Weigh Too Much
Its glaringly obvious we have a serious weight problem in the West. Figures suggest that 60% of Americans are overweight and 30% of Americans are obese. More than half the American population is unhealthily overweight. Britain is not far behind, with 50% overweight. Half those are obese, that’s 25% of the population.
We can easily identify the causes: Diet. Quantity. Life Style.
When you compare us to non-Westernised societies, they don’t experience the same kinds of problems we have. Its interesting to compare to older tribal cultures lives, life styles and habits to ours.
I watched a documentary on the Discovery channel with Ray Mears, the self appointed expert on survival techniques, tracking, hunting and a few other ancient tribal skills. He visited two different sets of tribes in Africa. The Hadza Tribe in Tanzania, and the J’hanzi Bushmen in Namibia. He lived and hunted with them to experience their traditional hunting skills and their life styles. Both tribes live off the land, hunting game as their main food source. Supplemented with roots, berries and honey when they can get it.
These skilled artisans, make their own hunting tools, bows, arrows, spears, and even fashion animal sinew into bowstrings. The hunters carry small packs with essential kit such as, hunting knife, water, arrows, poison, etc. They wear home-made sandals, loincloths and nothing else. The temperatures are so hot in summer, often reaching 50 degrees, it doesn’t make sense to wear anything else.
Tracking their prey on foot, a hunt can take a whole day and cover over 12 miles. The hunters follow a strict pattern, close to their quarry. Forming a line and moving as one unit. Only breaking file when their prey is in sight and within shooting distance.
In unison, all hunters fire on the target to bring it down. If they prey is wounded but not killed outright, it will run for cover. The next stage of the hunt begins. They must capture the wounded animal before an opportunist predator such as a hyena takes their prize himself.
They’ll track the wounded animal till they find the body. Once recovered, they cut the body into pieces they can easily carry. If its a large animal, they store it high up a tree out of reach of other predators, or their hard work is lost.
During a drought when game is scarce, the hunters go hungry. In one episode, Mears explained how the hunting was so bad that year, the J’hanzi caught nothing for three months. That’s a whole season, equivalent to all of Spring or all Summer.
Watching the documentary, its evident how fit and lean the hunters remain. Even into old age, they don’t put on weight. The hunters don’t have access to surplus food and only gather enough to keep them and their families going. They live off the land in harmony with nature.
The tribes have restricted access to the amount of food they can eat. They don’t know if meat is available next day, next week or next month. In a sense Nature or the natural world is controlling how much food they can eat. They experience an external weight control mechanism, in a sense. That isn’t to admit they can’t control their appetites. They probably can, but they cannot allow themselves the luxury of over indulging as they can’t be sure they’ll have sufficient food on subsequent days. So in a sense, their food intake is controlled.
It made me realise how much surplus food we have access to, in the West. We overeat way too much, and the foodstuff, (the type of foods we eat), are responsible for high obesity levels in our Westernised societies.
From watching the documentary, its obvious that the food the bushmen eat, the life style they lead, and their lack of over eating is responsible for their healthy weight and absence of obesity in their cultures. It’s non-existent. In the West, we have a glut of food and its cheap. The attraction of food is all around us, its availability, its promotion, its everywhere. In magazines, on TV, in movie ads and Web ads. Food is pushed at us from so many media sources.
Without a good deal of will power, its too easy to succumb. Once your in the cycle of eating on impulse and the habit is formed, it becomes ever more difficult to resist. We get into the cycle of eating whenever desire arises. When the urge comes, we yield to it.
It’s possible to break this habit, but it takes some work, a lot of effort and bucket loads of will-power.
And that’s part of the problem.
Diet
The diets we enjoy are too rich and overloaded with fats, whether those fats are animal or vegetable. The bushmen eat a predominantly meat and vegetable diet. Lots of vegetables, lots of meat, with little fat, and little or no sugar.
Quantity
The bushmen don’t eat a great deal. They can’t afford to. Food supply is irregular. They can’t gorge themselves when they’re bored, or when they veg-out in front of the TV. They don’t know when their next kill will be.
Life Style
The bushmen are fit. They exercise a great deal as they have no alternative means of transport. No horse, donkey, car, motorbike, or bicycle. The walk or run wherever they need to. Trekking many miles each day in the hunt.
Conclusion
If we look at the lifestyle of the bushmen, it resembles the way we lived before mechanisation and industrialisation. Apart from dried meat, the bushmen can’t store food as they don’t have refrigeration or other preservation methods. Obesity is unknown to them. In Westernised cultures its ubiquitous.
The bushmen eat fresh food. The bushmen eat frugally. The bushmen exercise a lot.
The comparison could not be easier and the conclusion simpler.
Eat less. Eat fresh simple wholesome food, avoid junk food. Exercise lots.
Go do it.
Originally Posted: June 28th, 2009
Posted by Patrick
