The Dumbest Species

Dear Reader,

I have come to the conclusion that we are the dumbest species on Earth. We are indeed apparently the only species that is incapable of feeding itself properly: Not even flatworms kill themselves by eating the wrong stuff - but we do. By the millions.

What’s more, that seems to be a fairly recent phenomenon. While our technical knowledge has increased over the past couple of centuries, our knowledge about food and health seems to have decreased.

So-called primitive tribes knew (and in some places still know) infinitely more about what is healthy food and what isn’t than we do in our artificial, air-conditioned, anti-bacterial environment.

Why else would we need to employ legions of nutritionists, dieticians and other food pyramid artists?

Of course, these experts are usually either wrong or mercenaries for the food industry (or both).

The nutrition experts’ flipflopping and zigzagging on what is and isn’t good for us is a clear indication that we should treat their advice with extreme caution.

In fact, considering their record, I tend to do the exact opposite of what they recommend: I eat salt, bacon, eggs and stay as far away as possible from anything that has the words “light” or “low fat” on the label.

My kids drink whole milk, but they are pretty much the only ones in their class who do.

Without pretending to establish a direct causality, I find it interesting that the more artificial our diet becomes, the unhealthier we become as a population.

Nutritional “wisdom” often flies in the face of scientific evidence, as with milk for instance. Fat-free and low-fat milk is nutritionally worthless, yet that’s what “experts” recommend.

Nutritionally we also suffer from cultural handicaps.

We go into a tizzy when 18- and 20-year-olds have a beer or a glass of wine, yet we find it perfectly acceptable when they drink Mountain Dew for breakfast, even though there is no doubt that a glass of good wine or good beer is significantly healthier for a 16-year old than the sugary chemical crap we encourage them to drink.

Obviously we have a lot of hang-ups when it comes to alcohol.

Meanwhile, we are getting fatter and sicker while we are becoming more and more estranged from our food.

Oddly enough, we basically know what’s good and what isn’t. To paraphrase my grandfather, the rule is fairly simple: The more processed it is and the more artificial ingredients it has, the less good it is.

When we try to improve on nature, we usually get the opposite result - especially where nutrition is concerned.

And it is so easy to get healthy, local whole foods.

But then again, many people don’t know how to cook.