Fat? Blame Your Big Brain
Categories: Diet & Weight Loss
I learned something new today over at Diet Blog. Our big, human brains require about twice as many calories as the brains of other mammals. No wonder we overeat, right?You know, it makes sense if you think about it. When our ancestors were spending their days hunting for food and running to avoid being food, they needed a lot of food to sustain themselves. Their brains cued them to eat lots of calorie-dense in order to keep their large, growing brains satisfied.
And our big brains are still cuing us to eat calorie-dense foods, but the problem is that now, calorie-dense foods are often laden with saturated fats and they're super easy to get. Pair that with the fact that many of us have sedentary jobs and busy lives that don't leave time for daily workouts, and ... well, I'm blaming any extra pounds on the fact that my brain is just so darn big. I like that excuse far better than my lack of willpower.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris 2-24-2009 @ 5:59PM
You'd think as a health & fitness blogger, you wouldn't make inane comments like "but the problem is that now, calorie-dense foods are often laden with saturated fats". Saturated fats don't cause heart disease, raise cholesterol, and are actually what you should be cooking with since they don't oxidize under heat (and thus become carcinogenic). Your cell walls are 50% saturated fat...think it's still not essential?
I say this as pleasantly as possible, but please start doing some research about it, try the Weston Price Foundation (read about health benefits of coconut oil), Mark's Daily Apple, Dr. Eades' blog and so on.
Reply
u262f 2-24-2009 @ 11:28PM
The blog didn't use the word "essential", but the way you used the word indicates that you're not very informed about health, nutrition, and diet.
When talking about diet, "essential" merely means that the human body cannot produce the substance by itself. Therefore, it is "essential" for the substance to come from food.
Yes, saturated fats are critical to the functioning of the human body, but it is not essential for humans to eat any saturated fats at all because the human body (all too easily) produces saturated fats from other substances.
Furthermore, even when substances are essential, a little being necessary doesn't mean that eating more is better.