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Happy Thinksgiving
Lowell Ponte looks at science behind tendency to pack on extra fat this fall WND.com, November 21, 2019
URL: https://www.wnd.com/2019/11/happy-thinksgiving/
A chill in the air signals that the seasons are changing to winter on the northern half of our planet.
Our bodies change and have their own seasons, too, to survive the cold we sense coming. For those of northern European ancestry, chances are that you have already begun putting on extra pounds of the fat that helped your ancestors survive long, frigid winters.
Those in Ice Age lands who failed to top off their bodies’ biological fuel tanks were at greater risk of dying before springtime warmth returned. We are the descendants of those who fattened in autumn and lost weight in spring.
Thanksgiving is therefore not merely a ritual holiday for giving thanks. Its huge meal and abundant leftovers reinforce our ancient impulse to pack on pounds to help us outlive the cold weather we feel coming. Many will put on five to 15 pounds during such autumn and winter feasts.
Many cultures honored, as the Bible does, the “drops of fatness” in our foods and bodies. This is why for thousands of years people seemed healthier and more attractive if they carried a few extra pounds.
Even today, when in the developed West we no longer consciously fear famine or starvation, many doctors recommend that older people put on five to 10 pounds more than their theoretical ideal weight.
These few extra pounds are a reserve of energy the body can use in an emergency to fight off illness or injury.
But from where does this Thanksgiving impulse to gain weight come? Is it hardwired in our genes, our biological blueprint, as an adaptation to changing seasons? Is it driven by what we sense in the environment? Is it part of what our society teaches people to do?
Bears and, to a lesser degree, a few other animals hibernate in winter. They store fat (mostly in late summer and early autumn), their metabolism slows, and then they retreat to their dens and sleep or engage in little activity during the coldest months of winter.
Some medical researchers have pondered whether we have a tiny bit of this tendency to hibernate. Western peoples tend to stay inside under electric lights more, and to be less active than they are during spring and summer. This makes some of us exceptionally prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), winter depression, and being overweight.
By contrast, the Eskimo-like native Chukchi people of Siberia live north of the Arctic Circle, experiencing six weeks each winter when the Sun never rises above the horizon. But the Chukchi suffer little or no SAD winter depression, apparently because they remain remarkably active with sports and outdoor games all winter.
How can they do this in the dark? When I asked a friend who had spent an Antarctic winter near the South Pole about such darkness, he replied: “What darkness? You have clear skies, thousands of stars as distant suns shining overhead, and snow reflecting their light like a mirror. When your eyes have adjusted to all that starlight, Antarctic night is mostly like an otherworldly continuous daytime.” It might be like this in Siberia too.
But for Westerners living inactive lives indoors under electric light, SAD winter depression leaves people craving energy and cheer – and that makes sugar-laden and fat-rich “comfort” foods more satisfying than usual. Our natural bodies were not created to eat such unnatural, fattening foods.
If we ate natural foods of the season, our bodies might unconsciously recognize that “spring” foods such as leafy greens provide Omega-3 fats. Autumn-harvested foods such as corn oil and grains mostly provide Omega-6 fats. This, theorize researchers, is one way that some mammals recognize the change in seasons and begin preparing for hibernation-like winter reduced activity.
Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner is rich in autumnal foods. This change in diet tells our body to “increase its insulin resistance,” writes Betul Hatipoglu, M.D., in U.S. News & World Report. “As a result, our liver can increase fat production, and our adipose and non-adipose tissues can store fat to get ready for winter.”
With all that science has learned, Thanksgiving is not only a time to feel gratitude and whet our appetites. It is also food for thought.
Dig up the root words from which Thanksgiving grew and you discover that they are the Latin word “think” and “feel,” and the Old High German verb “to give or receive.”
This year let’s celebrate both a relatively guilt-free Thanksgiving and feast on the ideas that make this holiday Thinksgiving.