Putting On Pounds Helped Us Survive

The human body is highly adapted to accumulating fat that acts as a vital energy store in lean times. Because of the energy needed for pregnancy and weaning, women are more susceptible to building up fat deposits than men.

Nutritionists have devised an internationally agreed scheme for measuring fatness called the body mass index, which is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of his or her height in metres. This produces a figure that acts as a measure of weight for a person's height.

Everyone with a body mass index between 25 and 30 is classified as overweight and those over 30 are defined as clinically obese.

Obesity increases considerably the risk of sometimes fatal disorders, such as heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, which often strikes in middle to later life and is caused by a failure to respond to the production of the hormone insulin, which helps to control levels of sugar in the blood.

The global obesity epidemic has gone hand in hand with a rise in this form of diabetes, and more than 300 million people are expected to suffer from it by 2025.

One theory is that certain ethnic groups have ancestors who in the past had to endure extended periods of starvation. Only those with "thrifty genes" survived. When a high-calorie diet was introduced, obesity and diabetes were the results.

This may explain part of the rise in global obesity but it cannot account for it all. The most important factors are eating too much and exercising too little.

My Great great Great uncle Ben was born in 1805 and died in 1918. He only lived to be 113 years old.

His advice on his 110th birthday as recorded in the newspaper was to drink less Soda pop and more whiskey.

His breakfast according to my grandmother was Bacon,and Ham with 4 eggs fried in the bacon grease. At least 4 large biscuts made with real lard. And a large serving of Fried potatoes. The biscuts needed to be smothered in gravy made from the rest of the bacon grease. The breakfast would be finised off with coffee mixed half whole cream and half boiled coffee.

Lunch would be ham, cheese, biscuts, fried potatoes a vegetable like green beens or carrots and pie topped with whipped cream. It would be washed down with whole milk and more of the half and half coffee.

Supper would be three kinds of meat chosen from pork, beef, deer, rabbit squirel, ham or wild turkey. He always had fried potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beans, and whole milk. Typical desert would be Cherry pie with whipped cream whole milk and coffee. he liked his meat with a lot of the fat left on.

My grandfather was kind of puney and only lived to be in his late 90's. His one brother lived to be 103. All of them ate the same way. My dad ate a lot better and died at 90.

I imagine they could have had a long lives if they had only eaten right.

The most important factors are eating too much and exercising too little.

That's bunk. PC bunk.

No one gets sick long-term from abundant eating of good foods. And a person gets an appetite, a hunger to match his activity level. People CAN NOT eat too much, long term.

It's probably more the mix of foods and foodstuff eaten that's the negative -- remember that refrigeration, preservatives and modern food processing techinques are about as recent as these problems. On the positive side -- we have plenty of food, and no reason to eat spoiled or rotten foods.

i agree. from personal observation, as a diabetic, who has lived around the world, I found it most prevalent in areas where there were food shortages in the past - eg - northern europe (winter ice/snow), and egypt (desert/rain/flood). Very little in areas like South East Asia, but again common among Hawaiians, who had to survive long ocean voyages to get to hawaii.

Yeah but back then they had to get up and actually change the channel didn't they ?:o)

Ditto my grandparents couldn't even spell cholesterol and lived on the same diet you described to the grand old age of 93 and 97 ........

Stay Safe !

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