Some recent events and sicknesses had led to question and ask, “am I eating too much?” and led me down this rabbithole where I try to dissect an evolution in calorie consumption and eating habits.
I am trying to do a some analysis on our eating habits, how the 3 meal - breakfast, lunch, dinner came into play and where does snacking come in.
Some quantitative analysis backing some of the findings live here.
Snacking, frequency of eating, availaibility of food and obesity
Generally speak food is now more easily available, there is constant advertising with billions spent on it advertising processed food over say banana, rice etc ( reason is simply higher margins, a banana is commoditised, it’s naive to assume an evil intent when money can explain it ).
Snacks also offer a more “varied” palette over “cheaper” fruit for example a banana again is always the same. Such UPFs ( ultra processed foods ) are VERY energy dense and what might look like a small snack can end up delivering much higher calories before a person is “mentally” satiated. Filling up of stomach and visual sizing is what ends up casing you to stop eating anyways. This of course benefits the companies making them because not only do they enjoy much higher margins, they also can keep on launching combinations of flavors, combined with advertising and make people dependent on it, always exploiting some food loophole to use cheaper and cheaper ingredients.
A question to ask then will be “Is there a healthy UPF option?” This study which was a bit controversial while suggested that UPFs also caused a body weight loss when given in controlled limited amounts, still favored MPFs ( minimally processed ) by 1% extra loss in body weight.
UPFs are expensive too
Why then do people fall for UPFs, if they are both expensive and worse for health. Billions in marketing by the smartest of minds, an immediate palatability, more cooking time for MPFs to ( unless you are buying fruits ), much longer shelf life and portability, consumption leading to a habit and normalisation as part of general eating habits ( when none of this existed as much even 70 years back ). Even for me, buying UPFs is much easier than buying fruits.
You just cannot spend billions advertising bananas and make money out of it.
Advent of Gyms
Instead of addressing the root cause for obesity, markting started to push for a new target, another product to sell, gyms, which are almost a given nowadays but weren’t even a concept in 1800s when people were much healthier ( obesity wise ). The unnatural pursuit of lifting weights ( for no reason other than to just lift ) ended up spawning a whole industry around protein powders, trainers, supplements and more UPFs.
Sedentary lifestyle
I am terminally online though one of the reasons is the non-existence of any “outside” to go to and not having enough time after work commitement for any of that as well.
Fat and the Mailard reaction
Why do UPFs readily taste better? At the core of it is the Mailard reaction — a high temperature reaction between amino acids and sugars produce complex aromatic molecules with varied tastes, often mimicking those of more fatty, rich, nutty with more concentrate energy. The brown “cooked” color, aroma, texture and taste all are increased which “cue” the primal brain as the food being richer even though nutritionally it might not be. It also needs a high amount of heat to trigger, this naturally causes loss of water and reduces size, oil also naturally comes in for providing a surface for that heat.
Oils are incredibly good at carying flavor molecules, give it all a “juicy” texture, better aromas and sticking spices and salt. Combine both and you have a perfect UPF that’s very calorie dense and tricks your brain into 1) looking more palatable 2) eating more.
This is where the whole “fried tasted better” emerged from, oil and maillard reaction and how roated meat, toasted nuts, baked stuff and potato chips can all look very palatable even though nutritional value is vastly different.
Such fat rich energy dense food trigger evolutionary reactions. Breast milk for example is rich in fat. Fat is immeidately detected in mouth, post-ingestive reinforcement for fats exists in our bodies, which means that the effects of fat after it reaches the gut can the person prefer the flavor associated with that fat, even if the flavor itself is initially neutral. Overtime, the brain is conditioned to prefer flavors of those fats, and as you consume more and more and more, it reinforces it. Think of how if I were to not restrain, I would rather prefer potato chips over bananas or apples.
3 meals a day
I personally feel, or atleast for it is true, that the whole reinforcement of 3 meals a day and the current breaking of it by skipping a “defined” meal with snakcs has lead to more UPF consumption as not only do you skip a meal that would’ve been more planned but instead feel that you are skipping a meal so it’s fine to eat some UPFs ( which are again much more dense than your typical cooked meal and might cause you to eat more before you stop ).
Initially around the 1600s there was just a “light” breakfast followed by a middle of day 12 pm dinner. I believe this was all primarily to wake up and sleep with the sun. A light supper was what served as dinner. As more and more work shifted away from “agriculture” and need of sunlight, dinner move later and later. The term luncheon was very much a formal business meating lunch, implying that lunch was not common at all. But as it went too late, snacks and eventually a lunch break filled the gap.
The “12 pm dinner” was much heavier and people used to leave for home to eat, this was not possible with industrialisation so indoctrination began at schools wherre breakfast and lunch became equally sized “quick” meals ( this quick eventually gave way to UPFs ) while the sit with family dinner became much heavier ( followed by sleeping right after that heavy meal ).
Modern UPF and snacking culture increases frequency of meals, each UPF brings a challenge to limit befor overeating. You see the problem right, the small energy dense portion sizes do not “fill” up the stomach. What we have now is the “culutrally” recognised 3 meals + snacking so overall calories have inreased drastically.
Alertness and being full
With the abundance of food availiability, it needed will and discipline, a conscious choise to regonise that you’ve eaten enough and to stop eating. This is very much going agianst your biological wiring which is from a time where the next meal was uncertain. Stomach being full while the nutrition was not super dense would help, yet stomach itself is elastic, you would be eating more and more and more if you are always full, it’ll again take will to break free.
This is very much anectodal for me and I’ll definitely do my own A/B testing but eating less has allowed me to be more calm and focused and less reactive with lower mood swings, I’m able to work longer and not lose sight as well. I think it’s because a “full” state gives your brain more energy for those emotions and reactiveness, without it a calm would naturally follow. Perhaps part of human wiring as well to be alert and focused till food is not secured and be more relaxed once it is.
Conclusion
I have put a lot of time and effort in trying to outline eating habits and how I can be better. I hope that by virtue of having done that I’m more aware of what I’m eating. It is all in the mind after all, this is exactly the sort of process that leads people to go vegan after having seen a couple documentaries about animal cruelty. It does not mean that I should delude myself and believe lies but if the easy to find “truth” is also useful, why should I search more?