Has Our Modern Eating Habits Made It Impossible To Say “No” To Junk Food?
Hello, my friends!
Over my career, I have coached countless clients who have wanted to eat healthier. They often say, “Griff, I am ready to start eating healthy again, and I really want to start taking better care of myself.” These clients are very enthusiastic and excited to change their life, but they are typically eating the standard American diet (SAD).
About three weeks into their coaching program, about 90% of these same clients offer statements such as this: “Griff, I fell off the wagon,” which is code for “I reverted to my old eating habits.”
I now ask you the question, “WHY is it so hard to eat healthy for a consistent stretch of time, let alone make a permanent lifestyle change?”
To answer this question, you must understand that your nervous system is literally designed to do one of two things:
1-Seek pleasure
2-Avoid pain
When you look at eating habits through a historical lens, you will quickly find that this is exactly how our ancestors survived without the convenience of modern technology and food processing. When they found a fruit tree, they would stop instinctively to eat. When a bear approached them, they would run for their life. In either case, their nervous system was trying to ensure their survival.
Now fast forward to 2017. Although we live in a drastically different environment, we still have the same nervous system that is still hard wired to do the same two things. This is why we enjoy sex (procreation), find pleasure in sweet foods, and avoid bad relationships (pain).
This same system also helps us to stay lean!
When we eat natural foods that are unprocessed, our brain interprets them as pleasurable but simultaneously interprets too much of them as painful!
This is why we as a species have managed to maintain our weight without excessive issues of overweight or obesity for millions of years. If we, then, fast forward to the beginning of the 20th century, we begin to see a change in our weight patterns. In short, we began to put on excess weight, and we did it in leaps and bounds. Is this just a genetic thing? Hardly.
Food scientists who work for large food giants are also aware of how the human body works. With this knowledge, they have cracked the code to the human appetite and have exploited it in ways untold. One of the ways they keep us eating is by making a food HYPERPALATABLE. You will not find this word in the dictionary because it is term that belongs to the modern food industry. When scientists use the term palatable, they are referring to its ability to stimulate appetite and entice us to eat more. It also involves the motivation to pursue taste (remember pleasure and pain).
A hyperpalatable food is one that has been SCIENTIFICALLY ENGINEERED to induce a state of pleasure that is above and beyond what any food in nature can provide. This is achieved by methods that are beyond the scope of this post, but suffice it to say that you as a human being are NOT meant to consume hyperpalatable foods for one reason: THEY KEEP YOU COMING BACK FOR MORE . . . and more . . . and more! Foods in nature do not and cannot do this because they are not scientifically engineered to do so. Rather, they have been engineered by Mother Nature to help you eat only as much as you should.
This is one of many reasons that we stayed lean for millions of years. We simply ate foods that were pleasurable to us until our body told us “enough is enough.” We lost this ability when foods became “denatured” through chemical alteration, processing, and a myriad of ways to bring the modern human brain into a state of hyper-pleasure.
The Bottom Line:
The bottom line is this: When we get a hit of hyper pleasure from a food that is scientifically engineered, we want more. PERIOD. This is one of the many reasons we are addicted to processed foods and will continue to be for years to come unless we consciously intervene now. Its the same reason your kids will devour a cookie while sneering at their veggies and say, “Yuck!”
This is where we stand today. I hope you are beginning to see how the modern food industry tries to enslave you into eating foods that are not only unnatural but also highly addictive. My hope is that you can see past their efforts, and treat your body with the respect that it deserves by eating foods that you were truly designed to eat, namely whole, unprocessed foods.
I hope you learned a thing of two, my friends, and thank you so much for reading. It is now time to take care that that priceless body of yours! 🙂
Life is Good!
Griff