Bread is the Devil... REALLY!?

Out with the family last night, when I came across the title of a book, Bread Is the Devil: Win the Weight Loss Battle by Taking Control of Your Diet Demons written by Heather Bauer.  I picked it up and thumbed through it-there was a lot of diet advice, weight loss secrets, and general ideas about why carbohydrates aren't all that good for you.  Surprisingly, when I finally looked at the section in which the book was located, I discovered that it was in the "New Year, New You" section. 


OH!  The diet section!  Of course! I thought, Now I know how to make a million dollars!


I had a lot to think about.  So, I took my wife and child to Atlanta "Devil" Company for dinner.  My son asked for milk, cheese, ham, "devil", and a pickle.  My wife had organic butternut squash soup in a "devil-bowl," and I had a bowl of potato soup with half roast beef sandwich on french "devil."  I've got to tell you, the devil is quite tasty... and this was all white devil -- now you all know that I don't usually eat a lot of white devil, but I had a desire to starch up my night with some of the less healthy choices... then a few things hit me.


If bread is the devil, then what on earth are we doing when we have Communion (Eucharist) at church!  What have we done!?  Bread is supposed to be the Body of Christ, but now, it seems I'm being told from all these diet nuts, bread is forbidden... it is the devil... I thought I was eating the body of Christ, thereby communing with him in body and spirit, being one with him and with all my fellow God-worshipers.  But we were horribly wrong!  What's a Christian to do?!

I mean think about it... it all makes sense.  Jesus walked around all day carrying and drinking wine and eating... disgusting...bread -- the devil.  He drank so much wine that his blood became wine and ate so much devil that his body became the devil- so right before he died, he gave a part of himself to his followers... WAIT!

STOP THE NONSENSE!!!

What if... I know... wait for it.

Wait for it...

What if... bread... was NOT... the devil.

But all these people are writing books and creating all these great arguments and diet plans and people are losing weight and their triglycerides and cholesterol numbers are initially going down...

Create the poison then create the cure... make a million dollars.

One of the chief arguments that I have seen from these new diet trend writers is that humans were not meant to eat grain... that when Og and Ogina magically appeared on the planet (or were created by God) they were hunters and gatherers and that agriculture was chiefly to blame for the obesity problems, because, when agriculture started, we started eating grains, wheat, etc.  That carbohydrates are to blame for all this and that all we need to do is to cut all these dang carbs from our diets and, voila, thin and pretty.  Plus, a bonus, we get to eat all the fatty foods, bacon, butter, anything we want... just no more sweets, very little devil, and happiness ensues as we become the hunters and gatherers we were meant to be.

Serenity.

But wait... agriculture has been around for more than 10,000 years.  The obesity epidemic has been around from 50-100 years depending on whose research you're reading.  So I had a few thoughts I'd like to share and link to an article that tells me that many others have had these thoughts before me and researched some of this.

First, the hunters and gatherers were not a sedentary people.  They were in constant motion -- even to the point of running down animals... in Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and Why We Run, A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich, both authors describe hunter/gatherer societies as running societies.  In fact, before the development of weapons, these societies were already hunting -- the authors wanted to know how you can kill an animal without spears and arrows.

They discovered that the actual traditional hunter societies were filled with men who would literally run down their prey... animals are interesting: animals such as deer, antelope, gazelle, etc have quick take-off speeds and in a short-distance foot race can beat a human being; but the longer the distance, the quicker they wear out.  So, these hunter societies would run down their prey putting them in constant motion- because the animal couldn't regulate its flight instinct, it would run hard, zig-zag and stop, but since the humans kept pursuing, they'd take off again and again and again, until the animal literally just laid down and died.

Who would be the most honored people in this culture?  The fastest runners.  Foot races were started in these cultures to see who the most honored hunter was.  This hunt could take the better part of a whole day -- even beyond marathon distances!  They needed fuel for these runs, so gatherers were extremely important because these hunts couldn't happen every day.  But even after weapons were invented, the hunters still had to chase down their prey on foot.

Today, when we think about hunters, we think about walking out to tree stands, sitting and waiting- then, if we're lucky, we shoot our guns, or release the arrow (all high-tech precision equipment)... no running necessary.

So, yes, the hunter/gatherer diet was meat, berries, fat, roots, mushrooms, etc; but the hunter/gatherer culture was always in motion- moving with the herd, following the seasons, walking, running, fighting, chasing, and racing.

When agriculture started, many of these cultures stopped moving around, but they worked the fields -- toiled and ate well, but obesity was not a problem -- at least nowhere that I've looked says there was a problem with obesity.

So, I thought, what if the American Industrial Revolution has something to do with American Obesity.  After all, this is when we started processing everything into uniform packages- white flour is easier and quicker to work with, pasteurized milk destroys nutrients so milk has to be fortified, white rice cooks in 20 minutes, processed foods are easier to control, therefore it makes sense in a factory mentality...also, most of these factory jobs are assembly lines -- so the worker, while doing difficult work, is sedentary, staying within his/her work area...farm equipment now does the job of 100+ men who are no longer needed to labor in the fields.

So I did a Google search and found the following article... it's lengthy, but take a look... then, if you're interested... do your own research and see if what I'm saying has any validity...

http://harvardmagazine.com/2004/05/the-way-we-eat-now.html

But in the long run, please understand this...the Body of Christ (bread) is NOT the devil...

Here's the secret:  EAT WHOLE FOODS AND STAY ACTIVE!  Not just 30 minutes a day, but the whole day--find a way to make it happen, and you will be pleasantly surprised.  If you are going to eat like a hunter/gatherer then act like one; if you're going to eat like an agricultural society, then act like one- but stop acting like an Industrial Revolution society and you'll be surprised at how healthy you become.

Happy pancake day!