One Possible Explanation for Obesity
May 18, 2006 | Life | Nature & Environment | People & Society
I woke up this morning wondering why human muscle mass is such an attractive feature in our culture today. That is, why are fit people with defined muscles "more attractive" than couch potatoes.
My mind leaped to the idea that this taps into a primitive part of our brain that says, "If times get tough, and we have to resort to cannibalism, you want to have the right friends." Uh, okay mind, that's interesting. Then via inversion I speculated that perhaps the rise of obesity in America can be attributed to a deep-rooted fear of cannibalism. After all, who would want to eat the lumpy gristle that constitutes the body of most Americans? If it turns out that someday we're roaming the streets looking for a nice gluteus maximus to tuck into for supper a lot of people are going to be pretty safely off limits. Similarly, perhaps the popularity of garlic in blue-state cuisine is an attempt to minimize the off-chance danger of vampires.
I wonder if all this very interesting morning thought has to do with the proposals I have to write today, and the lawyer's cliché that "you eat what you kill." In any case, Good Morning!
Comments
Well, my morning appetite has been completely quashed.
Posted by: Lynne Walker at May 18, 2006 07:41 AM
Well, uh, actually a muscular, fit animal is not a very good eating animal. That's why lamb and veal are popular, and why we put steers into feedlots prior to slaughter. We want tender meat surrounded by some fat, which keeps it moist as it cooks and adds flavor (lots of flavor compounds are fat soluble).
Posted by: Meg M at May 19, 2006 10:40 AM
I was thinking that in the "Escape From New York" scenario I wouldn't be worried too much about taste and tenderness! Just the protein please. Does the muscle have more protein than the fat?
Posted by: Michael J. at May 19, 2006 03:28 PM
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