Will We Ever Solve The Diabesity Problem?

Unless your head is firmly stuck up your you know what, you can't help but notice that Australians are getting fatter) and sicker.

There is lots of hand-wringing about the state of the nation's health. Yearly, it seems, federal and state governments launch some kind of initiative to improve population health. Some of these are downright stupid, and none of them work. Even the multi-factorial interventions never actually address the issues that contribute to the problem, some of which are not amenable to intervention - such as our evolutionary biology - while others are woven into the fabric of our lives so tightly that changing them is inconceivable.

Here is my take, in no particular order, on why the situation is only going to get worse:

• Evolution. We are biologically wired to seek out as many calories as possible while doing as little as possible. There are a few odd evolutionary throwbacks, people who do lots of exercise and don't over feed, but for the most part, biology rules and unless we are really conscious of monitoring and modifying our behavior constantly - which is pretty bloody hard - we will all follow optimal foraging strategy.

• The protein leverage hypothesis. Notwithstanding the propaganda pumped out by dieticians and Big Food, humans don't actually need carbohydrate, we need protein and fat. Fat, we currently have in abundance, however protein consumption, particularly quality protein from animal sources, is low in the general population and much of the protein consumed comes from poor sources like various grain products or fortified franken-foods. Turns out we are driven to keep eating until we meet our protein requirements. If the protein quotient in the food is low a lot of food must be consumed to meet protein requirements. This is why when people start eating quality protein as the centre point of their diet, their food intake decreases.

• Big Food. Although I think the term food is a misnomer. I would rather say Big Toxin Masquerading As Food but that is quite a mouthful. Optimal foraging strategy is behind all of Big Food's products. Get people to consume highly palatable but nutrient poor food and they will eat more and more and more both because of optimal foraging strategy and because of the protein leverage hypothesis. In the modern world, we are literally seeing people eat themselves to disability and death. Big Food is everywhere. Most of the grocery store is taken up with Big Food products, then there are the cafes, the bakeries, the milk-bars, the corner stores.

• A is for addictions. This is the one no-one ever wants to admit. Not people suffering from an addiction nor the public health institutions responsible for population health. Eat hyper-palatable foods and you get a surge of brain chemicals whose message is "that is fantastic, do that again." This works great for motivating people to have sex so that the species can proliferate, but it is bad news in a world where we are surrounded by Big Food. And, it's not simply Tim Tams and taco chips which are addictive. There is evidence that gluten in wheat triggers a similar response. In fact, when people go on a real food diet, one of hardest things to give up is bread. Addiction is not a sign of moral weakness. It is a normal response to an environment which is in direct conflict with our evolutionary origins.

• Moderation. We are told over and over by public health authorities, such as dietitians, that we should not give anything up because "moderation." Moderation, as the saying goes, is a myth. Turns out, we define moderation as anything that is a bit more than what we are doing right now. So, if I eat Kentucky Fried Chicken daily, I will define moderation as eating Kentucky Fried Chicken twice daily.

• A is also for advertising, and we are daily bombarded not only by Big Food advertisements but by the message that trying in any way to rein in our appetites is silly. You know what I mean. Advertisements that feature such slogans as "you deserve it," "you're worth it," "reward yourself," etc. Yeah, I know, we all like to say that we are uninfluenced by advertising, but the simple matter that advertising exists proves that concept wrong.

• Public health information and nutritional advice is just so bad. Dietitians are some of the worst. Somehow dietitians have come to view "food groups" - a construct of modern day humans - as written indelibly in stone like the mythical ten commandments. Moderation, intuitive eating, all foods can fit, these are the slogans of failed public health advice.

• We are getting progressively weaker, not just physically, but mentally. We are losing the ability to do things that are difficult for us because we have engineered life to be as easy as possible. Having an easy life has even become a status symbol. Given that the only way to be healthy in the modern world is to fight against Big Food, public health messages, advertising, and your own biology almost on a minutely basis, it is little wonder that so few of us are actually healthy.

• Reward. The reward for eating franken foods is immediate. A surge of dopamine and other neuro-transmitters that make us feel good. Going to a cafe, having a piece of cake with your coffee, it's easy, it's social, and it is the ultimate iterative feed back loop. Whereas the reward for opting out of the franken food is a long way off and difficult to visualize. Delayed gratification is not a good evolutionary strategy. 

• We are really good at adding things in but not taking things away. So we can be convinced to spoon dollops of butter or coconut oil into our coffee but giving up bread is like asking Charleton Heston to put down the gun. That slice of toast spread with industrial seed oil and jam, has to pried from "our cold dead hands."

The fundamental problem is that we have an evolutionary mismatch. Maintaining any semblance of health in the modern world requires us to fight not only our own biology but society at large. We must swim upstream like a spawning salmon. And we all know how that ends.

Wandera Mountain

First it was Gollarribee then Wandera Trig. Yep, another hill carry mission off the Araluen Road. I planned to make a loop of it - even though the main purpose is just to carry a load uphill - by crossing over from Knowles Road to CPT 576/1 and joining K Ridge Road which would give me a bit more uphill.

So, I parked near the bridge over Knowles Creek (dry) and walked up Knowles Road which is nice and steep right away. Note that you can't get onto CPT576/1 from the Araluen Road as it runs through private property. After about 2.5 km, I took the only track off to the right (east) which is CPT576/2. This went down steeply to Knowles Creek - still dry - but there was no sign of CPT576/1 and it is a bit hard to imagine there are two bridges over Knowles Creek in such close proximity to one another. So, I had to walk back. You could continue on the old road that crosses Knowles Creek twice (CPT 576/3) but you would have a bit of bushwacking up a steep slope to get back out on Knowles Road.

So, back up Knowles Road and onto Wandera Trig Road and then the top, where there are views, sufficient trees having been lopped down, as well as an assortment of towers and communication devices.

Hydrate, Nutrate, Supplement

Being a human sure has got complicated. Some time in the last 30 years we went from eating and drinking to hydrating and practicing nutrition. Apparently, if we are going to "work-out" we should eat and drink - oops, I should say hydrate and nutrate - before, during, and after our workout. Ideally, we'd take some supplements as well.

It is now clear to me why I see so few people "working out", they don't have time. Between the hydrating, nutrating and swallowing various supplements, there really is only a few minutes to spare in every hour to actually do any exercise. I imagine those few minutes are probably consumed taking a - language alert - crap and a piss - because you've been nutrating and hydrating so much.

Here are some bushmen setting off to go hunting. I am not sure if this would be called "working out" but, it looks hot in the picture and they likely have a long way to walk to find game which they may or may not have to run down. If the hunt is successful, they will have to carry the kill back to camp. Their loads will probably be pretty heavy. I hope they have eaten the correct ratio of protein to carbohydrate before setting off and at the right time. Nutrition Australia recommends pancakes and syrup or canned spaghetti on toast as a good pre-event meal. I wonder if those types of (non) foods are available in bushmen's huts?

It is crazy that these bushmen do not appear to have hydration bottles or nutrient packs. Perhaps there are aid stations along the way. Otherwise, how will they eat 50grams of carbohydrate (Nutrition Australia suggests jam sandwiches, lollies and cordials) every hour. They look pretty healthy though - certainly a lot healthier than the average Australian who is usually spotted leaning heavily on a grocery cart while struggling around the supermarket - so they must be following the guidelines.

Or maybe they are simply being human, eating food that does not come in a package, going long periods of time without eating at all. Walking a lot, running occasionally, and carrying heavy stuff about. Could the solution to our collective ill-health really be that simple?

Sometimes I have to wonder if our species has completely lost our f**king minds. There can be no other explanation for Sports Nutrition Institutes recommending these ludicrous dietary strategies or own gullibility in following them.

Corang Circuit and Yurnga Lookout

Here are two pictures from my recent Budawang wander, one is a picture of the main trail into the Budawangs from Wog Wog, and the other is a picture of the bush-bashing I did to get to Yurnga Lookout. See if you can tell the difference.

But that is the nature of the Budawangs. Much of the area is declared wilderness which seems to mean limited track maintenance, and given the robust and spiky nature of the bush, any walk into the Budawangs will involve more than a little loss of skin.

I did the fairly standard Corang Circuit with a side trip up to camp overnight in the Burrumbeet valley and visit Yurnga Lookout. On my new topographic map, the main track (only track) from Wog Wog up to the head of Corang River is somewhat pompously called "Scenic Rim Walking Track," which seems to imply it is well graded and clear, full of happy bushwalkers strolling along. In actuality, it is narrow, overgrown, and difficult to follow in spots.

There are some pretty pools along the Corang River and near its junction with Canowie Brook there is an almost gorge like section with rock slabs, deep pools, and little cascades. Last time I did this walk we followed the main foot pad which climbs up above the River and skirts over some rock ribs, the prettiest part of the river is far below and mostly out of sight.

This time, I wanted to see if I could (a) avoid losing the track at Broula Brook (as we did last time) and (b) follow a low level route along the Corang River to Canowie Brook so I could see the pools. (A) was a definite success, in fact, the track dips into Broula Brook and straight out the other side. It is somewhat obscured, but, at least walking in a clockwise direction, easy to find. I notice that my last trip report (see it here), when we walked counter-clockwise, an arrow on a tree at Broula Brook pointed us in the wrong direction. So, beware any arrows on trees near Broula Brook.

As for (b), that was a conditional success. There is a scrappy in and out foot pad along the bank of the river that takes you past a pretty pool with two small cascades, but to stay at river level the whole way to the Canowie junction would require wading/swimming or significant loss of skin in dense scrub. I went up and down a number of times as the rock ribs that form cascades in the river also extend up slope and must be scrambled over.

Eventually, after the third or fourth climb/descent along the river bank, I decided I had lost enough flesh and followed a faint pad up to intersect the main foot pad not far from Canowie Brook and I walked along the track until I joined the main track. It was really near or past lunch time, but there was nowhere to sit in the shade but not buried in scrub so I decided to walk on to camp for lunch.

At Burrumbeet, I found a nice camp site near the creek, could have been the exact one we used on our minor Budawang epic seven years ago. The creek was close by and there are some impressive rock cliffs on either side of the valley. I had some tea, lunch, read my book, and before I knew it had been lazing about for an hour. But this was a training mission so I had to get moving again.

Mount Tarn was too far and just walking up the valley aimlessly was not appealing, so I decided to walk up to Yurnga Lookout. About a kilometre up valley, a low angle draw leads up to a short cliff line with views across to the Monolith area and Pigeon House Mountain. There was actually a scrap of a footpad heading up through coral fern, but, when the going got tough, in low twisted banksia and other thick scrub the footpad disappeared. Somehow I managed to stumble out onto a conglomerate slab on the west side of the draw, a mere 50 metres, that might as well have been 50 kilometres, from the named lookout.

Never mind, it was easy walking up the conglomerate slab and I got a good view over Yurnga Lookout and out across the intervening valley to the convoluted cliff lines of the Monolith area. I opted for a faster more direct "fall down the slope exit" on the way back to the main track which entailed avoiding detours around the thickest scrub and simply pushing through warrior style. Amazingly, I stumbled onto the footpad through fern coral, but, the intersection with the main track was hard to discern and I had to hunt around a bit to find the track heading back to camp.

Lovely evening light on the cliffs above camp and it was nice to think that I was likely the only person camped in the entire valley.

It was a pretty warm night but as I was camped alone, I enjoyed the luxury of drinking my morning mug of tea in my sleeping bag - what a sook! I planned to walk out along the trail but first I needed to find Corang Arch having walked on and off the plateau half a dozen times and never having seen the arch. After walking up the conglomerate slab, I headed along the western cliff-line until the arch was obvious. It is a neat feature, just difficult to capture on camera with bright morning light.

I was training, so of course I went over Corang Peak which does have 360 degree views if you climb up on the cairn. One last stop to the west of Korra Hill, one day I must try again to follow the old track down to the Yadboro River, and then out to the parking lot. The end of another Budawang wander.

50 In 2

Runners could relate: It was only when I got home that I realized if I had walked an extra kilometre or two, I would have broken 50 kilometres over two days. If I had worked the kilometres out in advance, I probably would have done the little bit extra just for the symmetry of the number, but, I might actually have been inclined to do an extra 7 kilometres, then I would have walked my age over two days. It could all get a little bit silly when the idea was just to go for an overnight training walk.

I walked north from Maloneys Beach through Murramarang National Park, taking a slightly different route in each direction. There is no contiguous track along this section of coast. In line with Australian cultural values, there are instead roads and parking lots with short tracks, under 500 metres in length to each of the small beaches. If people could drive, I have no doubt they would.

A long section of the coast can actually be walked along the shore but you do need dead low tide for some sections and there are a number of points where deep clefts make passage, without swimming, impossible.

Walking north, I had left near low tide, so I followed the shore where I could, walking cross country when I could not make it around the shore. Every so often, I would pick up a bit of track, and from Myrtle Beach north, you can walk track all the way to Durras.

I got water in the toilet block at Durras and brewed up a cup of tea, and then it was straight forward beach walking or track all the way to Pebbly Beach. It is worth mentioning that at Point Upright you can either walk the Burrawang Track up and over the headland, or, if it is low tide, walk around the wonderful rock platform at ocean level, but it must be low tide.

At Pebbly Beach, I got more water, and brewed up again before pushing on to spend the night camped by the ocean. It seemed weird to be camping by myself. Not walking by myself, as I do that all the time, but, amazingly, this is the first time I have carried all the gear and camped by myself. I've never been sure that I could manage all the overnight gear alone, but, we have a new ultra-light weight tent (so light weight I'm sure it will not last long) and my pack was barely heavier than what I have been carrying around on training sessions.

Coming back, I did a little less bush-bashing and a little more road walking, which is why my kilometres were just a tad too low to crack 50. I had a couple of swims as it was pretty hot and humid.

National Parks has plans to join Bawley Point to Maloneys Beach with contiguous track for a multi-day walking experience. It's one of those good/bad developments. It's more development in a park that is small in size and already zig-zagged with roads. If you look at the topographic map of Murramarang Park you can see that there is barely a square kilometre that does not already have a road or a track. Walking is, however, infinitely better than driving, and if development must come, promoting self-powered development is better for all of us.