Our Evolution

Obesity. It is a 1st world problem, and it sucks.

If I had been born in a 3rd world country, I would actually have a better chance for survival than other females. This is due to PCOS and my insulin resistance. Being insulin resistant, having pre-diabetes, or having type 2 diabetes, means that one's body has trouble with the glucose and insulin process. Food is taken into the bloodstream as sugar, such as glucose. In a normal person, insulin is then released by the pancreas to help take the glucose into the body's cells for energy. In a person who is insulin resistant, something goes amiss. I like to think of the glucose as friends (who are the life of the party) waiting to be picked up by the insulin and escorted to the party of the hour. The insulin has been given a key or a password to get in, but when they get to the door of the cell, the key doesn't fit or they have been given the wrong password. At this point, there is much confusion. The insulin resistant body recognizes that no one is getting into the party, and the body desperately needs the glucose being introduced into the cells. The body reacts the only way that makes sense (at least, it make sense to me). It overreacts. The pancreas releases even more insulin into the body. Some insulin will have the right key or the correct password, or they will just bust down the door to get into the party. It is almost like having an allergic reaction to the glucose insulin process.

Being insulin resistant is hard on a body, but if I lived in 3rd world country, it is speculated that I would have a better chance for survival because another job that insulin has? Increased lipid synthesis. Insulin forces fat cells to take in blood lipids, which are converted to triglycerides. It has a hand in fat storage. That means that, hypothetically, I could survive longer without food because the over production of insulin in my body creates more triglycerides. In a 1st world country, this means my risk for heart disease is greatly increased.

I speculate that one of the reasons our nation is suffering from obesity is because, in a surprisingly short amount of time, the majority of our job force went from very physical and labor intensive work to easier and more sedentary jobs. We have advanced. Our technology is on the level, or surpassing the level, of what speculative fiction was 60 years ago. Our parents and our parents' parents wanted better lives for their children. They worked hard to ensure that we would have those easier lives, but we became a little ignorant in our advancement, our evolution.

When our grandparents went to work on a farm or in a factory, they needed the kind of meals that had enough calories to replace what they used every day. They needed cheaper food that they could stretch as long as possible because times were hard. Having a 1000 calorie dessert wasn't bad for them because of all of the calories they had spent working.

Even one of my grandmothers... She has worked in the food business for over 40 years. She is a hard worker, and slaving away in a hot, industrial kitchen to create wonderful food that tastes the same every day causes you to burn a lot of calories. She grew up on a farm, and she has always looked for a good deal on food that would stretch because she remembers hard times. As time passed, she was moved from the kitchen to catering and then to cashier. She had to be on her feet all day, but even that was less physically exhausting than making breads and pies and whatever else there was to make. She didn't change what she ate or how she ate. She didn't increase physical activity, and guess what? She was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Being a "rich" country, with convenience being akin to a God given right, has spoiled us and almost ruined us. Now, I'm not a political person really. I'm not going to talk about the state of our country in this blog, but I am talking about slowly killing ourselves by not seeing this trend sooner, by being ignorant of (or kept in the dark about) what we needed to do to stop this before it became a killer problem. We need, and have needed for a long time, to take a good look at what we consume versus how we spend everyday because that food pyramid we were taught in school? Those daily recommended calories? It is bullshit. I'm sorry, but I can't find a better word for it... well, maybe malarkey. 6 servings of grains and bread? What? No. I don't think anyone except for the people who are extremely fit AND have a daily regiment of intensive physical activity need even close to that amount of carbohydrates in their diet. Speaking of fit people...

There is a chasm, a rift, in our society that I would like to further explore and research. On one side, you have the fit citizens, the ones that figured it out and keep active while eating healthy foods. They love talking about what works to keep them at their peak performance levels. Then, there is the rest of us. There are people who don't care about being fit or losing weight. There are those that struggle so much that they risk surgery to save themselves (1 out of 100 people die after gastric bypass... granted that might be skewed a little because of the {beyond} morbidly obese patience whose risk of death is much higher still attempting it because it is a last resort for them). There are people like me, obese and trying to fix a lifelong problem. We don't talk much about it on a daily basis. There are too many other things that are more important. Daily life is stressful, but we are taught to be grateful for the bounty we have been handed. There are so many companies out there with fad diets or diet pills "guaranteed" to make you lose weight. There are so many lies out there, so it isn't surprising that there are so many of us who feel hopeless and out of control. We go to research on eating healthier, but we don't take into consideration the source of our internet education. There are so many diet plans and programs that make you pay money for the opportunity to lose weight with them. It's a confusing jumble of jargon, empty promises and hiding the truth.

Because I have found the truth. You are not a lost cause. Your health matters. You are not hopeless, and you can lose the weight. BUT! There are no easy ways out. You have to work at it. It doesn't happen overnight. You have to find that motivation, determination and self love to get you to make the decision to change your life. Then, you have to start making the changes. You have to set realistic goals and put in the time and effort to reach them. You can do it. I'm doing it, and I never thought I could be this determined or see the kind of results I am seeing. You can do it. I believe in you. I believe in every person reading this blog. We are human. We are not perfect, but our free will is an amazing thing. Use your free will to decide to care for yourself. That is one decision you won't ever regret.