#117 How to Escape the Hedonic Treadmill - Metabolic Autophagy Audiobook Chapter Two

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Why are so many people in the modern society sick or obese?

Is it because of the sedentary lifestyle, overindulgence of processed food, chronic stress, sleep deprivation, being addicted to comfort, or the combination of all those things? In this episode of the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast, I'm going to play you Chapter Two of my book, Metabolic Autophagy. You can now get the full audiobook from my website at siemlund.co forward slash metabolic dash autophagy dash audio book. The link is in the show notes and you can check it out. Chapter Two is titled, The Hedonic Treadmill.

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Chapter Two, The Hedonic Treadmill.

A nation is born Stoic and dies Epicurean. Will Durant.

Modern society is completely bizarre compared to what wild animals experience. Humans have undergone a massive change in our surroundings and habitat. If you're listening to this, then you're probably quite well off, at least in comparison to what our species faced in the past. The world in which we live isn't perfect and devoid of all suffering, but in my opinion, it's still better than ever before. Of course, our dangers may be much more threatening such as nuclear explosions and global epidemics, but the majority of people are quite fortunate. However, this affluence comes at a cost, especially in wealthier countries.

Paradoxically, the richer the country, the more health problems it tends to face. Diseases of the civilization, as they're called, are more predominant amongst upper middle to high income populations. The issue isn't just about being obese or diabetic. The problem is that, in the rise of civilization's comfort and abundance, we're teaching ourselves to lose some of the positive qualities of human nature. Too many suffer from poor self-control, bad dietary habits, horrible biomarkers, and a general hedonic attitude towards life. In an environment where food is more scarce and harder to come by, the situation would be slightly different. People either have to expend a lot more energy to get their calories, or they simply wouldn't be able to consume them excessively. That's definitely not the only contributing factor to why richer societies tend to suffer from diseases, but the correlation is easy to see.

Will Durant, a famous 20th century historian said, A nation is born stoic and dies epicurean. Stoicism is a branch of Hellenistic philosophy that emphasizes personal ethics, logic, and virtuous living, whereas epicureanism places pleasure as the greatest good. When you look at history, then it's so true. Great civilizations of the past, such as the ancient Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, the French monarchy of Louis XIV, all fell into the trap of excess glamour and comfort. As the people became wealthier, they became softer and thus more vulnerable to foreign invaders or upheavals. They became the victims of their own hedonic downfall. As we know, the lessons of history tend to repeat themselves, and human nature is very stubborn and resistant to change. That's why it's so important to create these situations of deliberate discomfort and voluntary challenges that elicit a hormetic response. Otherwise, you'd predispose yourself to not only metabolic disorders, but you'd be less capable to face unpredictable events in the future. In fact, it can be said that facing adversity, overcoming obstacles and experiencing suffering is an essential component to having a meaningful human experience.

I'm not saying that we should fabricate unnecessary pain in our lives. Instead, those uncomfortable and adverse situations help us to put things into perspective. They also contribute to our longevity through hormesis. Think of it as the dour state in larvae who exponentially extend their lifespan just because of being put under environmental pressures. I know the resemblance isn't easy to accept, but that's the general principle of stress adaptation.

It's funny to be talking about such things in the first chapters of a nutrition book, but I think it's very important. The more exposure you get to any stimuli, the more resistant you become towards it. Let's take insulin resistance as an example. Your blood sugar gets elevated. Then the pancreas releases insulin to bring it back down. Normally, insulin would unlock the cells, the shuttle that glucose into glycogen stores, but after a while, the pancreas gets taxed. Then the pancreas can't keep up with pumping out more and more insulin and your blood sugar remains elevated for too long. You become insulin resistant, not being able to produce enough insulin to metabolize carbohydrates properly.

Insulin resistance is one of the main driving forces of obesity and metabolic disorders in the Western diet. We'll be talking about it a lot more in Chapter 11 In the example of caffeine, you start off by being satisfied with a single cup. Then you build up your tolerance and you need more and more to feel the same effect. This is called Hedonic Adaptation, also known as the Hedonic Treadmill. It points out how we adapt to a stable level of happiness despite the ups and downs of positive gains or negative losses in our life.