> The science of nutrition and biochemistry in general is anything but primitive.
Really? Given a particular food item/meal/diet, can we accurately predict all of the effects it will have on a particular person? As far as I can tell, our knowledge of nutrition (even the most “scientific” bits I’ve seen) are largely based on a few stabs in the dark, lots of hearsay/anecdote, and either exaggeration or lots of hedging.
Add in questions about which food items are most useful when eaten at the same time, what part of our daily schedule should have which foods, how nutrition intersects/interacts with sleep/exercise/mental activity, etc., and I’ve never read anything that leads me to believe we have even the beginnings of an “advanced” understanding.
We can make some broad suggestions: eat a varied diet; hold off on the sugar; try to get some aerobic exercise; sleep enough; get enough sunshine; etc. But human bodies seem to be pretty tolerant of many possible diets: which can we tolerate, and under which do we thrive?
Our daily diets – for example eggs and cereal for breakfast, sandwiches at midday, a piece of meat and some mixed vegetables or some pasta or whatever at night – are basically culturally specific, driven by historical accident: in different parts of the world, diets, work schedules, types of physical exercise, &c. vary substantially; which of these differences are because of legitimately different needs, and which are arbitrary?
Really? Given a particular food item/meal/diet, can we accurately predict all of the effects it will have on a particular person? As far as I can tell, our knowledge of nutrition (even the most “scientific” bits I’ve seen) are largely based on a few stabs in the dark, lots of hearsay/anecdote, and either exaggeration or lots of hedging.
Add in questions about which food items are most useful when eaten at the same time, what part of our daily schedule should have which foods, how nutrition intersects/interacts with sleep/exercise/mental activity, etc., and I’ve never read anything that leads me to believe we have even the beginnings of an “advanced” understanding.
We can make some broad suggestions: eat a varied diet; hold off on the sugar; try to get some aerobic exercise; sleep enough; get enough sunshine; etc. But human bodies seem to be pretty tolerant of many possible diets: which can we tolerate, and under which do we thrive?
Our daily diets – for example eggs and cereal for breakfast, sandwiches at midday, a piece of meat and some mixed vegetables or some pasta or whatever at night – are basically culturally specific, driven by historical accident: in different parts of the world, diets, work schedules, types of physical exercise, &c. vary substantially; which of these differences are because of legitimately different needs, and which are arbitrary?