Eating locusts
Despite the heading, swarming grasshoppers are not on today’s menu: No! Instead, we’ll try to learn something about ourselves from the locusts’ eating habits.
Stephen Simpson and David Raubenheimer, two professors specializing in insect nutrition at the University of Sydney, Australia, originally observed that locusts seem to eat not just until they are sated, but until they are sated specifically with protein. The professors then spent years determining how locusts and a wide range of other animals seek out protein food sources, and to what extent protein seems to drive their appetites. It turns out other animals are similarly driven.
To back up a step, the food we eat falls into three main categories: the macronutrients (macros) proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. What makes up the best combination of those macros for optimum human health is a topic of heated disagreement, especially among the passionate members of the vegan and low-carb (keto, carnivore) diet tribes. I have found the low-carb arguments to be more appealing and think the diet works better for me, personally. But I don’t want to get trapped in a tribe, unwilling to consider evidence contrary to my preferences.
To return to the story, the professors performed years of extensive research, resulting in the protein leverage hypothesis: that animals, including humans, will eat as much as they need in order to meet their minimum protein requirements, an important source of essential nitrogen. They will overeat if they can’t get enough protein. Thus, if they eat foods that have low or poor protein content, they will overeat calories and gain weight.
We have no ability to store the protein our bodies need throughout the day, unlike fats and carbohydrates. The latter are both stored as fat in our fat cells. We have no comparable protein reserves.
Their theory, supported by years of research, is that our public-health epidemic of obesity is mainly due to our unmet appetite for protein. The modern food environment, with all its convenient offerings of highly processed foods designed for maximum taste appeal, is low in protein, causing us to overindulge.
The professors are not advocates for either side of the diet wars, and they don’t really make dietary recommendations. Yet, as they say, they believe their research broadly supports a balanced diet with a mix of macros, an example of which they mention being the Mediterranean diet. They have many interesting things to say about how our protein needs change throughout our lives—becoming particularly acute as seniors, since our bodies use the nutrient less efficiently. And they find support for the general belief uniting all diet tribes: that processed foods are the worst for human health.
The video segment below explains the general theory well, while delving into its complex implications. Suffice it to say, the rest of the video interview is worth watching. While I’m not sure how it fits into my own preferences (whether it conflicts or not), it is an interesting bit of science based on recent, in-depth research by a pair of dedicated researchers.
(Argh! The segment may or may not play correctly, but it should start at about 27:50 and go for about 7 minutes.)
Did I remember to tell you guys that Rick got himself a new ( for him) car, got a good deal and got money for his Prius which he wasn't expecting, he was gonna junk it...Nissan Xterra. 2010...I have had 4 Nissans and they are awesome cars, they last a long time ( I had my first one ( A Maxima) for 20 years and it was 24 when I finally had to let go of it, and had over 220,000 on it...and it wasn't the engine or anything mechanical that did him in...it was that it was rusting out to badly to fix...floorboards etc..my mechanic yelled at me and said you have to get a new car...I gave it to friends of mine who only needed a drive around town car, and it lasted another year
Then I leased two Rogues and my current one is a Rogue...so, I am happy he went Nissan, he usually buys these cheap beaters that he ends up putting a bunch of money in and they don't last long, with his new job he could finally get a decent car, and I worry less now
Ola!
I don't want to talk about diet or dieting today...it has been a constant theme in my life since puberty...I am tired...lol...but, personally the only thing that works for me till it doesn't is counting calories and watching portions, and cutting back on some of the worse things...I am also mad my dr and others for assumptions about me...
My boss is doing the Keto thing again, and I am sorry, while I am a meat eater and enjoy most of it, a lot of what he is eating is just gross and boring, to me, there is no reason to eat anything that actually doesn't taste good...what is the point? ( this is the hedonist in me...lol)
Gas was under $3 here for a few days and then today it jumped back up to $3.49, though that is still not horrible, it is about what it was before all this started...I won't get gas till Monday after work, so hopefully is might go down a little by then.
Other than all that my life is boring...sigh...