Has the current level of comfort and convenience that many of us enjoy today, combined with global warming, contributed to unbalancing human metabolic health?
To help explain why I pose this question, I have included two images from a well known photo stock library:
On the left hand (top on a mobile) – a typical image when searching ‘winter meal’.
On the right (bottom on a mobile)- an image when searching ‘summer meal’.
Now, in years gone by, as we head towards Christmas and mid winter, we (in the northern hemisphere) would have regularly expected a reasonable period of cold weather (close to zero or subzero temp); I should also like to add that houses were not so well insulated, or heated, compared to today.
If I now relate that observation to the generation of human body heat, and the fuel needed to generate that heat (energy); today, are our bodies likely to need the same level of heat for us to feel and stay warm. I believe not, if the outside temperatures have risen. And of course add in today’s modern winter clothing, which is extremely efficient, when it comes keeping in the heat.
So, for me the next logical step is to consider the amount of fuel the body needs to ‘burn’ to generate that heat ie. Does my body need the same amount of fuel as it did, just a few decades ago, to feel and stay warm, (never mind the caveman days)?
What prompted me to began thinking about all of this was when I had been invited to talk to a local Parkinsons support group.
It was the other day, & it was a little chilly outside. I found myself sitting in a very warm room. The room had been provided to the group by an assisted living centre in Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. I was there to share a few ‘pointers’ from the Lifestyle Health Foundation Person-Centred Neurosciences Society (P-CNS) EATing programme being created, which we plan to launch in 2024.
I have also posed these thoughts & questions in the hope that together we may trigger a few ideas that can help in rebalancing people’s metabolic health, should it be necessary.
Here’s a couple:
– to consider a way to measure and present the ‘energy density’ of the foods that make up the meals ( &snacks) we eat through the day?
– to be aware that when it comes to weight of food eaten, our gut ‘talks to the brain’. This is via sensory receptors called ‘mechanoreceptors’ found in the gut.
I wonder how many people are aware, according to a USDA report, referenced in a book by Michael Easter, ‘that you’d have to eat about seven croissants, 1,190 calories, to experience the same fullness you’d get from a single potato.’
I highlight this quote not only because of the calories but because of how simple it is for a person to experience very unhealthy blood glucose levels.
I hope by sharing these questions and thoughts, a few more suggestions might appear for others to read & find useful.
Thank you for reading.
