The purpose of fat from an evolutionary perspective is to make the animal more fit not less. And this is what is seen in nature. A nice fat Emperor Penguin going into the Antarctic winter to raise it's chick is at its most fit state. A thin one is doomed. A grizzly going into a 6 month hibernation in the high arctic better be real fat if it is to survive. A blue whale going into the tropics on a fast that can last over 9 months better have a layer of fat several feet thick if it is going to survive. A nice fat salmon heading up the river on a long fast is at it's absolute top fitness.

What the heck is going on with humans? A fat human is sickly and very unfit and ugly to boot. The fat human is so unfit it is unable to even utilize it's fats reserves. This is because the metabolic systems to do so have failed and are in disarray. Not just for sugar metabolism (diabetes in the acute stages) but for protein metabolism too. So when the person with ample stored food reserves (fat) tries to cut back on eating, real starvation sets in because the unhealthy metabolic systems just can't mobilize and maintain the minimum level of nutrients in the blood.

When we regain perfect health we will be much like every natural animal on the planet, at our absolutely very best top fitness when we are fasting and living off our stored fat. Like every other natural animal we'll get fat and then live off our fat eating little or nothing.

Interesting observation Brome!

I bet if those penguins/bears/whales/salmons got their fat from the same kind of junk so many humans get fat from, they'd be just as bad off as we are.

Lessons from nature and the theory of evolution.

Modern man is beset with a host of metabolic dysfunctions due to 1000s of years of poor diet. Even vegans don't have it all figured out and remedied. In addition to diabetes and hypoglycemia there are diseases (unrecognized by modern science) relating to protein metabolism and even more metabolic problems with sugar, glycogen, and fat.

The evidence is several fold. The widely disparate experiences with fasting can be best explained by varying degrees of metabolic competence among the individuals. Those having huge problems are metabolic basket cases while the ones doing great have restored, to some extent, the ancient metabolic competencies that evolution and nature have given us.

Take the very basic tenet of evolution; the survival of the fittest. 4 billion years ago at the dawn of life the fittest of the cells would already be selected out, those that could best cope with the environmental conditions. There was always, from day one, times of abundance and times of scarcity. The cells that could best store resources; energy, vitamins, minerals, protein, etc, during times of abundance and then mobilize those resources effectively during times of scarcity, maintaining a high level of fitness, would be the ones that survive. The less fit would perish.

And when predation came on the scene, any animal whose fitness level dropped from not having much to eat, would be dead meat, lunch. There is no pity in the survival of the fittest. A billion years of predators eating any animal that was unable to maintain a high level of fitness during times of scarcity means that animals of today are not only very good at going without food, they are superbly good at doing so; while their food stores hold up, the fat etc.

While we may need to "carb up" , it is because out metabolic, evolutionary heritage is way out of whack. Be the time of scarcity 1 hour or many days as long as there are stored reserves remaining (fat etc) we should be at peak fitness.