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Monday, August 25, 2014
Thought For The Day: "Nutritional Terrorism": the scientific paranoia that harms you
Everybody who has been trying to decide what to eat on meals almost always faces huge challenges and the fear of eating certain foods, especially because the nutritional composition (fats, carbohydrates, proteins, etc.) could affect our body weight and our health in general. And a myriad of scientific studies, one after another, bring some real tough issues ashore, such as the effect of certain substances in our organism. At most times, those studies turn some foods as some kind of villain to us, saying they are not good, they make you sick, this and that. Some time later, another study comes up saying the same kind of food can be actually good for you. Something really contradictory and misleading, since we don't really know what to believe when getting our bodies fed.
The problem with these studies is that most of them are taken by specialists as unquestionable truths, just like religious scriptures that most of us read and follow. Not to mention, the fact that the way these studies are interpreted and put in practice resemble the Holy Inquisition, the Catholic church court that persecuted and burned every opponent of its faith during the Medieval Ages. As an example, if you eat things from a certain food group, such as carbohydrates, you can be seen as a "heretic," and some people will criticize you or even avoid simply because you've been consuming food that is demonized in our time. For that particular conduct, the most appropriated name is "nutritional terrorism."
There is one researcher, at least, that condemns the excesses of diets and the paranoid behavior of behalf of healthcare professionals and the media. French endocrinologist Sophie Deram has been fighting nutritional terrorism for more than a decade, and advocates that excessive dieting and extremisms when choosing what to eat do not work out well in our bodies on a long term perspective. According to Deram's research, "our brain perceives diets as a huge danger and it will develop some adapting mechanisms. It will increase your appetite, reduce your metabolism, and it will also make you more obsessed for food." Also, the risk of developing eating disorders dramatically increases. "The diet will work on a short term basis. However, your brain will activate mechanisms for adapting, and will also 'turn on' both appetite and fat storage genes." In addition to these mechanisms, Deram also told that "the risk of developing addiction for food gets increased in 18 times after you go on a restrictive diet, as well as you develop eating disorders."
She also criticizes nutritional terrorism, by saying that "we see food nowadays in a very simplified way, when foods are either good or bad," and that "when you only focus on calories and on foods themselves, you forget to listen to your body."
And that is how our world is heading to: a society where half a dozen of privileged "scientists" will dictate your choices and eliminate one of your most basic rights, the freedom to choose what is really better for you, the right to decide for yourself, without any interference. Basically, the right to make decisions with no mandates from individuals, organizations or governments that are only trying to make our society smaller and weaker, in the name of a "greater good" that, in reality, will never really exist. This simplistic, but radical, approach is leading to lower self esteem, disorders, and even deaths. Simply because humans are prone to follow the simplest direction, which is not always the best.
The problem with these studies is that most of them are taken by specialists as unquestionable truths, just like religious scriptures that most of us read and follow. Not to mention, the fact that the way these studies are interpreted and put in practice resemble the Holy Inquisition, the Catholic church court that persecuted and burned every opponent of its faith during the Medieval Ages. As an example, if you eat things from a certain food group, such as carbohydrates, you can be seen as a "heretic," and some people will criticize you or even avoid simply because you've been consuming food that is demonized in our time. For that particular conduct, the most appropriated name is "nutritional terrorism."
There is one researcher, at least, that condemns the excesses of diets and the paranoid behavior of behalf of healthcare professionals and the media. French endocrinologist Sophie Deram has been fighting nutritional terrorism for more than a decade, and advocates that excessive dieting and extremisms when choosing what to eat do not work out well in our bodies on a long term perspective. According to Deram's research, "our brain perceives diets as a huge danger and it will develop some adapting mechanisms. It will increase your appetite, reduce your metabolism, and it will also make you more obsessed for food." Also, the risk of developing eating disorders dramatically increases. "The diet will work on a short term basis. However, your brain will activate mechanisms for adapting, and will also 'turn on' both appetite and fat storage genes." In addition to these mechanisms, Deram also told that "the risk of developing addiction for food gets increased in 18 times after you go on a restrictive diet, as well as you develop eating disorders."
She also criticizes nutritional terrorism, by saying that "we see food nowadays in a very simplified way, when foods are either good or bad," and that "when you only focus on calories and on foods themselves, you forget to listen to your body."
And that is how our world is heading to: a society where half a dozen of privileged "scientists" will dictate your choices and eliminate one of your most basic rights, the freedom to choose what is really better for you, the right to decide for yourself, without any interference. Basically, the right to make decisions with no mandates from individuals, organizations or governments that are only trying to make our society smaller and weaker, in the name of a "greater good" that, in reality, will never really exist. This simplistic, but radical, approach is leading to lower self esteem, disorders, and even deaths. Simply because humans are prone to follow the simplest direction, which is not always the best.
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