How to Get Fat

March 31, 2012 0 Comments

It’s the secret that nobody talks about. How do we get fat? As opposed to “How to lose weight,” this conversation is painful and purely offensive to most people. Unfortunately, if you don’t understand this, you’ll always BE fat. Wow, how dare I say such a thing!

Emotions can be blinding. I truly believe that you HAVE to separate yourself from the emotional charge of the word fat before you can see the reality that has been there all along. It’s the key to understanding, and having a positive relationship with your body.

I propose 2 fat storing triggers you may not have considered before:

1. Our Bodies are Lost in the Seasons

Have you ever thought to yourself, “My body and I just don’t seem to be on the same page!”?

Our current generation has lost one very fundamental truth about being a human.

What is that truth? It is that we live on a planet with seasons!

You may be thinking… “I’m not a complete idiot, I KNOW we live on a planet with seasons.” Your body is hard-wired to adapt to seasons, but our environment and technology has completely cross-wired that system!

Think about it, only 100 years ago, we didn’t have climate controlled spaces with efficient heating and air conditioning. This meant that when it was summer time in most parts of the world, you were HOT! And in the winter time, in most places you were COLD! Not only that, but certain foods simply weren’t available year-round.

For thousands of years our genetic makeup adapted to help us to survive during these seasonal changes in temperature.

Look at the animals that fatten themselves up before a winter hibernation. Fat is a GOOD thing in this case that allows for survival. It provides the fuel for body heat and survival when little food is available.

Are we so different?

There are signals that occur to tell the body to store fat and prepare for the winter time. Is it possible that the food available during the fall harvest has a ancestral connection with humans that signals a fat storing response? If so, maybe we shouldn’t wonder why we are fat, or be surprised that we have an obesity problem despite our advancing technology? Because of modern farming technology and refrigeration, these foods are available all year long, and in much higher quantities than ever before.

I suppose that deciding whether you should be eating closely to the seasons may depend upon how connected you want to feel with the earth and our human ancestry. In terms of weight management however, I suggest that rather than asking yourself if a specific food will make you fat or not, instead ask yourself if it is naturally harvested just before winter.

Perhaps we should be looking not only at the nutritional value of a food, but also the season in which we should eat each food! If you’re not careful, your body just might start preparing for winter on you!

2. Fanning the Inflammation

On a similar note, some foods seem to have a pro-inflammatory response, which in-turn leads to a high stress state of the body. Grains for example, which we use to make bread, seem to have a pro-inflammatory response. They also have a high glycemic index, which causes an insulin response and ultimately results in the body increasing it’s fat stores.

When the body is stressed, it functions in a fight-or-flight state which is very different than a calm a thriving state. When trying to survive do you think the body will store up fat, or slim down? Think about what people do when there is a natural disaster… They all rush to stock up on essential resources like fuel, generators, water, and food! Your body is incredibly intelligent. Stress it out too much and it just might start stocking up to prepare for the worst!

Conclusion

The stress you place on your body and the message you tell your body by your food selections might result in your body behaving in a way you didn’t expect.

Very interesting! So does this mean that we shouldn’t be eating spring-time fruits in the winter, or winter foods in the spring? Well it’s hard to say.

What does seem to be true, is that certain foods seem to signal a fat storing response, and the natural season of the food does seem to have a correlation.

Maybe we should stop emphasizing the nutritional labels, and start considering how genetically we might be hardwired to respond to certain tastes, smells, nutrients, and foods. And then consider how highly processed foods are sure to throw any such ‘hard-wiring’ into a state of pure confusion.

It sure makes you want to have your own garden doesn’t it! Real food like our ancestors ate and survived for thousands of years without many of our current degenerative conditions. What a concept!

Here are some resources to look for the seasons for various foods. (Since we’ve almost forgotten as a society!)

Seasonal Ingredient Map – Epicurious

Eat The Seasons – UK weekly food recommendations

In Season Now – Food Network