According to the Old Testament, the first human sin was eating. Adam and Eve could not resist the temptation to eat the forbidden apple because they were influenced by evil. Today, overeating remains one of the primary mistakes made by humans that cannot be attributed to Satan. The widespread availability of high-calorie food has led to overconsumption, contributing to the alarming prevalence of obesity worldwide. The high prevalence of obesity in children, as well as in adults, is a concerning indication of worsening health problems that governments will have to struggle with in the future.
However, interest in fatty and sweet foods was a beneficial evolutionary trait for our ancestors, who frequently faced food scarcity. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were capable of consuming nutrient-dense and energy-rich foods to store energy as fat tissues for times of food shortage. The main problem is that we have the same genes as our ancestors, but food availability is not the same as during that time. It seems that consuming food three times a day is a relatively recent development in human history, likely emerging after the agricultural age and increased food availability. Some researchers believe that this shift in dietary habits may have adverse health effects on humans. Researchers show that fasting has a beneficial effect on human health and lifespan, indicating that the body responds positively to reduced food intake.
Overconsuming sweet and fatty food is attributed to their palatability and irresistibility. Taste stimuli in the mouth stimulate mesolimbic circuits to release dopamine in the brain's ventral striatum, which is responsible for emotion and reward. The interaction between the ventral striatum, the amygdala, and the hippocampus causes the translation of emotions into behavior, such as seeking out........