Junk Food, Junk Earth

ALERT member Jean-Philippe Puyravaud has had a gustatory revelation and lost nearly 10 pounds (4 kilograms) in the process.  He tells us how our own health and that of the Earth are inextricably linked:

I recently bumped into the book The New Evolution Diet by Art de Vany, an economist.  I was immediately convinced by his arguments.

Time to eat like a caveman...

For most of human history our ancestors ate meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits.  Our body is not well adapted to handle sugars or the toxicity of grains and milk.  We should strive to mimic the diet of our hunter-gatherer forebears.

Our ancestors also faced an uncertain world and their 'exercise' consisted mostly of long walks interspersed by occasional sudden efforts, like running from a hungry lion.

So, the natural complement to a natural diet is fun exercises involving bursts of intense exercise, such as sprints.  Eat as much as you want so long as you follow the natural diet, and exercise when you feel like it, for fun. 

Do this, de Vany argues, and you'll look like a tribal man or woman: lean, light, muscular.

What would happen if everybody adopted this 'evolutionary diet'?

Obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, and some arthritis would virtually vanish.  We would need more gardens, we'd replace cereals with tree orchards (which is good for the soil), and we'd rewild the Earth so we could have lean bush meat.

In addition, we should ensure that our rivers and oceans provide fresh fish and are not the waste dumps they are now becoming. 

Surprise!  Our ecological scenario might actually be far better than it is at present.

Those who create mathematical models have a saying: “garbage in, garbage out”.  This means that, independently of the quality of their models, if the data are bad, their conclusions are bad.

The situation with our food is analogous: “garbage in, garbage outside”.  If you eat the wrong food, you get the wrong Earth.