Blog Post #5 – What is the most evolutionarily suitable diet for longevity of the brain? What does diet culture disinformation say about capitalism as a whole?

Inquiry Question: How Does Physical Activity and Nutrition Impact Individual Brain Chemistry?

Research Step 3 – What is the most evolutionarily suitable diet for longevity of the brain? What does diet culture disinformation say about capitalism as a whole?

The toxicity of diet culture as a whole affects every generation in consequential ways (1). From weight-watchers for kids to the lingering message proposed by the media, family, and friends; the industry as a whole has exponentially increased profit margin enough not to care about the detriment they are doing to society (1). Dieting is an incredibly large predictor of eating disorders, the second deadliest of mental disorders that exists (1). Together, capitalism and fear fuel the diet industry, resulting in consequences that prevail both physiologically and mentally from the individual who partakes in it. (1) The widespread belief that dieting promotes long-term, healthy weight loss has been disproved, the BMI scale serving as more of a commercially acceptable number enhancer than scientific fact. (1) Education, and consistent push back is the only way past the toxic wrath, chained by capitalism and fuelled by the consumer. (1)

Internalized fat phobia has done a number on modern-day society as a whole. (2) The obsession with thinness begins at an early age and prevails through media messaging, as well as being largely present in the academic world. (2) The extreme levels to which a person may go to ‘achieve’ an aesthetic goal is always either temporary or disordered, destroying one’s mental and physical health in the process. (2) Unnecessary suffering doesn’t need to be something people have to endure under the impression of a healthful outcome at the other end of it. (2) Individuals dedicating themselves to a life of intuitive eating done right is enough to disengage from the toxic choke hold this profit-machine of an industry has led society on about. (2) Future generations should not have to experience a phenomenon incredibly unnatural and psyche ruining as the diet industry. (2)

In terms of evolutionary sustainable diets, eating patterns naturally rich in whole foods take the cake for one that is among the best. (3) Research on meal-timing depending on hormonal cycles, environmental food availability, and lifestyle show that these factors play a huge role in what is suitable for each individual’s diet and way of eating. (3) Intermittent fasting has been shown to improve health outcomes in males, aligning remarkably well with their 24 hour hormone cycle. (3) Conversely, females are far better off front loading their calories in the early to midday (ie 900 calorie breakfast, 700 calorie lunch, 200 calorie dinner). (3) Evidence has consistently concluded high ovulation rate, hormone balance, and lower testosterone serum levels when doing so. (3) Nevertheless, the most evolutionary suitable diet for you comes down to personal preference, awareness of your mood and energy levels, as well as what is available day-to-day. (3)

Diets are inherently a class response to a capitalistic society that feeds off of profits from the desperate. (4) Decades ago, before the emergence of fast food, lower class families ate a cheap, not ideal, but much healthier diets than the lower socio-economic society of today. (4) More expensive, increasingly luxurious meals have only been something the wealthy could only afford, posing a class divide in diet and in turn, overall health. (4) The gut-brain axis has been an incessant topic of interest over the past several years, with evidence backing the guts’ affect on the brain and vice versa. (4) The gut impacts mood, immune function, focus, and a plethora of important, body balancing properties that should be kept balanced. (4) Inflation only increasing the cost of whole, nutrient dense foods creates a ripple affect in society of poorer health outcomes due to universally rotten gut microbiomes. (4)

Much of today’s picture of health revolves around the supplements, vitamins and extra fitness supplies one invests in, an idea far from the truth, but marketed phenomenally to brainwash the masses. (5) Additionally, the societal pressures to conform to thin, muscular, and eurocentric standards exacerbates this issue and creates room for disordered behaviours. (5) Dieting programs exploit individuals under the guise of health, often worsening an already damaged situation. (5) For instance, programs like Noom are infamous for the psychological approach to weight loss and extremely low calorie diets that more often than not result in permanently warped relationships with food. (5) Under capitalism, health and fitness are marketed under a blanket of restriction and purchasing unnecessary products to achieve a state of ultimate health. (5) This pushes past the boundaries of genuine well-being, and creates an unnatural, and insecure society that is less capable of functioning optimally. (5)

In modern day North American society, many have open access to an abundance of food. (6) The plethora of options and random marketing to suit the diet industy, or simply nourish the soul could also be to blame for the host of negative perspectives on food and peoples’ bodies. (6) Not to mention the unnecessary seed oils and additives that stress the body during digestion, and kill good microbiome bacteria. (6) Unlimited access to food that is most accessibly unhealthy warps one’s perspective on nutritional needs as a whole. (6) Couple that with nasty capitalistic ways and social media and you have the perfect storm of harm to the masses. (6) Our ancestors experienced a ‘feast-famished’ way of life as food was not always openly available. (6) Due to hunting, preservatives ceased to exist; proving that the diet industry as a whole ruined modern day cognitive functioning, and exponentially exacerbated chronic disease, feeding into the pharmaceutical industry. (6)

References:

1. ‘Health Science Doesn’t Back Up Dieting — Capitalism Does, and It’s Even Hurting Our Kids’. Women AdvaNCe, 14 Oct. 2020, https://www.womenadvancenc.org/2020/10/14/health-science-doesnt-back-up-dieting-capitalism-does-and-its-even-hurting-our-kids/.
2. Manne, Kate. ‘Opinion | Diet Culture Is Unhealthy. It’s Also Immoral.’ The New York Times, 3 Jan. 2022. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/opinion/diet-resolution.html.
3. Fontana, Luigi, and Linda Partridge. ‘Promoting Health and Longevity through Diet: From Model Organisms to Humans’. Cell, vol. 161, no. 1, Mar. 2015, pp. 106–18. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.020.
4. Dietetic Capitalism. http://contemporarycondition.blogspot.com/2018/08/dietetic-capitalism.html. Accessed 31 May 2024.
5. Srinath, Nell. ‘How Diet Culture under Capitalism Eats Away at You’. The Daily Campus, 4 Mar. 2022, https://dailycampus.com/2022/03/04/how-diet-culture-under-capitalism-eats-away-at-you/.
6. Mattson, Mark P. ‘An Evolutionary Perspective on Why Food Overconsumption Impairs Cognition’. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 23, no. 3, Mar. 2019, pp. 200–12. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.01.003.