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Our bodies are not adjusted to eating food with high calory density. Junk food messes up the system the way you feel hungry despite eating enough calories, and

Our bodies are not adjusted to eating food with high calory density. Junk food messes up the system the way you feel hungry despite eating enough calories, and that leads to eating too much and becoming obese. You're right that eating the right number of calories in junk food won't make you obese, but it is extremely hard to eat the right number of calories when eating mostly junk food. Eat healthy food, and eat only when you're hungry, and most likely your body would auto-regulate the calory intake just fine.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Oh yeah eating mostly junk food is not gonna cut it. But I also managed to lose 30kg eating (lean) meat, full-fat dairy and almost no green vegetables, just a lot of oats for starch/fibre and nuts for extra protein/vitamins/minerals and healthy fats. But it's also just really hard to tell what food is actually healthy. Some foods are obviously healthy. Some are obviously unhealthy. But a lot is in the middle somewhere, having both healthy and unhealthy aspects. Some foods are even controversial in the research, like butterfat which many people lump into the group "saturated fats", which is universally thought to be unhealthy by laypeople. But there are multiple types of saturated fat(ty acids), so it's actually really complicated. My rough intuition based on reading a bunch of research is that dairy fat is actually quite healthy in small amounts(it's very calorically dense). I could go into a lot more detail on why but the gist is butterfat has a lot of short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which are good. It's the long and very-long you want to avoid.
dogma1138 4y ago
I’m not sure that is true, it seems like the preference was always for small highly calorically dense meals. The 3-4 meals + the constant availability of food is definitely new.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  Yeah, humans are evolved to go long periods without food and then to have massive feasts and gorge on food when a prey is caught, say. The human brain's ability to use ketones(byproducts of fat metabolism) for energy is actually unique to humans, suggesting a selective pressure towards surviving starvation in our evolutionary past.
  - dogma1138 4y ago
    Looking at a more recent history last 3-5000 years it seems that having 1-2 large meals a day even if simple ones and very highly caloric dense food. You aren’t marching in a legion, working in the fields or building a giant monument without proper food. Since food preparation took much more time and the logistics were complicated the number of meals and choices were limited but pretty much every meal was packed with carbs and often with fat too (lard, oils etc). Sweeteners whether it’s honey or other sugars were also quite common and very much so not limited to the ruling classes.
  - nullc 4y ago
    > suggesting a selective pressure towards surviving starvation in our evolutionary past our brains use a very large share of our total energy; so that adaptation may just be a requirement of additional brain energy use and not a adaptation particularly for starvation levels higher than other animals.
    - mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
      I get your logic, but it isn't quite right in this case. The reason is that the production of these ketone bodies that the brain can use for biochemical energy, only get produced in significant amounts once liver glycogen stores are depleted. So in a sense it's less of a passive ability and more of an active response to starvation.
mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
My reply was already really long so I made another one. It's important to point out that for a lot obese people, hunger hormones are going to be out of whack. So while following hunger might certainly be good for avoiding obesity, it's not necessarily as helpful in losing weight.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago

Oh yeah eating mostly junk food is not gonna cut it. But I also managed to lose 30kg eating (lean) meat, full-fat dairy and almost no green vegetables, just a lot of oats for starch/fibre and nuts for extra protein/vitamins/minerals and healthy fats. But it's also just really hard to tell what food is actually healthy. Some foods are obviously healthy. Some are obviously unhealthy. But a lot is in the middle somewhere, having both healthy and unhealthy aspects. Some foods are even controversial in the research, like butterfat which many people lump into the group "saturated fats", which is universally thought to be unhealthy by laypeople. But there are multiple types of saturated fat(ty acids), so it's actually really complicated. My rough intuition based on reading a bunch of research is that dairy fat is actually quite healthy in small amounts(it's very calorically dense). I could go into a lot more detail on why but the gist is butterfat has a lot of short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which are good. It's the long and very-long you want to avoid.

dogma1138 4y ago

I’m not sure that is true, it seems like the preference was always for small highly calorically dense meals. The 3-4 meals + the constant availability of food is definitely new.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Yeah, humans are evolved to go long periods without food and then to have massive feasts and gorge on food when a prey is caught, say. The human brain's ability to use ketones(byproducts of fat metabolism) for energy is actually unique to humans, suggesting a selective pressure towards surviving starvation in our evolutionary past.
- dogma1138 4y ago
  Looking at a more recent history last 3-5000 years it seems that having 1-2 large meals a day even if simple ones and very highly caloric dense food. You aren’t marching in a legion, working in the fields or building a giant monument without proper food. Since food preparation took much more time and the logistics were complicated the number of meals and choices were limited but pretty much every meal was packed with carbs and often with fat too (lard, oils etc). Sweeteners whether it’s honey or other sugars were also quite common and very much so not limited to the ruling classes.
- nullc 4y ago
  > suggesting a selective pressure towards surviving starvation in our evolutionary past our brains use a very large share of our total energy; so that adaptation may just be a requirement of additional brain energy use and not a adaptation particularly for starvation levels higher than other animals.
  - mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
    I get your logic, but it isn't quite right in this case. The reason is that the production of these ketone bodies that the brain can use for biochemical energy, only get produced in significant amounts once liver glycogen stores are depleted. So in a sense it's less of a passive ability and more of an active response to starvation.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago

My reply was already really long so I made another one. It's important to point out that for a lot obese people, hunger hormones are going to be out of whack. So while following hunger might certainly be good for avoiding obesity, it's not necessarily as helpful in losing weight.