Eating yourself to starvation
read time: 362 words, about 2 minutes
Due to a surge in worldwide obesity, in 2000, according to the research group Worldwatch Institute, the number of overweight people equaled the number of underweight.
We still see pictures of “starving” people with skin draped over bones. And we work to end “starvation”. How are we reacting to obesity?
Consider that overweight people may be “starving” as well. Not from lack of calories, but from lack of nutrition.
You’re no doubt accustomed to the analogy of food as fuel. You need to eat to “keep going”. Of course you’re also accustomed to needing fuel (gasoline) to make your car “go”. Let’s assume you have a 10 gallon tank. You fill it with gasoline and you’re good to go. What would happen if you filled it with water… it would still be full with 10 gallons of liquid.
You wouldn’t get far. It’s not simply that the tank needs to be “full”. It needs to have a specific kind of liquid that it can convert into the energy that moves the car.
Likewise, “empty calories” may fill you, but they are not convertible into the energy your body needs. So you may be full, but you’re body is still hungry for real nutrition.
Epidemiologists are calling this “hidden hunger”.
The lack of micronutrients, says Ames, can upset functions throughout the body. “I think it is likely, that when one input in the metabolic network is inadequate, repercussions will be felt on a large number of systems and lead to degenerative disease.”
Ames has “starved” human cells of micronutrients in a petrie dish. What happens is the cells go through a number of generations and then age prematurely. So the effect is not immediate - but it is catastrophic.
Ames has shown that a mild deficiency of Folate leads to breaks in chromosomes and degrades and damages DNA. The damaged DNA perpetuates and can lead to such diseases as cancer.
With every bite, it’s your choice to nourish and thrive or flood and deprive.
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