Nutrition

Don't Throw Everything Overboard

15. August 2021 3 min read

Extremes are rarely healthy. When optimizing your nutrition and lifestyle, test systematically, avoid oversteering, and reject absolute dietary rules.

Don't Throw Everything Overboard

When it comes to working with your own biology and biochemistry, you must understand one essential thing:

Never oversteer!

Often we see the opposite.

People who want to lose weight slip into eating disorders and later perhaps into anorexia. It happens often enough.
People who want to become healthy punish themselves and forget that joy of life is also healthy.
People learn they have a magnesium deficiency. So from then on they pour a gram down their throat daily.

If you think this only happens to individuals who might be a bit extreme by nature … you're far off! What our society and government are currently doing regarding a virus is also oversteering, but on a much larger scale.

Yet there is an essential fundamental concept called «Minimum Effective Dose» – we need to find the sweet spot of optimal effect. The principle of «more is more» or «the more the better» simply doesn't apply here. To put it differently:

Stop beating your biology with a sledgehammer.

But what does that look like in reality? In everyday life? We agree that nutrition is a major lever, a key to being healthy (and fit). Anyone who has dealt with nutrition for a long time also knows: there is perhaps nothing more complicated.

We're not to blame for that. We modern humans can't help it: we've often spoken about how our very earliest ancestors were pure herbivores for millions of years. Then not anymore – and then increasingly so again.

This means: today, for example, every European has ancestors who were hunters and gatherers just a few thousand years ago – but also carry a (large) genetic share from early farmers, who have existed for many thousands of years now.

It's clear that this creates tension. We are simply an imperfect hybrid creature. Be that as it may. Nutrition is important. But here people make big mistakes. They throw too much overboard too early. Sometimes it's seemingly small changes that can have a huge effect.

Example: Heavy metals. It can be a single heavy metal that cripples the entire chemistry of the human body. Maybe you've tried every different diet in vain? Maybe it's a small metal you're somehow ingesting?
Example: Veganism. Why swing from one extreme to the other? First people stuff themselves with junk food, later they only eat salad leaves and goji berries. Maybe animal products don't harm you at all? Maybe you should just eat lean meat of the highest quality. Which brings us to...
Example: Animal products. Maybe some animal products really are bad for you. Maybe you're one of those people for whom eggs simply aren't healthy. Maybe dairy products harm you. But that doesn't mean all animal products are bad for you – on the contrary, many are needed for us to be healthy at all.
Example: Carbohydrates. Maybe white bread really is unhealthy. But that doesn't mean the potato is also the plague. Or that you have to limit fruit. Maybe the sugar from cola really is bad for you – but that's no reason to stop eating bananas.

Understood? Use a little intuition…

Of course we know what objections will come. «But how am I supposed to figure that out… But life is complicated… But I already eat this way and that way…» – People like to spend years, often many of them, searching for a shortcut, for the one miracle solution, instead of really taking time – perhaps years – to get to know themselves.

That means: eliminate dairy for 30 days. Then grains for 30 days. Maybe both together for 30 days. Don't eat fish for 60 days. Go without fries for 8 weeks. Don't eat eggs for a while.
But don't make the mistake and declare «never again animal products», or «only plant-based», or «only 'no carb'» or «never sweet fruit again». That kind of absolute thinking will surely make you sick again – or even sicker. So: be careful!

Also important: stay away from people who tell you something different. Differentiation is crucial. If that no longer exists in the worldview of your information source, walk away! Otherwise your thinking will be poisoned and your approach will be doomed to failure. Always remember:

There is no failure, only feedback. And it's about feedback (from your body).

Don't Throw Everything Overboard

When it comes to working with your own biology and biochemistry, you must understand one essential thing:

Never oversteer!

Often we see the opposite.

People who want to lose weight slip into eating disorders and later perhaps into anorexia. It happens often enough.

People who want to become healthy punish themselves and forget that joy of life is also healthy.

People learn they have a magnesium deficiency. So from then on they pour a gram down their throat daily.

Stop beating your biology with a sledgehammer.

Example: Heavy metals. It can be a single heavy metal that cripples the entire chemistry of the human body. Maybe you've tried every different diet in vain? Maybe it's a small metal you're somehow ingesting?

Example: Veganism. Why swing from one extreme to the other? First people stuff themselves with junk food, later they only eat salad leaves and goji berries. Maybe animal products don't harm you at all? Maybe you should just eat lean meat of the highest quality. Which brings us to...

Example: Animal products. Maybe some animal products really are bad for you. Maybe you're one of those people for whom eggs simply aren't healthy. Maybe dairy products harm you. But that doesn't mean all animal products are bad for you – on the contrary, many are needed for us to be healthy at all.

Example: Carbohydrates. Maybe white bread really is unhealthy. But that doesn't mean the potato is also the plague. Or that you have to limit fruit. Maybe the sugar from cola really is bad for you – but that's no reason to stop eating bananas.

Understood? Use a little intuition…

That means: eliminate dairy for 30 days. Then grains for 30 days. Maybe both together for 30 days. Don't eat fish for 60 days. Go without fries for 8 weeks. Don't eat eggs for a while.

But don't make the mistake and declare «never again animal products», or «only plant-based», or «only 'no carb'» or «never sweet fruit again». That kind of absolute thinking will surely make you sick again – or even sicker. So: be careful!

There is no failure, only feedback. And it's about feedback (from your body).

Don't Throw Everything Overboard

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Don't Throw Everything Overboard