🦷 Why focus on ancestral nutrition:
Within biology there are very few good explanatory theories. And the theory of evolution by natural selection is probably the best one. So, if you can’t explain something about life or psychology or human nature through evolution,
then you probably don’t have a good theory for it.
-Naval Ravikant, on the 1st Principles of Biology, on one of those rare podcasts that may warrant a 2nd listen.
When it comes to diet, everyone disagrees with everyone on everything.
I think the most rational thing is to go back to 1st Principles, which is rooted in our evolutionary history.
All animals compete in an evolutionary arms race. An organism adapts to its environment to optimize its survival and reproductive success. Selection shapes the body
and molds the teeth to procure and process the food available. Through this process, an animal cultivates its species-specific diet.
This dietary niche is intuitive and instinctual. Cows don’t need to be told to graze grass, nor orangutans to pick fruit, nor lions to prey on gazelles. But we humans have lost this instinct. Left to our own devices, we eat food incongruent with our design and evolutionary
past.
To find our dietary roots, we need to work from first principles. Luckily, it’s written in your teeth.
Teeth tell the story of our evolutionary history and the diets that shaped us. By rewinding the clock, we can get to the root and re-discover The Human Diet.
