The Evolution of Modern Diet Trends
- Vishrutha Thulasiram
- Sep 5, 2020
- 3 min read
A diet literally means the kinds of food an organism, a person or a community eat habitually. The word diet itself comes from an old Greek word called ‘diaita’ which means “a way of life”. Medically speaking a diet refers to a specific course of food that a person has to follow in order to help aid the body heal after or during a medical procedure/disorder. Nowadays the word diet is usually aimed at weight loss/gain and increasing muscle mass.
So how did a word that meant the “way of life” become something so restricted? This change speaks volumes about how we as a people think about ourselves and how we perceive our body and the food we eat. The truth about today’s diet trends is that once we fall in to the trap, there is no way out. Most of the popular diet trends do not work for everyone. Even if some diets show results immediately most often these results are surface level and do not really have an impact in the long run and create more harm than good for your body.
Most people start dieting primarily because they are not happy with what they see in the mirror. It becomes what Life coach Christine Hassler calls a Compensatory strategy. What it means is that in order to deal with our insecurities we overcompensate in something else. Often times this drive is an indicator of some unfulfilled purpose or goal but we are too caught up in society’s trap to see past it.
One study conducted on young adults in Japan, found that “symptoms of fatigue were significantly correlated with a higher frequency of irregular meal-taking, single-item meals, between-meal snacking, missed breakfasts, non-vegetable diets, non-fruit diets, and instant foods and confectionery”. Interestingly the subjects of this study also described a desire to loose weight despite not being obese and overweight.
Another study from the American Journal of Psychiatry showed a “traditional” dietary pattern characterized by vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains was associated with lower odds for major depression or dysthymia and for anxiety disorders. A “western” diet of processed or fried foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer was associated with severe anxiety.
Why did I mention these studies? Well it is to highlight this important social aspect that affects not just our dietary habits but also every other aspect of our life, literally. And that is the effects of mindset of “We’ll Have What They’re Having” and Westernization. With increasing Westernization, people are increasingly shifting their lifestyle choices to keep up with these trends and the major problem with this is that we are not designed to live off of highly processed foods. Although from an evolutionary perspective cooking and processing foods gave early humans an advantage the “flip side is that we may be victims of our own success. We have gotten so good at processing foods that for the first time in human evolution, many humans are getting more calories than they burn in a day”; This has also been linked to metabolic disorders (diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, stroke) by numerous studies conducted on different populations.
It’s this shift to processed foods, taking place all over the world, that’s contributing to a rising epidemic of obesity and related diseases. If most of the world ate more local fruits and vegetables, a little meat, fish, and some whole grains and exercised an hour a day, that would be good news for our health—and for the planet. Ann Gibbons, National Geographic
So then what is the ideal diet? Maybe there is no ideal diet. Since no one size fits all. Even evolutionarily speaking there was never one caveman diet. Each group of cave people followed a different dietary regimen. And this has been the practice for the last two million years. So the best way forward is to combine different foods and find the one that will suite your life better. Always remember that diets do not just imply food habits, they form the core of your lifestyle so be mindful of your choices.
Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/evolution-of-diet/
Osako M, Takayama T, Kira S. Nihon Koshu Eisei Zasshi. 2005;52(5):387-398.
https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO200821036724452.page
Association of Western and Traditional Diets With Depression and Anxiety in Women. American Journal of Psychiatry 2010 167:3, 305-311
Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
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