Are We Just *Modern Zoo Animals*? The Ancestral Mismatch (Part 3)

Hey, it's Ben Greenfield. Every week I release a quick podcast with some meaningful thoughts that hopefully make your life better. And this is it. If you would like these thoughts delivered straight into your email inbox, go to bengreenfieldlife.com/newsletter. And when you do that, you can also get access to leave comments, leave thoughts, leave your feedback because I love to hear what you think. All right, let's dive in. All right, welcome to number 3 on the ancestral mismatch, and you can read or watch or listen to the other parts in the description of this video wherever you happen to be watching it. So in this part, within about 3 quick tips, I'll be giving you a few basic fuel strategies that don't involve a long detour to your local overpriced hippie grocer to shop for wild-caught salmon baptized in unicorn tears and fill you in instead on the most impactful dietary switches that you can make now without breaking the bank. So let's just do it. First, avoid heavily fried foods. Think about it this way. If you were to walk up to me at the county fair and offer me a stick of cotton candy or a corn dog, which one do you think I'd choose? Hint: the answer is not both or neither. I'd choose the cotton candy. 10 times out of 10, because I can stroll around the fair, I can get my blood flowing, I can take a few exciting fair rides that cause my muscles to soak up some glucose and burn off, or at least more easily metabolize, the sugar in the cotton candy. But the rancid heated seed oils in a corn dog will go on to be the leaky building blocks of my cells for much longer than the sugar is around. I know a few of you are thinking about, oh, the artificial colors and chemicals in the cotton candy. We're just focusing on, on the macros right now. Uh, the reason for this is because harmful compounds in high-temperature fried oils called lipid oxidation products, or LOPs, form metabolites in your body that can contribute to chronic disease risk over time, particularly when exposure is frequent. Uh, the second tip is a little similar, and that's to avoid ultra-processed food in shiny, crinkly plastic packaging. Uh, these so-called UPFs are relatively void in nutrients. They're engineered to be highly palatable, aka addictive, and they're usually low in fiber and nutrients but high in additives, preservatives, sodium, unhealthy chemicals, oxidized oils, and plastics. Yuck. And I realize I may have just completely nuked my cotton candy corn dog analogy because I would say cotton candy probably is a UPF, but it's more the sugar versus oil comparison I was trying to get out there. Basically, maybe it isn't either. Don't have cotton candy, don't have corn dogs. Anyways, avoiding these ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, is easier than you think. So start by shopping around the perimeter of the grocery store where you'll find most of the real whole foods your great-grandparents would have recognized, like meat, eggs, dairy, fruit, vegetables, bread if that's your thing. Sure, duck down the aisles occasionally for items like your extra virgin olive oil or vinegar or salt or sardines. But generally, avoid the heavily processed stuff you're going to find mostly down the aisles. I mean, heck, I travel a ton for my job, and I have a simple grocery shopping list I can use at just about any supermarket on the planet, even the non-hippie ones that don't charge you $2.50 for a bag. Here's a sample list that I will either order in advance on Instacart, or I will just drop into the grocery store and get. Bonus points if you walk to the grocery store and farmer's walk this back to your hotel room or Airbnb. A whole chicken, one rotisserie chicken, can feed me protein for days, uh, for about $10 to $12. Uh, frozen or regular blueberries or other berries. Obviously you would be at an Airbnb for the frozen variety unless your hotel room has a freezer, but regular blueberries, great. Uh, a couple avocados and cucumbers, mixed greens, and a small bottle of salad dressing. So I make myself a salad, maybe throw some chicken on there, a few tins of sardines or anchovies because, you know, a protein switch from the chicken is nice every now and again. And I'll do that if I'm going to be in a place for like 5+ days. Macadamia nuts, almonds, or cashews, yogurt. If I have money left over, a bar or two of dark chocolate, and I am good to go. This is not expensive. And to save money on expensive glass bottled water, I can just fill up my water bottle at any hotel gym if I'm at a hotel where where there's almost always a fancy water filter. And yes, that's a sneaky way to get you into the gym. Fitness through osmosis with reverse osmosis. Uh, third, consider the source of your food. Modern industrial farming, chemical use, and monocropping can result in decreased soil quality and agricultural diversity, paired with low nutrient and mineral density in food. Uh, now, not to get too much into the weeds, but as a Christian, I believe humans have a Bible-based mandate to support responsible land management, stewardship, and sustainable food growth practices. What I mean by this is that the Bible tells the story of the first human being, Adam, if you remember your Sunday school, created to be a gardener of the land, and goes on to instruct humans to preserve land from harm and maintain fruitfulness, to give farmed land periodic rest periods, and to avoid polluting or defiling the land. But even if you're not a Christian, you should of course care about how your eating habits affect animal welfare and the future of our planet. Unfortunately, you can do this without joining a Save the Snails raid or dumping paint pails on anyone you see wearing a fur coat or leather shoes. For example, from May through October-ish, farmer markets grant you ample access to local sustainably grown food. And at these markets, you can also connect with farmers and ranchers to purchase high-quality meat that you can freeze for use in fall and winter. And you might have noticed many farmers markets, these farmers, like, they will sell you a quarter cow, a half cow, a whole cow, and many of them will even store it and ship it for in small batches. We do that as a family. It will also pay you dividends to learn basic life skills like canning, fermenting, soaking, sprouting, preserving, throwing all your leftover scraps into a cheap crock pot for bone broth, one of my favorites, and even a few windowsill or backyard gardening tactics. I mean, we live in an era of YouTube where you could literally learn one of those skills a week, and within about 7 or 8 weeks, like, Be a ninja with this stuff. And then finally, when you're grocery shopping, there's no need to spend extra money on some fluff labels like natural, farm fresh, humanely raised, green packaging, or other emotional copy. Instead, look for USDA organic. That's especially helpful for dairy. A pasture raised for eggs, MSC certified for seafood, and certified humane for good animal welfare standards. I have a lot more details on food labeling standards and what to look for in a comprehensive article at bengreenfieldlife.com that I'll link to wherever you are watching or perhaps listening to this. Now, we've been through a lot in this Ancestral Mismatch series, from hormesis to HVACs to hens. In the next part, I'll wrap up things with what a simple sample day would look like when you adhere to these basic principles. But in the meantime, leave your questions, comments, and feedback here. I read 'em all. Hit subscribe, like it if you like it, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.