Sugar, Speed & Fat

Glucose Metabolism

I have a new theory on why so many people in America are so fat. It's the complexity of modern life, combined with the pressure cooker environment of working for living, and then you add in the brains' glucose requirement and the ready availability of high-fructose corn syrup and you have all the ingredients for a massive weight increase. People enjoy being smart, they like figuring things out on their own. Thinking requires brain power, and the brain runs on sugar. Often when I am working on a difficult problem I will get hungry and there is nothing better than donuts. Mmmm, nice big fat sugary donuts. And since I only walk a mile or two each day instead of the five I should be walking, I have gained weight. I stopped gaining weight some years ago and have been stuck at my current 235 pounds for I don't know how long. Ten years, maybe? More? Whatever.

Because of the culture we live in, people's brains are working overtime creating a demand for sugar. Eating and drinking provides some relief, but often more food is taken in to satisfy the disproportionate demands of the brain than the body really needs, and that extra food goes to fat.

Some people like speed. I think most people would like it if they tried it. Fortunately, most people know enough to refrain from taking something that could potentially ruin their lives. Interesting thing about speed freaks is they like to work. Go, go, go, get things done, don't stop to eat, too much to do. I suspect speed somehow is freeing up glucose to feed the brain, or maybe it's an indirect effect that just raises the demand for sugar and the some other autonomic system gets triggered to boost the blood sugar level.

In any case, both sugar and speed are feeding the same urge to get or keep the brain revved up. Even if you aren't doing anything, it gets the brain going which can keep you entertained all by itself. After all, can't have people being bored. Idle hands are the devil's workshop and all that.

Update February 2016. Replaced missing picture of 'pavement cells' from Korea with Glucose Metabolism from Wikipedia. Why did I have a picture of pavement cells (assuming that's what it was, that's what the file name said)? Pavement cells are only found in plants, and plants don't get fat, do they? Maybe it was just a cool picture. Too bad it vanished.