy from the rest of what we have eaten other than the fake fat or fake sweatners.
So in this 1st case the net result is that the fake fat is pointless and is not reducing the total energy that we acquire from the total meal. =Fatter
Case 2: What happens if we eat fake fat/sweatners that make some of our microbes sick (negative)? The answer is the same for the animal antibiotic treatments. A suppressed bacterial population will not “steal” as much energy from us and thus we have more energy from what we have eaten other than the fake fat/sweatners. =Fatter
Case 3: What happens if we eat fake fat/sweatners that do not affect our microbes either way positive or negative? There is a lot of selection pressure for microbes to be able to use a food source and my belief is that in a couple of dozen generations [maybe a whole year for bacteria] one cell would figure out how to start using the fake fat/sweatner and it’s progeny would thus follow. This results in the same outcome as case1 but a whole year later =Fatter
I see no scenario where a diet food will work as desired by the consumer in the long term.
So I ask again, would you actually buy that diet food product if a serving had 500 calories instead of the hundred twenty five that was listed?
With all the diet foods on the market now the average person today probably eats a lot more food that they believe is low calorie then in the 70’s. I think the article in the link above is absolutely correct in it’s suggestions to stay away from certain toxic chemicals and drugs. I think those are wise, wise, suggestions. I would also suggest that the instant gratification of buying diet food is not in your best interest.
And one of the insidious things about Roundup is that it was originally described as an antibiotic and just like antibiotics in a cattle feed may also contribute to the human obesity epidemic. http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/wordpress/lawsuit-accusing-monsanto-of-false-advertising/
If you have managed to plow through this I hope that you have some new insight and I wish you the best! Bob http://www.PuraVidaAquatic.com