The link between primates and humans is well known. We know that the two of us are distant cousins, and shared a common ancestor. Genetically, we differ only about 3 percent from the great apes, yet, we exhibit very different behaviors. People don't forage through the jungle for dinner, and gorillas don't pull up to the McDonald's drive-through for lunch.
Yet when a gorilla is a resident in a zoo, they start to lead a more human lifestyle. Zoo gorillas get much less exercise than they would in the wild. They also start to eat a more human-like diet of processed foods, loaded with sugars and starches.
Charles is a 400 pound gorilla from the Toronto zoo. Though its tough to say what an obese gorilla actually is, Charles wasn't looking too good. He had rolls of fat rippling on his neck and legs. Gorillas naturally have a pot-belly, but Charles' belly looked bigger than average. He was fed, as are most apes in a zoo, a steady diet of gorilla biscuits (a processed food for apes), and other foods containing sugars and fats, like fruits and yogurt.
Gorillas do not come across high calorie foods full of starch and sugars that often. Believe it or not, even a banana is a very heavy snack for a gorilla, as fruits deliver a lot of nutrients in a short period of time. In nature, Charles would have been eating sticks, bark, and leaves, collectively known as "browse". Browse is very high in fibre, and contains almost no sugars or starches.
The high-fibre browse delivers its nutrients into to body at a much slower rate. In the wild, gorillas spend up to 70 percent of their time eating. Feeding the captive gorillas high-fibre meals 5 times a day mimicked this natural behavior. After 3 months on the new diet, Charles lost 19 pounds. Surprisingly, the high-fibre diet actually contained more calories, but due to its slow digestibility, helped Charles burn fat instead of put more on.
Dr. David Jenkins of the University of Toronto created a human adaptation of the gorilla diet for a study in The Journal of Nutrition. Young and healthy volunteers had to spend 8 hours a day eating a very high fibre, vegetable-based diet. Jenkins notes in this study that we often obtain our fibre through cereals, but cereals are a relatively new addition to our diet in terms of evolution. Humans, like gorillas, evolved eating high-fibre vegetables, not cereals. After 2 weeks, the cholesterol levels in the volunteers dropped dramatically, so low, in fact, that it was similar to the effects of statins, which are cholesterol-lowering drugs.
The people who volunteered for this study were under duress, as humans are not used to eating so much. Yet, if cholesterol levels dropped so low in the test subjects, it is a possibility that the pounds would come off soon after, as the link between obesity and high cholesteral is well known. Spending 8 hours a day eating vegetables and sticks is not practical for most people, but if you are trying to loose weight or lower your cholesterol, you can take a few tips from Charles the gorilla:
- Eat 5 smaller meals a day instead of three larger ones
- Minimize sugars and starches in your diet, such as fruits and breads
- Eat high-fibre vegetables that take a while to digest
- Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day
- Yogurt, though a healthy snack, shouldn't be eaten everyday
Though on the outside we differ greatly from gorillas, our digestive systems are very similar. Much of the obesity and high cholesterol plaguing people today could very well be tied to the fact that we have strayed from the diets we originally evolved eating. Returning to these more natural diets can have a positive impact on our health. If Charles the gorilla can shed a few pounds, why can't you?
Sources:
Lunau, Kate. "Gorillas on a Diet." Maclean's. 04 April 2011. 46-47. Print
Jenkins, Dr. David. "The Western Lowland Gorilla Diet Has Implications for the Health of Humans and Other Hominoids." The Journal of Nutrition. Web. 23 June 1997.
Shomon, Mary. "Highest Fibre Vegetables, Fruits, and Foods." About.com. Web. Accessed 25 Aug. 2011.
Ian Shoust - With a degree in Communications and a certificate in Digital Video Editing, Ian Shoust has worked as a freelance videographer, editor, and ...
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