|
When it comes to selling diets, it's always ?ew? always ?evolutionary?and it is always ?he diet to end all diets.?br /> But let's take a close look at the history of dieting because, as that great American man of letters George Santayana said, ?hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it?- and those words are as true of eating behavior and obesity as they are of any other area of human history.
There is pretty much general agreement on the physiological creation of obesity. How many millions of people have starved to death down human history, no-one knows. But evolution grew to favor those who were adept at converting easy food pickings into fat stores for survival during the lean times.
And throughout much of history until only quite recent times, for the vast majority of people the major issue with food has always been getting enough of it, not unwanted fatness. Until about 200 years ago, most guidelines on diet were mainly to do with custom and culture, particularly issues of religious observance.
Prior to this time, various early Greek and later European sages, when commenting on the moral benefits of relative moderation and temperance, also noticed some of the apparent health benefits but health was rarely the major focus of their discourses.
It is said that William, the Norman Conqueror of Britain, was spurred by his failing riding abilities to attempt to lose weight. He t [1] [2] [3] [4] 下一页 |