"Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism". - Pope Benedict XVI (2010)
Also: current cough remedy:
Lemon juice
Coconut oil
Honey
Mix in cup. Microwave. Follow with ginger tea.
Fasting diet continues apace. Dropped dress size. in two weeks. Am dead sure, however, that this is a diet for the tough middle-aged and not for the young (unless a matter of life or death for the young). Frankly life without any kind of bread seems unnatural, and if your brain is still developing from a child's to an adult's, it is better not to play around with low-calorie diets.. Also, this diet is heck on social life in the UK, as so much of our social life involves alcohol, sugar and flour. Developing an intolerance to bread, scones and cake is no joke after you politely partake and then feel as sick as a dog.
I've come to think that the ability to eat starches and sugars was an 'adaptive strategy' that emerged among young humans in order to enable them to use all the foods available to them, at the age when they most needed food.
ReplyDeleteThis adaptation did not apply to middle-aged people, in part because we need less food anyway. But also because it's only food strategies that affect survival of the young into their reproductive years that matters as far as our genes are concerned. If M can digest carbs and that means he lives through meat/protein famines, and has children who live because they inherit that trait from him, it doesn't matter whether M or his children live much past their reproductive years; they will still have passed on their genes, and in part because of their ability to digest carbs. Their ability to do so past the age of 35-40 would not be relevant to their genetic survival. Most people didn't live that long anyway, until quite recently.
Clio
p.s. I am not an expert in genetics but this is my considered guess about the reason why the young can't/should't attempt ultra low-carb diets.