Think of it: We are each a megalopolis – a dwelling place for trillions of microorganisms whose number, diversity and health have an enormous impact on our own. Our 10 trillion human cells actually depend upon the 100 trillion microbes colonizing our guts to extract energy from the food we eat, build our immune system, and defend us from foreign invader microbes.
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The ancient Greeks warned that excessive consumption of food would disrupt the four humors in the human body. The ancient Buddhist and Confucian traditions, as well as Christianity and Islam, encourage moderation and disparage gluttony, as well. The Jewish Talmud teaches that people should eat enough to fill a third of their stomachs, drink enough to fill another third, and leave the rest empty.
Maybe instead of diet books, we should be consulting religious tomes instead?
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Chewing gum may keep your jaws (and mind) busy, but it’s no substitute for food–in fact, in makes you HUNGRIER. Even worse, it creates a craving for chips, cookies and candy, rather than fruits and vegetables.
Gum may evoke thoughts of food and get digestive juices flowing, which can make people hungrier. But they’ll reach for fast food, instead of vegetables, because menthol, the chemical responsible for the minty-fresh flavor in some types of gum, makes fruits and veggies taste bitter.
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Is one of your resolutions (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show) for 2013 to lose weight? If so, one of your main problems is probably sweets–why do we crave them, and what can we do about this? (NOTE: Anne Strieber’s diet book, now reduced to $3 from $5, has some good advice about this).
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