Energy Economics Behind Food Digestion

Since digestion takes energy, it is helpful to think about the "cost to revenue ratio" (fuel efficiency) of foods that we eat


We all realize on some level that food is very similar to a drug. When hunger sets in, withdrawal symptoms become apparent. Confusion, decreased mental functioning, weakness, nausea, unpleasant moods, negative perception of the world/humanity, etc. When we finally get a chance to eat again, what we all want is for the molecular building blocks within food to reach and become part of our key bodily systems as quickly and efficiently as possible. There are simple mathematics behind digesting fuel that should be kept in mind.

Digestion takes caloric energy. Eating food drains us to a degree that is dependent on the resistance of the food to intestinal acids. If the food is more difficult to digest it'll take more bodily energy to break it into molecular building blocks for the body. This in turn will result in one's body not operating at peak levels. Here's 2 examples to illustrate (the numbers are randomly selected for clear cut demonstration):

A) A deep fried blob of meat is stuffed with 1000 units of energy and it takes the body 500 units of energy to break it down over a period of 5 hours. This produces an average of 100 units of energy per hour for the body over 5 hours (1000-500)/5. The average ratio of energy cost to revenue is 1 to 2. If this food is dumped into a ravenous energy deprived body, then energy will be pulled from other areas of the body to begin the digestion. This will be manifest with muscle tiredness, coldness (energy diverted from heating systems to the stomach), and even lack of tangible cognitive improvement within first hour after eating. Thus the initial ratio of energy cost to revenue can even cancel each other out. Not the drug "fix" one is looking for. We want to squeeze more out of our business.

B) A bowl of cold quinoa salad with various nuts and berries is only stuffed with 500 units of energy. It takes 100 units of energy to digest it over 1 hour. Body gets 400 units of energy in this time. Ratio of energy cost to revenue here is 1 to 5. Since the powerful acids in the stomach can immediately rip apart the cold salad into building blocks, this means a rapid huge boost of energy from acceleration of cognitive and physical functioning. Molecular building blocks are quickly transported via blood stream to reinforce every key system in the body. The negatives of such a quick and efficient fix is that the energy high wears off after an hour leading to rather rapid onset of hunger and noticeable physiological slowdown. The business is very profitable but has to be fed at a breakneck rate that is not always sustainable.

Proper utilization of energy economics in food can allow an individual to achieve the equivalent of a coffee boost (from nutritious food that has weak cell lining allowing the body to make short work of it). Our bodies are the most complex wonderful machines we have access to. Do we put nasty poorly treated gasoline into a high end sports car? No, since we understand that it requires immediate high performance. An advanced jet airplane requires specialized jet fuel for maximum ratio of energy cost to revenue.

So why do many people treat their bodies worse than they treat their cars? Besides the socioeconomic factors behind it, there are also practical considerations. Food that is less efficient to digest has a release of energy that can be described as "extended release" in pharmacological terminology. A slice of pepperoni pizza will provide hours of inefficiently acquired energy. Of course if one has a powerful metabolism, one can pump lots of high energy inefficient food into the system and even get a caloric rush after some digestion has already occurred. Combined with the fact that such foods are often solid liquor buffers, it becomes a no brainer. Fuel like quinoa will not only be a poor buffer but its effects will constantly and annoyingly run out. Nobody wants to carry a grain basket with them. Of course in the long term, the heavy fuel will corrode/clog up the system and become increasingly counterproductive as the human machine is now expanding energy units to support heavier weight with all the health ailments associated with it.

However when it comes to day to day life and wanting to be at peak cognitive and emotional levels, digestive efficiency has to be kept in mind. Proper combination of the two types of fuel can result in relatively quick onset of good cheer and solid functioning (energy release from say, quinoa being immediately rerouted to help neutralize weakening from digestion of heavy fuel) without a crash or desire for an afternoon siesta.

Best Reasons to Not Have Children: Malnutrition and Shorter Life Span?

We've all heard the financial/psychological/moral arguments on why raising children makes one's life worse and less efficient. There is however, a more sinister cost to raising even one child for 20 years. That cost is worse nutritional health and thus shorter life span. 






Lets briefly go over the first 3 arguments and see why the physiological one should be stressed the most.

-Financial-

In 2006, US Agriculture Department has found that a middle income family, with a baby, will spend $260,000 to raise the kid by the time he finishes high school. That's not taking into account economic recessions and reversals, money on college, or inflationary swings. It is very economically obvious that these types of resources can be better spent in various diversified short/long term investments. 260,000 dollars spent over 17 years can be better used to save for earlier and richer retirement, on personal professional education for better employment, or on higher rent to live in places closer to work.

Compared to real financial masochists, who spend resources to raise more than one kid, a childless person can even acquire enough extra capital to start a small business for the price of 1-3 children over 2 decades. We've heard how rearing of children hurts the poor the most but richer people also loose out on tremendous financial opportunities.

A childless person sees new options presented to him such as:
1) choice to work less
2) living in a better/pricier area
3) not be attached to one place and increase economic mobility
4) work more if desired
5) more time to be spent on talent/hobby development that might even generate wealth as time goes on.

The recent depression quickly showed how financially damaging and superfluous human breeding can be. There's been a surge of vasectomies in just the last 6 months. We can only hope vasectomy gifts become the braces equivalent for high school graduates in the future. Surely, a loving parent who wants his spawn to succeed financially, would not overlook the biggest cause of personal financial failure.

-Psychological-

The sheer amount of extra time created through a decision to go childless is enormous. Thousands of extra hours of leisure allow a person to rest/heal more, procrastinate, think, engage in pleasurable activities, and develop the self. Person's stress levels are reduced as child related anger/worry/resentment/fear disappear. Happiness, the feeling that resistance is being continuously overcome, does not come around as often with a child. The more a person wants to be a good/prudent parent, the more the person's physiological potential is stagnated through distraction. How much satisfaction does a musician or an artist lose through not developing his/her gift fully because dirty diapers have to be changed? How much productivity does a scientist lose by being awakened at night with ghastly horrid screams?

Resentment is a very damaging psychological state that produces unhealthy thoughts and attitudes. It doesn't just occur from being hurt or oppressed by a stronger entity. It can also occur from a situation one is practically stuck in. If one has put enough energy/sunken costs into a situation, then the situation becomes entrapment and increasingly difficult to disentangle from. Being compelled to anchor oneself with the same sexual partner because of a child, is very damaging to the psyche over the long term. Many peoples' self esteem is dramatically dampened since they find themselves with the same partner because of a child (long after love and sexual attraction disappeared). Sacrifice of sex (and resulting personal growth) with numerous sexual partners is more damaging than people think. Nothing shows the tiredness and loss of spirit more than elderly parents who don't even care enough anymore to try to look attractive for each other. They are worried about balancing the budget, providing for suburban large family house, and paying for their spawn's college instead of spending their wealth on relationship enhancing hedonistic pursuits.

That's not mentioning the sheer negative emotions saved if the child ever grows up to be problematic or a physiological failure. There's plenty of ways for a person to expand one's personal influence on the world. Influencing a growing organism is one of the weakest ways of doing so. If pleasure could be quantitatively measured, then the joy of seeing one's efforts successfully direct a growing organism (to one's liking) do not outweigh the pain. The sheer amount of anger, worry, stress, sadness, disappointment, resentment, shame, low self esteem cannot be made up for even if the kid grows up into a very successful adult. Positive emotions should be saved and invested during productive years so they give fruits down the line. The emotional opportunity cost of a successful child is not worth the joy of seeing the impudent elite he might become.

-Moral-

Moral arguments against child rearing are the weakest considering the powerful genetic commands we're under. However, if some people can be swayed by arbitrarily created external morality, then childlessness can easily aid in many moral goals. As the world prepares to accept the burden of 9 billion human beings by 2050s, anybody trying to convince people to be more environmentally friendly is wasting his/her time. The best way to reduce amount of non-biodegradable materials and various pollutions in the world, is to convince people to not create more polluters. A potential child (and potential generations of children stemming from him/her), is much more dangerous to the world's environment than a middle aged person winding down.

The world would be dramatically better off if there was just 1-2 billion people on it. Then every person on the planet would be able to have a plot of land and have a rather high standard of living with exponentially progressing technology. Right now, the sheer amount of poverty and resource depletion, created by excessive fertility, are constantly straining and preventing technology from catching up and really raising standards of living around the world. Poverty and lack of education building upon themselves through numerous children also destabilize the world politically, a dangerous thing in a nuclear age.

If it's not too outrageous for a person to reduce amount of children from 6 to 1-2 over a period of 100 years, then it's definitely not too outrageous to reduce amount of children from 1-2 to 0.


-Nutritional-

All of these reasons by themselves (with perhaps the exception of the moral ones), are enough to make any educated person recoil in horror from the idea of ruining one's life to such a degree. However, these reasons underline a deeper basic reason to not make one's life this inefficient and miserable. Undermining one's financial and psychological well being also undermines one's ability to gather better nutrition and live a longer life. The endless thousands upon thousands of dollars saved, can buy higher quality food for a childless person and increase physiological/mental functioning. Better nutrition and healthier empowered psyche from childless freedom mutually influence each other to propel a person to new heights of health. This new, stronger, more confident physiology allows one to really add years to one's life.

Perhaps if we start rephrasing the issue as a public health matter, the grave risk of having a child will become more evident. It's not just having a much better shot at riches but not crippling one's body, mental state, and life span.