Introduction
In today’s day and age, there exist hundreds of different diets and eating protocols that promise all kinds of results. Most of them are focused on changing our body composition, but some of them focus also on issues unrelated to our own health. In this blog post, we are going to look at the core intent of a dietary change. We will look into the original concept of dieting and define what ought to be its basic goal or intent – establishing a metabolic balance.
Origins of Diet
The origins of the word diet stem from ancient Greece, “diaita”. This word conveyed a broader meaning, related to a way of life, which included food, drinks, exercise, hygiene practices, and even sexual relationships [1, pp. 138–141]. Now the word by itself doesn’t really convey a specific purpose i.e. it only presents a concept, that is constituted from multiple behavior patterns mentioned before. However, the Greeks distinguished between a diet for health and diet for ill individuals. Research and observation of different dietary patterns used for treatments of conditions lead to the discovery of medicine [1, pp. 141–153]. It is at that point, where dietary interventions would be observed in relation to human nature or metabolism.
It All Starts With the Metabolism
From the onset of ancient medicine, the concept of a diet looked at the influence on our body i.e. metabolism. Metabolism is a collection of all chemical processes that keep the organism alive. Those processes can be split into two main pathways or groups of processes:
- Breaking down compounds – Catabolism and
- Building up compounds – Anabolism.
In simple terms, it is the catabolic processes where compounds are broken down in order to retrieve energy (using glycogen reserver, reducing body fat amount, recycling muscular tissue, etc.), and it is the anabolic processes where compounds are built up to store energy (storing glycogen, increasing body fat reserves, building up muscular tissue, etc.).
Both types of processes are essential and none of them is preferred over another. Now different diets might lead to amplifying a specific subset of the metabolic pathways. For instance, in bodybuilding, the focus is predominantly put on the anabolic processes to support the growth of muscular tissue. And while muscle mass is an appreciated and well-needed tissue in our body, an environment where tissue growth (any kind, even muscle) is overstimulated, is not healthy [2], [3].
Balance is Key
This might sound a bit cliche, but it really holds true. The ancient Greeks would say to eat in accordance with the nature of man, which would lead to the diet supporting and invigorating the life of a human being. It is also not a coincidence, that food and exercise were counted as one concept. From that point, we can argue that having a good “diaita” means to have a healthy eating as well as a healthy exercise approach. Both of them should lead to a better functioning body. Therefore, similar as we defined the purpose of Exercise, the aim of a diet is to improve our own well being for the long term.
Today, we can say that we should eat in accordance with our metabolism i.e. take into consideration all of the metabolic processes. Ideally, both metabolic pathways are in balance. Being out of balance namely leads to the underused pathways becoming less efficient. This creates a negative spiral effect. The balancing of counteracting processes eventually become weaker in comparison to the dominant ones. It is in that case, where so-called metabolic derangements occur. From that, different conditions arise, such as tumor growth, neuronal death, loss of muscle mass, reduction in bone density, increase in body fat reserves, the build-up of blood clots, etc. [4]–[8]. And the type of derangement depends on the metabolic processes being over or under-expressed – out of balance. Based on that, we can derive the basic aim of a dietary intervention: Maintaining a balance in the processes of catabolism and anabolism, to maintain good energy and health.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we have looked into the meaning or purpose of a diet. While today’s different dietary patterns are known and established, by its original intent, dietary change was implemented as a way to positively influence and improve how the body functions and resolves certain conditions. Having a well functioning body simply means having health or balanced metabolism. And diets working towards that goal, maintain its original intent, that was already established a couple of thousand years ago.
References
[1] J. Jouanna, Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen: Selected Papers. BRILL, 2012.
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