Have you taken time to consider your existence? Could it be that you aren't aware of your own life?
Have you considered how you continue to exist? Could it be that what you ingest keeps you alive? Have you considered how you obtain what you ingest? Could it be that movement is how you obtain what you ingest? Have you deeply considered how these elements: awareness, ingestion, movement contribute to your existence? Don't listen to me or anyone else regarding your existence. Deeply consider your experience, here and now. There is no other truth.
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All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.
-Paracelsus- An anti-nutrient is a natural or synthetic compound that interferes with the absorption of nutrients and the proper functioning of the body. These compounds evolved in numerous life forms as deterrents to ingestion. Anti-nutrients are essentially poisonous to the organism that ingests them. Without technology such as cooking, we would be unable to ingest these compounds at all. Like nutrients, their effects appear to be dose-dependent. Barring individual genetic susceptibility and ingestion of massive quantities, the deleterious effects of anti-nutrients occur via chronic consumption. Examples of this phenomenon include malnutrition, leaky gut and endotoxemia. The most prevalent anti-nutrients in our modern environment are the gluten complex (found in cereals or grains), lectins (found in legumes or beans), glycosides and glycoalkaloids (found in nightshades such as tomatoes, peppers and potatoes) and phytates (found in cereals and legumes). These should look familiar to you. In reality, we can ingest anti-nutrients occasionally without acute toxicity (think birthday cake), although there may be some discomfort (think hot peppers). However, we should avoid the chronic ingestion of these compounds and focus on ingesting high quality nutrients. Imagine navigating your day feeling vibrant, calm, and confident - your senses alive and your body completely responsive. You feel as if you are capable of accomplishing anything. This is optimal health and wellbeing, it can be yours, and Human by Design is the way.
There is only one way to completely realize truth: enter it through action. Implementing the Human by Design system involves action, and this is something that must be done individually. We must move beyond understanding and act. Action is reality. Our modern environment makes it difficult to take appropriate action. We have access to unlimited amounts of knowledge. Unfortunately, this makes implementation more confusing than it has to be. Which one of the myriad sources of knowledge is true? What should we base our actions on? Experience is the key. Truth comes down to personal experience. Having access to an appropriate knowledge base is a good way to start. This is the function of the Human by Design system. However, no one else’s answers are going to help in the end. This includes everything that you have read and seen up to this point. Do not take this point lightly. Each of us must find our own answers, and we must depend on our own experience. In order to experience optimal health and wellbeing you must test any and all knowledge out for yourself, and trust your own experience. You must experience and realize for yourself what is true and real - you are the final authority. This applies to every principle, practice and method associated with the Human by Design system. Don’t believe anything I say, but don’t ignore it either. Try it out and decide for yourself. With that said, Human by Design recognizes that you may not know where to begin. Based on this line of thinking, Human by Design has developed the three implementation plans, which are explained below - The Simple Path, The Basic Path, and the Complete Path. Human awareness is complete and balanced functioning of the primary (instinct)/secondary (reasoning) representation systems. Zazen, the path to wisdom (intuition), is the modern, paleolithic approximation of ancestral awareness.
Human dietary strategy is based on vegetable matter in the primary position and animal matter in an essential, secondary position. Paleolithic nutrition is the modern, paleolithic approximation of our ancestral dietary strategy. Human movement capabilities are based on terrestrial, bipedal movement and arboreal-based movement such as walking, running, jumping, climbing, carrying, tool making and throwing. Movement qualities include power = fast execution/moderate intensity, strength = slow execution/high intensity, endurance = moderate execution/low intensity. A functional movement practice is the modern, paleolithic approximation of ancestral movement. Intro to Paleolithic Nutrition - Sample daily meal plan
Ingest a mixed fruit salad, mixed vegetable omelette, a large, mixed salad with lean animal protein and a small handful of mixed nuts over the course of a day. Do not ingest cereals/grains, potatoes, legumes and milk and dairy. Ingest water, tea without sweetner (green or black) and black coffee. Include a cup of berries and two, four to six ounce servings (two small pieces) of fruit in the fruit salad. Vegetable omelette is composed of two to three eggs and two, one cup servings of vegetables. You can replace the omelette with a meal composed of two, one cup servings of vegetables and one, three ounce serving of lean animal protein. The large salad is composed of two cups of salad greens, two one cup servings of vegetables, three tablespoons of light salad dressing and one three to four ounce serving of lean animal protein. Mixed nuts are ingested as a snack. Do not exceed one ounce of mixed, unsalted/unroasted nuts. Peanuts are not a nut. It's much more effective if you prepare your meals the night before and have them available to you the following day (pack your meals). Be completely present - Pay close attention to what is going on around you. Keep at it.
Restore mobility, the ability to move freely and easily - Emphasize ground contact, agility, rotation, jumping, climbing and throwing motions. Give your body what it needs - Remove low quality, anti-nutrient dense ingestibles such as cereals (gluten-like complex), certain tubers (solanum/nightshade), legumes and milk and dairy. Replace with high-quality, nutrient dense ingestibles such as fruit, leaves, roots, tubers, nuts and animal flesh and organs. The most important interactions a species can have with its environment are those associated with survival and reproduction. These interactions are dependent upon the expenditure and intake of energy. This expenditure and intake of energy is manifested as the elements of movement and ingestion. As important as reproduction is to a species existence, this interaction is by beyond the scope of this post. However, reproduction is dependent upon survival and activities associated with this interaction can be viewed through the lens of a group of behaviors known as foraging. Simply stated, foraging can be understood as the amount of energy an organism expends to obtain energy from its environment for purpose of survival (and ultimately reproduction). Foraging behaviors, which are actions associated with movement and ingestion, are important determinants of how a species exists or existed in an environment.
We can determine a great deal about an organisms existence based on its foraging behavior. In reality, very few organisms seek out all the different energy sources (food) that they are capable of ingesting. Based on this observation, a theory has been developed to understand the factors that determine how an organism goes about obtaining food in an environment. This theory is known as optimal foraging theory, or OFT. Based on this theory, the food types preferentially sought out and ingested by an organism, as well as how they are obtained, interact to form that organism’s dietary strategy. Dietary strategies provide a convenient way for us to understand how the elements of movement (energy expenditure) and ingestion (energy intake) interact to determine a species existence. There are two main strategies: general and specific. A species that employs a generalist strategy tends to look for, pursue and ingest many of the food types it comes into contact with. Those species with a specialist strategy ignore many of the food types they come across, preferentially searching for a few specific food types. As a species, humans employ a generalist strategy and it was an important driver of our species evolution. OFT is based on the general assumption that foraging behavior is adaptive, a product of natural selection that yields the greatest possible benefit to an organism’s survival and reproductive success. More specifically, OFT is based on the theory that organisms forage or exist in a way that maximizes their net energy intake per unit time. This suggests behaviors that are based on finding and ingesting food types that contain the most energy while expending minimal amounts of energy doing so. This understanding provides us with a framework for understanding the elements of existence and the disparity between ancestral and current existence. Ancestral humans employed a foraging strategy that revolved around mobile and efficient diurnal gathering, scavenging and hunting practices. Gathering involves collecting wild food sources. Scavenging involves obtaining discarded dead organisms for ingestion. Hunting involves killing or trapping living organisms, or pursuing them with the intention to do so. This “ancestral foraging strategy” enabled us to survive and thrive on the African savanna and colonize the rest of the planet, sculpting our design along the way. How does knowledge about the ancestral foraging strategy translate into approximating ancestral environmental conditions in modern conditions? Become what you are - practice zazen
Move appropriately and often - practice functional movement Give your body what it needs - practice paleolithic nutrition Do you have un-examined assumptions and beliefs about how we should move, ingest and be? What is the truth? How would you know?
We are designed to express a particular body composition. Body composition is the percentage of bone, organs, muscle and fat that composes an organism. Based on these anatomical features, body composition can be very individualistic. However, our bodies are designed to be relatively lean. This particular body composition was a function of the ancestral foraging strategy, which required high levels of physical activity and resulted in the ingestion of high quality food sources.
A general tool for determining body composition is the Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is calculated as your weight (kg) divided by your height (meters) squared. Unfortunately BMI does not account for individuals who possess proportionally more or less muscle mass. However, it is an appropriate place to start when discussing optimal body composition. What does BMI tell us about our body composition as it relates to function? Ancestral and historic humans were very lean and had BMI’s in the range of 13 to 19. Even though a BMI between 13 and 19 is ideal, this range is out of reach for most individuals. Science and experience has revealed that BMI’s in the range of 20 to 25 are appropriate for optimal health and wellbeing. BMI’s within 26 to 30 are considered overweight, 31 to 35 obese, and over 35 morbidly obese. BMI's over 30 are associated with a significant decline in overall health and wellbeing. In general, the lower the BMI the better our bodies function. A functional body composition includes an optimal ratio of muscle and fat. Muscle is designed for the production of movement, while fat is designed for energy storage. We know that ancestral humans displayed significant amounts of muscle mass and a low levels of body fat. They maintained a consistent amount of muscle mass due to their foraging strategy. However, their body fat percentage fluctuated within a particular range based on the availability of food sources, which was rarely abundant. This particular body composition is associated with optimal health and wellbeing. We can restore this body composition through appropriate physical activity and the ingestion of high quality food sources. |
AuthorSeth Clayton is the creator of the Human by Design System. He is a human from Charlotte, NC who is interested in helping you achieve optimal health and wellbeing through the avenues of Zen Buddhism, Functional Movement and Paleolithic Nutrition. Archives
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