Lesson of the Week: Why do we eat so much?

Do you ever wonder why is it most people can eat whatever size plate is put in front of them. A good example is buffets. Normally, would we go out of our way to gorge ourselves in macaroni noodles? Somehow the all you can eat sign turns into a contest about how much you can eat and keep down. There is a whole sport dedicated to eating as much as you can in a short time. Actually, there might be a physical reason why that is.

One theory is that humans were initially hunters/gatherers. There were times in the winter when food would be scarce. To adapt, the human body ate what it could during warm weather and turned food into fat. During the winter, this stored fat could be converted into energy to avoid famine.

The problem with having this genetic coding is that now the cycle is broken because there are not times during the year when food is scarce for most developed nations. Thus, fat never gets converted to energy. However, our instinct is to eat what is given to us because in the beginning of humanity, humans didn't know where their next meal came.

If this is true, then it is a challenge for all of us to be vigilant about what we eat and how much we eat.