Diet and Exercise: Conventional Wisdom Fails Again

Conventional wisdom states that we must eat good food (and less food overall) and exercise more if we want to improve our health. Those who fail to comply are labelled as lazy with poor willpower. Is that really a fair statement to make? Might it be their metabolic adaptation to their environment that is controlling food intake and activity levels?

Stress depletes our battery so we lose energy quickly (think electrons). How can we replace electrons in our battery? Food. Is hunger therefore a sign that we are losing energy quickly in our environment? Yes. Is fatigue another sign? You bet. Stress is defined as our body using a lot of energy to sustain function in a given environment. Exercise and starvation are both stressors. The adaptation to stress occurs following a period of rest (i.e. exercise one day, take a day off, or eat less calories, become more metabolically efficient).

Now that we've cleared that up, here is an analogy: when you use your phone, you slowly deplete the battery. When you watch videos or play games, you deplete the battery even faster. Once the battery is low, it sends a warning, and suggests you plug it into a charger. This is equivalent to a hunger signal in humans. When you continue to use the phone, eventually you get a critical warning, and your screen dims to save power which diminishes performance. This is equivalent to fatigue in humans.

So let me ask you a question. Do you really think it's a good idea to use diet and exercise to improve our health? Wouldn't this just deplete our battery quicker? Now, what is the difference between human and a cell phone? Humans have a backup system to recharge, while a cell phone does not. A cell phone operates disconnected from its charger as long as its battery sustains its charge, and once the battery is dead, it must be plugged in. Lucky for humans, we have options: 1) plug into our charger which is the earth or the sun and 2) eat.

Now back to the lazy, poor willpowered folks. They live in an environment that keeps them disconnected from their charger, thus running on low batteries, and feeling chronically hungered and fatigued having to rely on more food just to sustain energy to thrive in their environment, let alone have any energy for exercise.

Fix your environment first, then diet and exercise will come naturally to bring you health and longevity.