Many people think that there’s a problem with their metabolism, which is indication by their inability to lose weight regardless of their best attempts. They have tried to eliminate all fatty components from their diet, follow a draconian exercise regime and have full adherence to completely healthy eating. They calculate all calories that enter their bodies and perform daily monitoring of their weight. Regardless of what they do, it is very difficult for them to lose weight. They eat light meals twice a day and perform intense physical activities. They also become vegan and eat only very healthy food.
In this situation, our body may not be betraying us. We should check our “healthy diet” to know whether it can really help us in our weight loss program. Modern food actually beats little resemblance to the organic food that our grandmothers made. Also, what we eat today is obviously different compared to what our ancestors ate 50 generations before. Our physical system is designed to consume whole food that is taken directly from the nature, instead of from huge plantation and complex processing system. The old type of diet has been successful in ensuring human thrived as a dominant species.
As a human, our body is designed to fit the world we inhabit and there’s no way around that. It also means that we need the proper type of food. Unfortunately, modern human has become ill equipped to survive on their own and available food isn’t obtained from the nature directly. However, there’s a logical necessity in this kind of situation. Due to the explosion of the population, the nature is no longer able to provide the sufficient quantity of food without being stripped bare. As a result, food production has become highly industrialized to deliver food in a high quantity in the fastest way possible.
Our ancestors ate wild fruits, organic hunted meat, dense wild plants, nuts, tubers and high-protein insects. They didn’t eat processed bread, corn, wheat and others. Ancestral diet may be a bit raw and unrefined for today’s standards, but it was nutrient dense. They provide direct calories without causing significant spike in blood sugar. Processed food is very easy to digest and it could cause very sharp spike in blood sugar. Despite the absence of processed food, we could learn from history how ancient soldiers were able to achieve marvellous feats in the battlefield. For this reason, we should consider ways to replicate ancient diet in our lifestyle.
If we continuously flood our body with sugar, insulin resistance will eventually develop. If blood sugar frequently rises up in our body with sharp spikes, the pancreas will need to work hard to quickly produce a large quantity of insulin to reduce the blood sugar level. In reality, insulin is just like a medication and if we are constantly exposed to it, our body will develop a resistance to insulin. It means that higher level of insulin is needed to produce the same results. If we want to maintain good response to insulin, it is important to avoid frequent spikes in blood sugar and we need to reduce dependence on processed food.