Instinct and Supply

A natural diet is impossible without natural foods… This obvious statement takes on particular significance when we consider that the natural mechanisms of nutritional regulation are undermined by culinary and industrial artificial processes, and even by agricultural techniques. Indeed, every artificial process, whatever its nature, must make the product more palatable or easier to consume. Chefs do this for our palates, manufacturers for their bank accounts, and farmers for the sake of profitability. A processed product less appealing than the same product in its natural state would be immediately rejected by the consumer, so virtually all commercially available products circumvent the alliesthetic barrier in one way or another.

Humanity is, in fact, caught in its own trap: it invents all sorts of tricks to guarantee its survival and increase the pleasure of eating, without being aware of the systematic disruption of the ecological balance and its own nutritional balance. Food that enhances gustatory pleasure bypasses alliesthetic and enzymatic mechanisms. The resulting nutritional imbalance and molecular pollution have major consequences for health: obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune and infectious diseases.

Directly impacted by the environment, agricultural techniques are profoundly influenced by the distortion of tastes: from the dawn of the Neolithic era, the overconsumption of cereals, meat, and dairy products led to massive desertification through slash-and-burn agriculture and monocultures, along with a population explosion. This, in turn, caused a shift towards intensive livestock farming, rampant deforestation, and chemical pollution of soils and water—scourges that now threaten the entire planet. Furthermore, the products of this agricultural industry lack the natural flavors essential for the functioning of alliesthetic mechanisms and the sensations of satiety, leading to widespread overeating.

Consequently, few products on the market are suitable for instinctive eating. Fruits selected generation after generation to be more appealing than their natural counterparts tend to override alliesthetic regulation, hence a constant risk of overconsumption. Vegetables have generally been selected to retain sufficiently robust flavors after cooking; they are often less appealing raw than their wild ancestors, hence a tendency toward an imbalance of “not enough vegetables, too much fruit.” Farmed meats, which breeders have selected for thousands of years to soften the strong flavors of their original game, have unusually bland flavors, leading to protein overload.

Furthermore, primates are genetically adapted to tropical regions. Foods from warm climates are indeed the most appealing (when eaten raw) and also the most unappealing when the body’s needs are met, reflecting a better adaptation of our taste buds. They thus guarantee better balance and optimal nutritional intake. Some of these foods are essential and have no equivalents in temperate regions.

These observations contradict the “locavore” ideology, which suggests that we should only eat products from nearby regions. The ideal of self-sufficiency is laudable from an ecological standpoint, but it presupposes that we live in a region where the foods to which we are genetically adapted grow, which is clearly not the case.

The theoretical contradiction stems from an archaic error: the one our ancestors made by settling in regions that do not produce the foods necessary for a human diet. These population shifts were made possible by culinary and agricultural techniques, and we now find ourselves trapped. In France, we live in marginal regions where fruits and vegetables barely allow us to survive. A parallel further north, and it is no longer possible to feed ourselves without artificial means (although the Inuit ate raw food back when seals and whales were not seasoned with dioxins and heavy metals).

Experience shows that it is preferable to bring in certain products from warm regions in order to have a more “original” range, especially when there is a health issue. The resulting air pollution does not exceed that generated by the transport of everyday foods. In the hopefully near future, the environmental problems of transportation can be solved thanks to pollution-free technologies (hydrogen engines), while remaining fast enough to guarantee the freshness and ripeness of the produce.

In conclusion: establishing an adequate supply is the essential condition for a properly balanced, natural diet free from hidden toxins.

In practice, using local products remains perfectly acceptable; it even has the advantage of being less unfamiliar to beginners. However, it would be detrimental to deprive oneself of tropical products, especially when facing a significant health issue. Regarding the quality of crops, it is far preferable, if not imperative, to use products grown using organic or biodynamic methods. Their more natural flavors and the absence of chemical residues guarantee better balance and assimilation, as well as a more complete intake of vitamins and trace elements.

The first rule to follow to build up an adequate supply is to prioritize organic products, with some awareness of the actual practices behind their production.