Plants are at the base of all food on earth.
Plants make their own food using sunlight, air, water, and soil.
Animals are different — we are only alive because we eat other living things (either plants or other animals).
Plants make their own food using sunlight, air, water, and soil.
Animals are different — we are only alive because we eat other living things (either plants or other animals).
Plants create all dietary energy by converting solar energy into chemical energy.
Plants store this energy as either CARBOHYDRATES or HYDROCARBONS (also known as ‘fats’), which are just strings of carbon atoms with high-energy bonds.
Plants store this energy as either CARBOHYDRATES or HYDROCARBONS (also known as ‘fats’), which are just strings of carbon atoms with high-energy bonds.
Animals burn these carbs and fats, using oxygen, to generate all of our energy. We store energy in the form of body fat.
Plants also draw up minerals from the soil. The most important mineral is nitrogen, which is the basis for all protein—the main structural component of our bodies.
So plants are creating all of our protein, using nitrogen from the soil, and creating all of our energy, using solar energy plus carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Humans are hunter-gatherers. Prior to the invention of agriculture ten thousand years ago, we frequently struggled to get adequate dietary energy. Studies of modern hunter-gatherer societies show a rather high protein diet, with protein as about 33% of calories on average.
With the invention of agriculture, we learned how to provide more and more dietary energy. We cross-bred and cultivated plant foods for maximum energy yield, and we domesticated animals and fattened them, again to provide maximum energy yield.
With the invention of the industrial revolution, our ability to concentrate and refine dietary energy increased even more, especially with the bulk refining of carbs and fats in the form of things like sugar, flour, and oil.
The majority of human calories now come from these refined carbs and fats, and the Standard American Diet is now about 12.5% protein (by calories).
With the invention of agriculture, we learned how to provide more and more dietary energy. We cross-bred and cultivated plant foods for maximum energy yield, and we domesticated animals and fattened them, again to provide maximum energy yield.
With the invention of the industrial revolution, our ability to concentrate and refine dietary energy increased even more, especially with the bulk refining of carbs and fats in the form of things like sugar, flour, and oil.
The majority of human calories now come from these refined carbs and fats, and the Standard American Diet is now about 12.5% protein (by calories).
Humans have a very strong protein satiety drive, and numerous studies show that humans will continue to eat until they reach their protein requirement.
The refinement of carbs and fats that have been added to the food supply create ‘protein dilution’, and we now have to eat considerably more energy to achieve the same degree of protein satiety.
Minerals and other required nutrients from food have also been diluted in the human food supply, and again we are forced to overeat energy calories in order to get the same amount of nutrients (protein and minerals).
Humans today literally have to overeat non-protein energy (carbs and fats) in order to obtain adequate protein and minerals — this is a huge driver of the modern obesity epidemic.
The refinement of carbs and fats that have been added to the food supply create ‘protein dilution’, and we now have to eat considerably more energy to achieve the same degree of protein satiety.
Minerals and other required nutrients from food have also been diluted in the human food supply, and again we are forced to overeat energy calories in order to get the same amount of nutrients (protein and minerals).
Humans today literally have to overeat non-protein energy (carbs and fats) in order to obtain adequate protein and minerals — this is a huge driver of the modern obesity epidemic.
There is one other major factor driving the obesity epidemic.
No foods in nature combine high energy density carbs and fats TOGETHER. But we have created a multitude of junk foods that contain this combination.
Because we have always sought out high energy foods during our evolution, these carb+fat foods provide a very strong dopamine spike in our brains and are extremely addictive!
We overconsume foods like pizza, doughnuts, potato chips, french fries, cookies, ice cream, etc because they have this extremely addictive and rewarding combination of high carb and high fat together.
No foods in nature combine high energy density carbs and fats TOGETHER. But we have created a multitude of junk foods that contain this combination.
Because we have always sought out high energy foods during our evolution, these carb+fat foods provide a very strong dopamine spike in our brains and are extremely addictive!
We overconsume foods like pizza, doughnuts, potato chips, french fries, cookies, ice cream, etc because they have this extremely addictive and rewarding combination of high carb and high fat together.
