The Haves and the HaveNots

I was thinking, the other day, about weight.  I’m a woman, I’m naturally curvy, puberty made by body into something I’m still not sure I understand, so I often think about weight.  In this case I was thinking about it because my weight has gone up, my husband who likes me to have hips to match my boobs is happy about this but I don’t like my clothes fitting tighter, I feel self-concious.  I want to loose weight but since, for me, that involves weighing and measuring every morsel I consume (not enough simply to eat healthily and be active) I’ve not had the will to be devoted to it.  I have more important things on my mind.  Things that make me happy.

I was wondering why the human body seems so ill adapted to stay thin.  I remembered the argument that the human body will aim to eat more than it should to store up fat for the next round of starvation that never comes.  The body is not secure in this plenty and fears for the day when the food will be gone.  In the age of obesity, I find myself wondering when the body will catch up, when it will evolve a safe-guard against life threatening weight gain.

Then I thought about all those who don’t have enough.  For whom privation is still very real and for whom any protective adaptation to defend against starvation would still be a benefit.

I found myself wondering, if left to continue, whether this unfair distribution of resources could cause a split in evolution: the Haves and the HaveNots.  In a few hundred years the HaveNots remain adapted to protect their fragile bodies from starvation: the Haves begin throwing away yet greater mountains of wasted food as their gluttonous bodies learn to reject it.  I wonder whether the Haves would learn to be generous with their food if it was longer just wasted but also not wanted.  Could they stand to share when desire is removed from the equation.

Just thoughts…