Food Addiction- How it Started
It’s time we get real about food, but there’s a lot that we don’t know.
I should warn you that there’s no way to dig into this without directly facing some dark truths.
Australopithecines 2-4 million years ago
Humans eat food. Even the ones that try to avoid it still end up eating some food. Here we are with mouths, and growly tummies, on a questionably edible planet with no actual instructions.
There were deaths.
We put things in our mouths and survived some of them. We kept eating those. Some tasted better than others. We preferred to eat those. As we discussed inThe Cult of the Ego, the best intel we had was from the people who had survived before us. We ate what they ate- mostly.
Back in the early days, there was a lot of chewing involved. Gorillas, who also don’t cook their food, spend about 16 hours per day eating, and have to move constantly to keep an available food supply.
Uncooked food requires a lot of chewing, and delivers only a fraction of the calories. We did a bunch of foraging. We moved around a lot.
At this point we’re really a lot like all of the other primates.
But the story doesn’t stop there. Homonids continued to coevolve with food. We’re going to do our best to just hit the highlights
Cooked Food
The control of fire was a significant game changer. Once we started cooking food we spent less time chewing, got much higher caloric returns from our food, were able to eat a more diverse diet. Cooking neutralizes certain toxins, makes unchewable foods softer, and reduces the risk of food borne pathogens.
This really opened things up for humans. We got bigger brains and had more time on our hands. Awesome.
At this point we’re still eating nutrient dense foraged foods, and hunting fresh, clean, wild game. The affluent forager has a lot of leisure time.
Spare time and big brains lead to innovation. We start to grow food, notice patterns, and actively domesticate food crops.
This makes much more food available.
Agricultural Revolution
Life before the Agricultural Revolution has been described as “nasty, brutish, and short.” Although, the phrase originates from a very imperialistic mindset, osteological comparison of remains from those who lived before and after the switch to agriculture show that before, we had robust skeletons and evidence of some gnarly injuries. After, we became much more fragile, and pathologies arose from malnutrition.
We could sustain much larger populations, but in much poorer health. We became sedentary, and built towns.
Specialization
We specialized. Some of us made food. Some of us made clothes. Some of us educated. Some of us made money off of the labors of others (this hasn’t stopped since!). Some specialized in order (law enforcement) or governance. Some specialized in healing. Many people still had a wide range of competencies as their labor was necessary to keep a household running, and care for offspring.
These specialties come with inherent power and social capital differentials.
Specialization means that you’re not doing everything yourself. If you’re the local blacksmith, you might not be the best gal to thatch a roof. You might, nevertheless, need your roof thatched, which requires a barter system at the very least. I fix your wagon hitch, and you thatch my roof. Good enough.
What if the thatcher doesn’t need any blacksmith work, but you still need your roof thatched? Well, of course you can always DIY, but if you really want to keep the rain out, you’re going to want the thatcher to do it. Bummer. Now, you can try to work it out with a third party. Maybe there’s someone who has something the thatcher needs, who also needs some blacksmithing. This is starting to get complicated.
Token Economy
If we get any bigger, any more specialized, we’re going to need a token economy (money), credit, or both. UGH.
It’s already starting to look like capitalism in here. So, now we all have to get enough tokens through our specialties to trade for our needs, and wants. Some of our specialties don’t even receive tokens, so you have to rely on the tokens of others, which makes them the boss of you.
The people with more tokens get to be the bosses of those without tokens.
The more tokens you have, the more you can get. (Wait, that sounds rigged!) Our idea of the worth of good or service becomes detached from its process, and we all focus on getting more tokens.
People who have more tokens have more power, and they get what they want. People with fewer tokens have less power and struggle to make enough tokens to get by. (Their “free” choices also become “constrained” choices.)
In the quest to amass tokens, the powerful and greedy enslave any others that they can, to steal their labor, and discard their lives, all to have more tokens. They enslave anyone they can, through any means necessary.
Sugarcane Trade
Addiction is money, and the same people that were willing to enslave other people to get more tokens, were also very eager to invest in anything that people couldn’t resist, so they could get more and more tokens.
Industrial Revolution
Meat became very rare, but some people could access fish. Otherwise, grains at this point made up the bulk of the diet. Fresh produce goes bad quickly, and are only available during their seasons.
Shelf-stability became of the utmost importance. Canning, salting, dehydrating, pickling, and smoking helped elongate the window of safe consumption. They also require a lot of work.
Root vegetables and grains ruled.
Food wasn’t particularly safe. Foodborne illnesses were common. Water wasn’t the safest to drink. Ale was. Patterns evolved as a result.
The rise of the factory, and mechanization of agriculture began the era of ultra processed foods.
We can’t really have this discussion without addressing Food Apartheid.
I can personally attest that populations that have to rely on food banks often receive food that is already rotting, or is incredibly addictive. Actual nutrition is still pretty scarce there. Bread is frequently unlimited. It’s easy to get an entire bakery cake. And sometimes there are months where the only vegetables are cabbage and tomato sauce.
Food is a means of controlling populations, not nourishing them.
Excellent work today team! I’m so proud of you for hanging in there.
Let’s wrap this up, shall we?
Looking at humans’ coevolution with food tells us so much about how we interact with food, and how we’ve gotten to where we are, addicted to junk food in a growing obesity epidemic.
For me, personally, it’s gotten me to 363 lbs. Again.
Next we’ll look at ultra processed foods, and the effects they have on the body.
Below, I’m adding some extra videos that continue to paint a clear picture of our history with food through time. I’m focusing on the American diet, and the history takes a distinctly colonial tone. While the information is valuable, please know that I DO NOT support the glorification of colonialism.
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