Mime-Version: |
1.0 |
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Tue, 4 May 1999 12:21:12 -0500 |
Content-Type: |
text/plain; charset="us-ascii" |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
>From: Ken Stuart <[log in to unmask]>
>
>c) This one, referenced above in the context that "periods of fasting
naturally
>occurred in the lives of ancient man", is the silliest one yet. Periods of
>having one's arm chewed off by predators also happened to occur - is this the
>next health regime? :-)
I think you're oversimplifying here. As the article on Evolutionary
Fitness points out, humans have evolved to survive and even thrive in a
world with a certain amount of randomness. Periods of food scarcity, and
occasional fasts such as when fleeing a forest fire or other natural
disaster, must have occurred. And the human body seems to have an
impressive ability to draw benefit from apparent hardships -- for instance,
UV radiation is harmful, but there are some cells (in the skin? eye? I
forget) that actually use the UV to produce vitamins.
So it makes sense to me that a diet with some randomness, including
occasional fasts or near-fasts, would in fact have some health benefit. By
the same token, it's possible that occasional "mega-feasting," or eating
large amounts of certain foods at the season when they would be plentiful,
or gaining some body fat in autumn to prepare for a lean winter, might also
be beneficial.
Also, it's interesting to note that in many H-G cultures, vision quests or
other spiritual practices are accompanied by fasting -- perhaps there's a
benefit that goes beyond physical health.
P.S. the aricle I mentioned is at
http://www.socsci.uci.edu/econ/personnel/devany/Essay.html
Parts are rather technical, but overall it's a good read.
|
|
|