Follow What Is Natural

After all, this is how humans are supposed to live right

This past week, I recorded a podcast episode with my friend Dr. Anthony Gustin on his show The Natural State Podcast which will be airing in the next few weeks. We covered a ton of topics but especially honed in on the topic of leaning toward what is natural with what we expose ourselves to as humans.

If you look at the way that we are living today, you’ll notice that it is far different from the way our ancestors lived. Obviously. To be frank, I don’t have a desire to return back to the way our ancestors lived. Dying of now-curable sicknesses, being exposed to brutal weather conditions, and even having to be on the lookout for animals that are trying to make you their next meal. No thanks, I’m good on that.

This doesn’t mean that we should abandon all things that are considered natural though and this is exactly what is happening in our society today. We now live in an era where technology steals our free time, kitchen chemistry makes up the foods we eat, and the environments we live in day to day would be unrecognizable to our ancestors.

Where we are currently as a society has been a slow progression. So slow that in many ways we haven’t really had the ability to recognize that the changes have happened. This has led to the unnatural way that we are living to feel normal. Almost natural. Even worse is that we don’t have ample evidence that many of the things we are now exposed to on a regular basis are bad for our health which leads many people who are disgruntled at the idea of abandoning the new norm to push back and ask for “the science” showing that these things are unhealthy for us.

The truth is we don’t have everything figured out. We don’t have a randomized controlled trial to tell us that seed oils are a direct cause of chronic disease. We don’t have evidence that the “food” we are feeding the animals that we eat is leading to a far different animal than what our ancestors would have ate (although we are making strides in this area, be sure to listen to the podcast for more on that.) We also can’t for sure say that our addiction to social media and technology is having a net negative impact on society. So how can we really make recommendations against these things?

As Dr. Gustin and I get into on the podcast, our line of thinking is that the further we are away from what is natural, the further we are away from what is optimal for human health. I do believe that humans have the powerful ability to adapt to their environment and evolve to handle the stressors that they are exposed to but these adaptations and evolutions occur over hundreds of years and while that is taking place we are suffering in the present.

So while this line of thinking may not be the most evidence-based or scientific, it does seem to be the most practical and logical. Humans have lived under more natural conditions for thousands of years and for most of that time have been free of chronic disease which means that this way of living is more likely to be aligned with what is optimal for human biology and this is what we should strive for in our daily lives.

What does this look like? It means eating animals that are eating the foods they should be eating, not the garbage we are feeding them to cut costs. It means trading in time on Facebook to go have a real-life social interaction with another human. It means getting outside in the sun and moving instead of staying sedentary inside under artificial lights. It means blacking out your room when you go to bed instead of having the TV on and your phone buzzing next to your head.

I believe that the closer we follow what is “natural” for humans the healthier we will be, the happier we will be, and the more productive we will be as a society. What do you think?

Thanks for reading,

Chris Irvin

P.S. I am considering re-opening my Keto+ newsletter and changing it to a newsletter that highlights all the new keto and low-carb research that is published each week. If this is something you would be interested in, drop me a line so I can better determine if this would be helpful to you and the rest of my readers. Thanks!