The food pyramid is not killing us. Social media and online life are killing us.
I’m a recovering ancestral diet enthusiast. What comes with enthusiasm for the ancestral diet and everything else that accompanies it is susceptibility to the belief that all of modern nutrition and in fact modern medicine are wrong and misleading us. Killing us. Well, I got over it. I now understand that my past interest in all of this had nothing to do with actual health and rational thinking and everything to do with a vulnerability to the messaging. “Question everything”, they say. Well, if you do that, you will spend your whole life questioning and no time answering.
The mindset that fuels the idea that the food pyramid is a scam and modern medicine is at the very least making us fat and at worst killing us is the mindset that seeks attention and clicks by drawing the dubious conclusion that, because the obesity epidemic exists in the same timespace as the food pyramid and modern medicine, the food pyramid and modern medicine must be wrong and have caused the obesity epidemic. We’ve all been lied to. So outrageous. To prove their claim would require that you can show that all those obese people have been following the food pyramid and the advice of modern medicine. Each and every one of them has chosen whole grains as the centerpiece of their plates, plates filled with vegetables, legumes, lean meats, low fat dairy, and fruit. They don’t eat fried food, sugar, or refined grains. They’ve gotten enough sleep, enough vitamin D, all the recommended vaccines, the right amount of social contact and weekly exercise. They don’t drink calories. They see the doctor and dentist twice a year. They floss. They reduced stress and have drunk enough water and used sunscreen consistently. They used alcohol in moderation. They’ve done all this and yet they’re all sick and fat and almost dead. Do you believe this? Or is it perhaps the case that the obesity epidemic and our collective sickness exist because the behaviors of the obese are nowhere near the food pyramid and the advice of modern medicine and therefore not related at all to their existence? (Which is, ironically, support for the value of the food pyramid and modern medicine.) And that something else has stolen their attention and driven their behavior? And what has stolen their attention has not so much driven them actively away from following medical and nutritional advice, but has simply precluded their ability to make any informed choice at all, because they are distracted?
Whatever grabs your attention the most times is all that matters now. A slow, methodical, science-backed approach wins races, but it does not win clicks. Clicks matter, how to win races does not matter. Health and longevity are won marathons and are not attention grabbers. They are not clickable. If I eat lots of vegetables, get enough sleep, drink a lot of water, exercise every day, and manage my stress, I will likely be healthy and live a long life. This is definiely true, even though you may disagree with it, and that cannot be disputed in a rational world. The only way you can legitimately disagree with it is to show evidence to the contrary, and that evidence does not exist, and not for lack of trying. But the methodical, science-based approach is boring and doesn’t matter to most people. SAYING that something will make you healthy and live a long life DOES matter to people. But what ACTUALLY DOES those things does not matter to people. Because those things take a long time, are boring, and do not generate clicks and buzz. And because they do not generate clicks and buzz, they force click-seekers to lie about what ACTUALLY DOES cause health and longevity. And guess what it is, according to them? The opposite of everything we’ve been told. Forget everything you’ve been told. The solution is actually much easier. There are hacks. Just do this. Works every time. (And they will sell you supplements, by the way.)
There’s only one way out of this and it’s to choose rationality and jump off the hamster wheel. Put down the phone. Go outside.
If any of this resonates with you, do me a favor and pay close attention to what you see the next time you look at your phone. The feeds from your preferred news sources and social media are a firehose of ads, lies, and garbage. Look at them closely. There is nothing of value whatsoever in them. Everything is designed to grab your attention, trick you out of your money, and compel you to keep looking.
B.F. Skinner was right.
Bibliography
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan, 2008
A Grain of Salt: the Science and Pseudo-Science of What We Eat, Joe Schwarcz, MD, 2019
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live, Marlene Zuk, 2013
Form Is Everything 