Animal versus Human Eating Instincts
According to science, instinct is a similar pattern of behaviour in
response to specific stimuli, as exhibited by all normally developed members
of a particular animal species. Instincts are inherent; no learning is
involved in the acquisition of an instinct. In the animal kingdom instincts
regulate all areas of their life: the choice and eventual making of their
habitat, the manner of reproducing, care for their progeny, eating and
drinking preferences, seasonal and biological rhythms, etc. Thus we can see
that animals are guided by the help of instincts to the food which best
serves their needs and in this manner enables them to optimal development
and existence. [1]
Compared with animals, in human beings of today instincts are active only
in the realm of basic bodily needs such as maintenance of proper body
temperature, the rhythm of blood circulation and breathing, and all
metabolic processes which enable healthy homeostatic balance of the whole
organism. In the domain of nutrition the instincts are active in such
measure as to enable sensations of hunger and thirst; however they don't
enable us to know what is the best food for our own being. This can be also
seen in the structure and functions of the various parts of the human
central nervous system. The part which is the most instinctive is the spinal cord
together with brain stem and
cerebellum (pink area in the picture). They – together with the
endocrine system –
regulate the metabolic processes with the aim of maintaining the
homeostatic balance of our internal environment.
These basic life functions are regulated automatically without our conscious participation via the
autonomic nervous system.
Above the central part of the brain are sensory lobes
(greenish area) belonging to our sensory organs (including taste, smell and
vision), and the frontal lobe (bluish area)
where is the seat of our intellectual thinking. We know that our eating and
drinking preferences are influenced by memories of our
sense perceptions and enjoyment experienced in the past and by the
way we understand food and nutrition. All these functions are located
in the upper part of the brain, in the cerebral hemispheres.
In the middle part of the brain (yellowish area)
are found centres for eating/appetite, drinking/thirst, biological clocks,
body temperature, basic emotional responses, etc. Thus we can see that
in the
middle part of the brain is the seat of our eating and drinking instincts,
for here is the meeting point of the unconscious impulses coming from below,
from the basic needs of our body, and the conscious impacts of sense
perceptions and thinking entering from the two cerebral hemispheres above.
In the human realm we can therefore identify – beside basic bodily needs
– additional influences which have formed our personal eating and drinking
preferences. These are:
- The characteristics of food culture in which we grew up;
- Personal food preferences (likes and dislikes of specific foods);
- Knowledge about the nutrition and effects of various foods.
The influences of our environment in the time of our early upbringing are
very decisive in regard to our personal preferences; in this time we learn
mainly through imitation of adults and with the help of new sensory
experiences which are mediated to us by the new foods or drinks. In this
period there still exists a specific capacity of instinctual responses on
various types of foods or drinks. [2] With the transition to puberty there
starts the gradual conscious formation of our personal preferences in regard
to eating and drinking; this is enabled by the development of thinking with
which we can shape own judgments in regard to our nutritional preferences
and habits. All these influences and activities are part of the learning
process – that is, the acquisition of knowledge and behavioural patterns
through the process of learning, which is contrary to instinctual behaviour.
In this process are involved personal motivation, specific life-experiences
and the development of habits.
In the case of the human being it takes first two decades for the above
process of formation of personal eating and drinking preferences and habits
– which is the time span inside which we became adults. Of course, this
doesn't mean that in later times we cannot change our eating habits anymore.
For the sake of this nutritional principle it is enough if we distinguish
between acquisitions of eating habits which are the result of more
instinctual activities in the early childhood, from those which are the
result of our conscious decisions. This is the essential difference between
eating habits of animals which are guided by the instincts and those eating
habits of people that are learned. This is the main reason why the food
culture of a specific group of people is not just the outcome of natural
resources, but is also a reflection of the specific spiritual culture that
permeates the whole life of human community.
Three Reasons behind the Loss of Eating Instincts
If we investigate the background of the happenings that have brought
modern people to the serious loss of healthy eating instincts, we will
discover that there were various reasons which contributed to this outcome.
The first reason is a gradual separation from
nature as part of becoming human. For that reason we had to separate
to a specific degree from the wise rhythms and relationships which are still
active throughout the animal kingdom in the wild. For example, the
reproduction of many animals is guided by the yearly rhythm. For this
purpose many of them set on long travels to special places of mating where
they themselves were born. In comparison to this, we are more free: we can
have children whenever and wherever, when we decide to have them. In spite
of the fact that we are not completely relieved of all instincts, it is
nevertheless a fact that we have gained a great amount of freedom in regard
to natural cycles and rhythms.
But this development has two sides. The positive side is more freedom.
The negative side is the emergence of chaotic tendencies in modern life.
"In ancient times people still instinctively lived together with their
natural surroundings and with the cycle of nature, but these instincts have
more or less died away, and nowadays we live in a time in which conscious
inner life must replace them. Mankind has left behind the age of instinctive
co-existence with nature. In man's case it was more ensouled than that of
the animals, but still instinctive. Human life has taken on a newer, more
conscious form. Yet, we find that man, in spite of his higher soul-life and
capacity to think, has given himself over to more chaotic life. With the
dying away of his instincts he has fallen, in a certain way, below the level
of the animal." [3] This means that the modern person
who is surrendering himself to instincts which have had a positive role in
the past, now hinders the development of own free individuality; therefore
we cannot simply return 'back to nature' without development of our
capacities of thinking and consequently without an understanding of the
situation we are now in.
The second reason for the loss of instincts is in the development of
intellect. Human beings are raised above the animal kingdom by the ability
of thinking – that is, by:
- Conscious perception of things and beings and their relationships;
- Forming judgments based on perceived characteristics of things and beings;
- Making conclusions in regard to actions in relation to specific situations with which we are confronted.
This is quite contrary to the instinctive responses when reactions are
automatic and where no thinking is involved. For this ability to evolve the
human brain had to evolve first – that is, the frontal lobe which is the seat of
our intellect. The human brain has the largest cerebral hemispheres, but
nevertheless, the sensory lobes had to recede in size to make space for the
development of the frontal lobe. This is evident if we "compare the dog's organ of smell with that
of the human being. The dog has a brain that is clearly made for smelling, a
brain that becomes an organ of smell. Behind its nose, in its brain, the dog
has very interesting organ of smell. Its nose is only one part. The larger part
of a dog's organ of smell is situated behind the nose, in the brain. In the
human brain the greater part of this 'smell-brain' has been transformed into an
'intelligence-brain'. We understand things, the dog doesn't understand things,
he smells them. We understand them because at the place where the dog has his
organ of smell that organ is transformed in us. Our organ of intelligence is
transformed organ of smell. In us there is only a tiny remnant left of this
'smell-brain'. That is why our sense of smell is inferior to the dog's."
[4]
Perhaps someone will be surprised with this explanation, but there is an
indisputable fact that in the animal kingdom there exists animals which are
capable of perceiving things that we are not. In comparison to animals we
possess only a few attributes in which no animal can surpass us. Among these
is our ability to think. From this fact alone we can conclude that the
intensity of the influences which are entering via our sense organs had to
diminish in the past evolutionary development. Because of this, part of our
brain has been transformed into an organ for the 'perception of thoughts' –
as a necessary precondition for the activity of thinking. The side-effect of
this development was a partial loss of our instincts.
The third reason for the loss of instincts is in dietary changes
occurring in the last few centuries in the transition from
traditional food cultures to fast food and supermarket culture. In the past
everything people ate was prescribed by the wise leaders of the people. For
that reason the eating habits were in harmony with the physical and
soul-spiritual needs of any specific group of people. [5]
Today there is more than enough evidence that this is no longer the case in
situations where people adopted the consumption of modern food products.
There are several important dietary changes which have been contributing to
the evident loss of healthy eating instincts in modern affluent societies.
Among them are:
- Dramatic expansion of food choices from local farm
markets to the global supermarkets [6]
- Introduction of artificial chemical substances in our food chain [7]
- Introduction of artificial food ingredients in the modern food processing
[8]
- Introduction of refined sugar as one of the staple foods [9]
- Bad habit of constant snacking instead of regular meals [10]
- Introduction of potato as a staple food
The first four reasons are addressed elsewhere (see notes). Now we will
look at the link between potato consumption and loss of healthy eating instincts.
Effect of Excessive Potato Consumption on Instincts
In the main picture we see that potato consumption strengthens the
activity of the frontal lobe of the brain. This is the positive effect of
potato consumption in the modern times which helped us to transform part of
our brain into the instrument for intellectual thinking which enables us to
understand the physical world around us. However, potato consumption
simultaneously weakened the activities of the sensory lobes, where the areas
of taste and smell are also situated, which have a crucial role in eating
and drinking.
"Eating potatoes in excess has the following influence upon the human
being. You see, the potato contains little protein. Since it contains little
protein, it is actually a good food for man. And if a person eats potatoes
in reasonable amounts, along with the other things, then it is a good means
of nourishment through its minimal protein content. But the potato consists
of a great deal of starch that has to be changed into sugar in man, first
into dextrin, then into sugar. If a person eats too many potatoes then his
head has to do an extraordinary amount of work. Therefore those persons
who eat an excess of potatoes, and thereby their heads have to do an
extraordinary amount of work, become weak in the head. It is namely the
central portion of the brain that gets weak. There remains the frontal lobe
of the brain which does not have to exert itself as much as the central
part of the brain." [11] We could even say that the
central part of the brain must perform the part of digestion of the
carbohydrates which are contained in potatoes, instead of using its
functions related to sense perceptions. If this is happening on a regular
basis, this part of the brain weakens, to a specific degree it become torpid.
"If one eats too many potatoes as a child or when very young, then his
central lobe [12] becomes extraordinarily weak. But in the central lobe are
the sources of the most important sense organs. It is really so that in
Europe in earlier times (before they started to consume potato
[13]) people were much less subject to weak eyes than they
are now. The excessive consumption of potatoes works in a very damaging way
upon the eyes, upon the capacity of vision and even upon the capacity to
taste, the sense of taste.
The following also results from this: Assume that a person ate too many
potatoes in childhood; with such a person in later life you will very
frequently observe that he never knows when he is eaten enough, because his
sense of taste has been ruined, whereas a person who has not eaten too many
potatoes rightly knows when he has had enough through his instincts. Thus
the instincts that are more bound to the central lobe are ruined by excess
potato eating. This is something that has occurred particularly strongly in
modern times." [14]
The above effect of potato might be a surprise, but if you look for the
evidence you just need to look at the link between the fast food culture and
the modern epidemics of obesity. Of course, the modern escalation of weight
problems is a cumulative result of many influences, but it is hard to ignore
the fact that overweight people don't know when they have eaten enough
because they have problems with feeling of satiety. At the same time they
do like to eat potato very much, especially children in affluent societies,
such as United States of America and Great Britain. We could designate the
attitude of many children towards potato as 'potato addiction' – that is, as
one of the modern widespread manifestations of lost eating instincts in the
field of nutrition in the present time.
For a complementary perspective see:
♦ DEVELOPMENT OF NEW EATING 'INSTINCTS'
DIETARY CONCLUSIONS & PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
When people become acquainted with the impacts of the excessive potato
consumption on our instincts, there then exists a danger that
they 'forget' that there might be others who still need to consume potato,
because they don't yet have their intellectual capacities developed enough.
What is important is to make a distinction between normal and excessive
consumption of potato in each individual case. However, in both cases we
should not forget that we need to improve the quality of overall diet and
not just reduce or eliminate potato consumption.
Of course, when we deal with a person who demonstrates obvious symptoms
of a 'potato addiction' then we can gain positive therapeutic effects only
if we eliminate potato from his or her menu. But we need to take into
account that this can work only if there is an agreement of all people who
eat at the same table. In such a case it will be of great help if we
supplement potato with sweet potato, Jerusalem artichoke, or any other type
of tuber. We can also make dishes like pommes frites or chips with Swede,
parsnip, carrot, beetroot, etc.
In all other cases it might be enough to work preventively so that we do
not use potato as a staple food anymore, but as an occasional side
vegetable dish. In such a case we replace potato with grains.
♣ See
NINE ASPECTS OF A BALANCED MEAL
which will help us to understand why we
need to strive to find a balance between personal needs and preferences, the
social aspects, and all other aspects of a healthy meal.
WARNING: You always have to put the above
practical dietary instructions inside the framework of
GENERAL NUTRITIONAL
GUIDELINES with the aim to know their limits when looking for a solution
of a specific nutritional problem. You also need to be familiar with
THE ROLE OF NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES
with the aim to avoid any one-sided conclusions.
