Rediscovering the Proper Human Diet

[This is a repost from a few months ago. Since I have been updating it with new information, and this is the time of year many people evaluate their health with the intent to improve it in the next, this is a good time to revisit this critical subject.]

Many people get frustrated when comes to figuring out how to achieve better health. How often have you heard, or yourself have said, “Who am I supposed to listen to? Everyone has different information. Health advice is always changing. I give up!”

Does it have to be that hard, or are we making it harder than it really is? Perhaps, if we step back and apply some logic, history, basic science, and some common sense, we will find the answers. There are two basic maxims for optimal health:

Eat what your body is designed to use.

We are not designed to be couch potatoes.

These two maxims, derived from science and common sense, quickly cut away any confusion about proper human health and the proper human diet. We will dive deeper into the supporting details, and examine the insights and revelations supporting these maxims.

Are you tired of suboptimal health? Do you want to avoid chronic disease and degeneration in your future? Do you want the “secrets” to the Proper Human Diet? Read on.

Around the world there are regions of people with strong health and low disease. They often have very different diets. The common factor? They eat far more fresh and minimally processed foods than processed, chemical-laden ones. So diets don’t need to be as strict as some claim, but is there an ideal diet tailored to our bodies?
Humans are omnivores in a technical sense — we can eat plants and animals. Our internal biology, everything from our mouths through our intestines, lean heavily to processing and utilizing animal-based proteins. The simplest way to understand this is to compare our bodies to carnivores (like a cat) and herbivores (like a cow). We are considerably more similar to the cat than the cow. Also, our insulin is designed for protein, not high-carb diets. The make-up of the human body thrives on animal-based fuel. This isn’t being anti-vegan. This is basic biology.
Consider as our ancestors transitioned from animal-based food, to eating a lot of grains, their stature shrank, and so did their brains. Grains are cheap carbs and calories, but provide little nutrition. Those ancient grains were not the modified, chemical-laden ones we eat now, so our ancestors’ health was thankfully not completely ruined.
What about their lifespans? Weren’t they much shorter? Well, if you remove infant-mortality rates, and other non-nutritional factors (like being killed by a mountain lion), their lives weren’t as short as we have been lead to believe. All things being equal, they probably would outlive us with better healthspans.
Healthspans? We like to think we live long because of modern medicine, but living long, and living healthy are two different things. If you live to 102 but are in a wheel chair with dementia, that is not a good healthspan. Besides, even our lifespans have begun to shrink. And this: Genetics tells us we should be good for 120 years, yet we keep getting further away from that number.
Many of the diseases we associate with old age are not caused by aging, but from decades of eating poorly. Old-age conditions are increasingly being seen in young people. Alzheimer’s is considered by many to be type-3 diabetes, that is, a metabolic dysfunction caused by years of eating processed, sugar-infested foods. What you eat now, sets you up for bad health later. Maybe tomorrow, or decades from now, but it will.
It is completely possible to get a full spectrum of nutrition from animal-based foods. However, are those who completely avoid vegetables insane? Consider two things: Most plants don’t want to be eaten. Their biological design makes them taste bad, which is one defense mechanism. Two, most vegetables we eat today don’t resemble their largely inedible ancestors. Only through centuries of selective breeding, and now genetic engineering, and through cooking, are these plants useable by our digestive systems. Fruits’ design (such as their sweetness) indicate they want to be eaten, so eat, but eat sparingly, because you really don’t need that sugar.
No, really. Your liver makes all the sugar you need. In fact, your body only needs about 4g of glucose in the bloodstream at any given time. Consider this when your drink a soda with 150% of your RDA of sugar. Insulin-resistance from pounding down toxic amounts of inflammatory sugar is the root of metabolic dysfunction and chronic disease. I wish I knew this in my Mountain Dew-drinking days. The carb-heavy diets we eat in the Standard American Diet (SAD) add to this by raising blood sugar. A bowl of “healthy” cereal is like eating a pile of cookies.
The food pyramid is pseudoscience, much like the flat-Earth, or the “vegetables” in vegetable oil. The base of the pyramid is full of carbs, which make zero sense for our carnivore-leaning digestive systems. Scientists warned this experiment would ruin our health, and it did just that. The pyramid wasn’t rooted in science, but promoted by lobbyists who sold — surprise — sugar. Oh, yeah, the Kellogg brothers, because of religious beliefs, developed cereal to suppress sexual desire. Think about that when you choke down your fruit loops.
The industrial farming producing all these grains is the largest health and environmental disaster ever created by mankind. It works like this: To grow crops faster and more of them, pesticides are used. These chemicals sterilize the topsoil, so more chemicals are needed in the form of fertilizers. This endless cycle destroyed topsoil in a few decades, that took millennia to be created, and makes it easier to wash and blow away, taking the chemicals with it into the water supply. This is a system on the verge of collapse, while it imperils our health and environment.
Are chemicals designed to kill organisms really safe for humans? Often declared safe by the manufacturers — and banned by other countries — our chemical load is obscenely high. This, along with poor nutrition, correspond nicely with decreased fertility, dropping lifespans, increased chronic diseases and skyrocketing allergies and neurological conditions.
Regenerative farming solves these problems. Is this some new, modern method? No, it’s the way nature runs things through its interconnected animal-plant ecosystem. It has worked for thousands of years in creating life-giving soil. No chemicals needed.
And for thousands of years we lived happily in the Sun. Whole segments of the human species spent so much time in the Sun, their skin darkened over many generations. Yet they didn’t die out from skin cancer. Why, in the age of sunscreen and everyone sitting in their house, is skin cancer so prevalent? Perhaps chemicals and bad nutrition undermining the health of our skin?
There is one nutrient so important, our body is designed to make it. Only one: Vitamin D. Made by a chemical reaction in our skin when exposed to sunlight. Critical in the body’s utilization of calcium, even more so in our immune response. People with Vitamin D deficiency suffer more severely from infections and heal slower. The health benefits of time spent outside were well-known until a rather recent time in our history — until that dark time in 2020 when we were all told to stay inside with the windows shut.
Bonus #1: Our habits (bad and good) are programmed into our brain. Focusing on changing one habit at a time makes it easier to change that habit by giving the brain time to reprogram. Good nutrition is critical for brain health and rational thinking.
Bonus #2: Muscle health isn’t just for bodybuilders. Your muscles make up about 40% of your body, and healthy muscle tissue is critical in staving off chronic disorders, bone degeneration, and more. One person put it this way: Older people don’t fall and break their hip. Their hip breaks, then they fall. Muscle health and bone health are closely connected. Man and woman alike, you have muscles for many reasons. Use them, strengthen them. Not using them is dangerous.
Myth #1: “Everything in moderation.” This is stupid. It never made sense to me. Ever had lead, mercury, or uranium in moderation? Our level of sugar intake isn’t much better. As Azadeh Gharehgozlou wrote, “If moderation means doing something harmful regularly, is it moderation or slow destruction?”
Myth #2: “I ate that years ago and I’m fine.” What you ate decades ago likely had different ingredients and less chemicals. It wasn’t the same.

None of this is esoteric, secret knowledge. It’s not motivated from politics or cult-like thinking. Chronic disease doesn’t care who you voted for. The proper human diet isn’t left or right, blue or red. These health conditions will ruin all of your lives equally. Some in power may want you to eat poorly, because it provably makes people more compliant, and impedes clear thinking. Don’t underestimate those who knowingly promoted health standards for decades with no basis in science or history.

Do your own research. Don’t spend more money and time on your home or car than your health. Check out the list of sources below — most from real doctors, living in the real world. Not experts or politicians paid for by the corporate world. Your health is your responsibility. You don’t need a science or medical degree. Just a desire to learn and be healthy. Find doctors who want to cure you, not treat symptoms with drugs. Being on drugs continuously isn’t wellness, it means you are, by definition, not well.

Only a few generations ago, the chronic diseases afflicting our population were virtually non-existent. There’s no difficulty in seeing the correlation, the downward spiral, with the change in our diets and activity levels and farming methods. Chronic diseases, rampant allergies, and neurological disorders, are products of the modern world. Slowly degenerating into misery while addicted to prescription drugs isn’t normal. Humanity’s health, at the height of supposed advanced civilization, shouldn’t be in rapid decline.

There is one more maxim to add to our list which really makes this all simple:

Eat and move like our ancestors.

They knew what the Proper Human Diet was, and so do we. Ready turn the tables on sickness and disease? This is a movement we cannot afford to lose.

References and Resources for Further Study

Lies I Taught in Medical School by Dr. Robert Lufkin

Stay off My Operating Table by Dr. Phillip Ovadia

Forever Strong by Dr. Gabrielle Lyon

Carnivore Cure by Judy Cho

Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means

Deep Nutrition by Dr. Catherine Shanahan

Dark Calories by Dr. Catherine Shanahan

The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz

Fiat Food by Matthew Lysiak

Sacred Cow by Diana Rodgers and Robb Wolf

The Carnivore Diet by Dr. Shawn Baker