I recently read that the World Health Organization projected that India will be home to 80 million diabetics by the year 2030. This is shocking news but it comes on the heels of a 12-year study that revealed something startling about how, generations later, we are affected by the way our ancestors ate. And when I say ‘we,’ I mean you and me.
The research, performed at the University of Sydney in Australia, in conjunction with the National Center for Cell Science and the DYP Medical College in Pune, India, showed that eating a ‘normal’ diet can cause obesity in animals whose previous generations were undernourished.
This mirrors what is happening in many underdeveloped countries, like India, where multi-generational undernutrition has given way to increasing prosperity and along with it, a rise in metabolic diseases, like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
Why is this happening? The DNA of recent generations of Indians has not caught up to their changed environment and diet, and is still responding to food in the way their malnourished ancestors did — as though there was a food shortage — and conserving calories in anticipation of a hungry tomorrow. This means they are storing fat in way that makes them prone to obesity and the diseases it causes, even when eating a normal diet.
If that’s the situation you find yourself in consider this: Eating like your grandparents may be the key to meeting your goal weight and avoiding metabolic disease. That’s because, most likely, eating a diet similar to theirs can lower your chances of blood sugar issues and diabetic complications.
Most likely your grandparents weren’t malnourished. But they ate a diet very different from what most of us eat today. They may have eaten less, but well, and were satisfied because they ate real food, full of fiber and healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, instead of the nutrient-deficient, low-fat processed stuff we call ‘food’ today.
That difference in your diet and theirs could be causing your body to store fat and get sick. Because if you’re eating the standard American diet, void of nutrition, your body may believe it’s starving. And in a very real way it is.
Food is also a business now, and in your grandparent’s day — not so much. Fast food chains and food companies market comfort foods to us day and night, irresponsibly encouraging us to keep indulging our taste buds until it seems perfectly normal to always have a snack in hand. But this study once again points to the importance of eating less processed food.
If you can make the commitment to eating like grandpa and grandma did — avoiding just about everything advertised on TV — you can improve your health in a wide variety of ways along with dropping your risk of diabetes. The transition isn’t easy. I know, because in following the paleo diet (a diet that closely resembles what most of our ancestors probably ate) I have had to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to everything society (and those relentless ads) tries to tell me about consuming ready-to-eat sweet treats.
But the health rewards are well worth it. And as far as diets go, eating paleo is probably the easiest you could ever follow. Avoid anything you get from a drive-in or a box and odds are you’re safe.