Humans are designed to move, no question about that, exactly the same as all wild animals. Without the capability to walk, jump or run we wouldn’t be in this world. The capacity to move allowed us, millions of years ago, to evolve into the smartest beings on the planet – the homo sapiens. The technological revolution is just one of many examples of the advantageous human evolution compared with all other life on the planet. However, let’s not forget that had dinosaurs not become extinct and had Australopithecus afarensis not started to walk upright, we wouldn’t exist and the world would be completely different.
The technological revolution has immensely simplified daily tasks such as holiday booking, checking the blood test on the application or just monitoring a home via remote cameras while away on holiday. These are all advantages, aren’t they? But, technological advances may be responsible for an overall deteriorating health status of the human species, unseen in the human history. From hyper active hunger-gatherers that moved all day except when sleeping, we became couch-potatoes that refuse to move even for basic tasks such as grocery shopping or cooking at home. Sadly, it seems that a new species appeared together with numerous food delivery applications, thus creating an unhealthy society.
There are no studies that evaluate the impact of food and grocery shopping apps such as Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber eats on the health of individuals that use them. But, you don’t really need the studies to know what future consequences will be. For sure, obesity will increase. In the past, people were going to the supermarket more or less on a daily basis. These days, supermarket visits are almost a science-fiction. People are moving less and less and fewer calories are burnt.
Hundreds names for sugar
The society will be fatter and fatter as approximately 80% of the food offer on the apps is ready meals. In other words, unhealthy ultra-processed food that I wouldn’t call food, rather it’s fake food or edible products. Think of the ingredients used in these products: unhealthy refined seed oils such as sunflower, rapeseed and palm oil, enhanced with preservatives, E-numbers, sugar in many different disguises – coconut or rice sugar, natural flavourings, agave and so on… Sugar is sugar regardless of the name used by corrupt food corporations to confuse the consumers.
According to the Statista website, the United Kingdom is third biggest online food delivery market in the world, with more than 32 billion pounds spent in 2023. Ranking behind China and the United States, the UK is also home to one of the biggest players in the online food delivery industry, Deliveroo.
In a way Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber East are indirectly responsible for promoting obesity, they are also indirectly responsible for an increase in type 2 diabetes. According to health institutions and organizations, if someone is overweight or obese, they are at a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. A healthy weight is determined, mistakenly, by the body mass Index (BMI).
BMI failure
BMI is a measure of a healthy weight for the height without distinguishing between fat or muscle tissue. National Health Service (NHS) guidelines for BMI is as follows:
– below 18.5 – you’re in the underweight range
– 18.5 to 24.9 – you’re in the healthy weight range
– 25 to 29.9 – you’re in the overweight range
– 30 to 39.9 – you’re in the obese range
– 40 or above – you’re in the severely obese range
The fact that there is no distinction between fat and muscle tissue may not provide an accurate diagnosis for patients. For example, I am 183cm tall and my weight is 97kg. In BMI eyes, I am overweight with the score of 29.2, although my excess weight is mostly muscle tissue as I regularly lift weights in the gym. However, this could also be someone with the same weight and height and purely fat. Interestingly, my last health check came back completely within healthy parameters: no cholesterol, no diabetes, no high blood sugar, no high blood pressure.
But obesity may not only cause diabetes, it is linked to many other health conditions: infertility, high blood pressure, heart disease, certain cancers (breast, colon, and endometrial), stroke, gallbladder disease, fatty liver disease, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and other breathing problems, chronic lower back pain, arthritis and osteoarthritis, particularly of the knees.
So, to keep healthy, avoid being a couch-potato type of homo sapiens, rather be what the nature intended when it created us – a dynamic being that is always on the move.
