Fasting

I don't have a lunch box today, so most likely I won't eat anything today until dinner time. Random fasting is one key component of Evolutionary Fitness. It makes a lot of sense if you try to image the life of a caveman. There must have been some stretches of time when food was not available. The sustained state of energy deficit servers a vital purpose for our fitness: it forces our body to call for its reserve to deal with this "negative energy shock", after all vitality to a large extent is defined as the ability to handle shocks.

Fortunately or unfortunately, modern men are in constant state of energy surplus, food is available to us everywhere, anytime, right within the reach of our finger tips. We are pounding our body with incessant "positive energy shocks": every time you gulp down a can of sugary drink, your blood sugar level shoots up to a level our body has not yet evolved to handle.

I would argue that our body is more adept at handling negative shocks than positive ones: there were feasts when our ancestors captured big games, but more often they were hunting with a empty stomach. Being hungry and physically active might have played an important role in our evolution.

Personally I feel very much refreshed and energetic the next day after fasting. I guess too much food is just like poison -- you need to give your body a break once a while. Or for that matter too much of anything is poison, perhaps.