THE OBESITY ISSUE
NOTE 1
I am currently reading Pierre Weill's book, in French, "Tous gros demain",(Plon, 2007.) which would translate literally as "Everyone obese in the future", the idea being that obesity seems to have reached epidemic proportions, even in France. Indeed the book is very much concerned with the French situation, and Weill is a respected agronomist.
What makes the book interesting to me (here in Canada) is that themes which are well familiar to anyone who keeps up with the nutrition question are re-stated in a clear and sometimes novel fashion. Being an agronomist, Weill is not tied to correctness on discussing how to interpret the paleolithic record, or the meaning of current public health statistics. As someone who is trained to pronounce himself on how one would fatten domestic animals, he gives an absolutely hilarious and vivid view of the modern (female) shopper's dilemma at the supermarket. It helps one apply all that repetitive and ultimately tedious nutritional advice.
A glance through Wikipedia informs us that archaeologists have garnered some one hundred Venus figures across the European territory. Some are quite famous, for example, the Willendorf figurine from Germany. Many have suggested that these were perhaps fertility goddesses of some kind. Weill is a practical fellow: these figures are homage to the evolving capacity to store fat on the human body. Thirty thousand years ago, settled agriculture was still in the future but human populations did consume wild grains and nuts in the summer months. They would also be eating fresh grasses - greens to us - while the cold winter months would force the body to use up what had been stored in the summer months and the clan relied on occasional meat meals from the hunt.
As someone who has studied religion, I would go further and suggest that these figures were more in the direction of medical records or even archived information. These women are naked at a time when humanity had long been clothed. There is no reason to assume a paganism that is verging on the pornographic.
They are as well well-endowed primarily on the lower parts of their bodies, a form of obesity that comes from eating starches and sugars. Perhaps this is how fat one had to be to even think about getting pregnant.
The Willendorf Venus, from Wikipedia.
Much clearer in MY mind thanks to Weill's book is what the distinction between various oils is. Less saturated oils have lower melting points and are better for us; they can be used more readily by the body. Researchers refer to Omega oils because the last carbon in a carbon chain is paired with the last letter of the Greek alphabet. An Omega-6 oil has a hydrogen atom missing on the sixth arm from the last, an Omega-three on the third. The first set of oils (available to us from grains) are used by the body to produce enzymes that store food energy as body fat; the second,( available from greens) are used to make hormones that liberate stored fat. Weill contends that the optimal balance between the two in our diets should be five to one; we are currently consuming twenty to one. Hence the obesity epidemic.
Weill also discusses at length the issue of how the animals we consume are fed: there is no standard egg but what chickens will lay is a function of what they eat. Weill believes that the current planetary standardization of animal feed toward corn and soy to the detriment of local feed stuff (flax for France) is harmful because humans are consuming Omega-6 structures even though they believe they are eating well by consuming white meat.
It is hard for me to evaluate all the claims that are being made in his work but at least they make sense. An issue I will follow...
NOTE 1
I am currently reading Pierre Weill's book, in French, "Tous gros demain",(Plon, 2007.) which would translate literally as "Everyone obese in the future", the idea being that obesity seems to have reached epidemic proportions, even in France. Indeed the book is very much concerned with the French situation, and Weill is a respected agronomist.
What makes the book interesting to me (here in Canada) is that themes which are well familiar to anyone who keeps up with the nutrition question are re-stated in a clear and sometimes novel fashion. Being an agronomist, Weill is not tied to correctness on discussing how to interpret the paleolithic record, or the meaning of current public health statistics. As someone who is trained to pronounce himself on how one would fatten domestic animals, he gives an absolutely hilarious and vivid view of the modern (female) shopper's dilemma at the supermarket. It helps one apply all that repetitive and ultimately tedious nutritional advice.
A glance through Wikipedia informs us that archaeologists have garnered some one hundred Venus figures across the European territory. Some are quite famous, for example, the Willendorf figurine from Germany. Many have suggested that these were perhaps fertility goddesses of some kind. Weill is a practical fellow: these figures are homage to the evolving capacity to store fat on the human body. Thirty thousand years ago, settled agriculture was still in the future but human populations did consume wild grains and nuts in the summer months. They would also be eating fresh grasses - greens to us - while the cold winter months would force the body to use up what had been stored in the summer months and the clan relied on occasional meat meals from the hunt.
As someone who has studied religion, I would go further and suggest that these figures were more in the direction of medical records or even archived information. These women are naked at a time when humanity had long been clothed. There is no reason to assume a paganism that is verging on the pornographic.
They are as well well-endowed primarily on the lower parts of their bodies, a form of obesity that comes from eating starches and sugars. Perhaps this is how fat one had to be to even think about getting pregnant.
The Willendorf Venus, from Wikipedia.
Much clearer in MY mind thanks to Weill's book is what the distinction between various oils is. Less saturated oils have lower melting points and are better for us; they can be used more readily by the body. Researchers refer to Omega oils because the last carbon in a carbon chain is paired with the last letter of the Greek alphabet. An Omega-6 oil has a hydrogen atom missing on the sixth arm from the last, an Omega-three on the third. The first set of oils (available to us from grains) are used by the body to produce enzymes that store food energy as body fat; the second,( available from greens) are used to make hormones that liberate stored fat. Weill contends that the optimal balance between the two in our diets should be five to one; we are currently consuming twenty to one. Hence the obesity epidemic.
Weill also discusses at length the issue of how the animals we consume are fed: there is no standard egg but what chickens will lay is a function of what they eat. Weill believes that the current planetary standardization of animal feed toward corn and soy to the detriment of local feed stuff (flax for France) is harmful because humans are consuming Omega-6 structures even though they believe they are eating well by consuming white meat.
It is hard for me to evaluate all the claims that are being made in his work but at least they make sense. An issue I will follow...
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