Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.
Today’s topic: Diet and Fitness; a Moment In Time
The amount of activity these people did make all of us in 2013 look lazy by comparison no matter how much you think you exercise.
Diet and Fitness; a Moment In Time
The current view of what is necessary or acceptable from a diet and exercise standpoint is largely dependent on your surroundings and the era you’re living in.
Modern western industrialized societies can be described as ‘obesogenic’ as there is an abundance of cheap high calorie density food combined with a highly sedentary workforce. On a daily basis it would be easy to consume triple the amount of calories you burn, and many people do.
But has it always been this way?
How much more activity did people really do before the industrial revolution and could we really eat 4000-5000 calories every day without gaining weight? Is it possible to eat that much food and still be healthy?
We review a research paper that examine what life was like in the Victorian era in England. The amount of activity these people did make all of us in 2013 look lazy by comparison no matter how much you think you exercise.
They also ate significantly more calories than we do now, and didn’t gain weight. They were what we would call healthy and didn’t have the modern lifestyle diseases that we see today such as heart disease and diabetes.
This research from the Victorian era sheds some light on just how little exercise we really do, and how much more we’re really capable of. It also shows how your society and surroundings play a big part in how active and ‘fit’ you will likely become.
About Allen Elliott