An Original Diet

We must not confuse instinctive eating with an original diet.

The latter refers to the diet our distant ancestors practiced in the natural environment before the invention of various methods that modify foods found in nature. It is a hypothetical concept, given that some methods already exist among primates, for example, cracking nuts with pebbles, extracting termites from their nests using specially shaped sticks, etc. These methods, however, have little or no impact on the nutritional and organoleptic properties of food.

The situation is quite different with the methods that have proliferated with the advent of humanity, particularly with the mastery of fire. We can therefore broadly define an original diet as that which our ancestors could obtain in their environment without the use of fire or techniques requiring the intervention of intelligence.

The concept of primitive diet refers to the eating habits of primitive peoples. This differs from the original diet through the use of artificial means that have proliferated over millennia. Therefore, there are as many primitive diets as there are intermediate stages leading up to the traditional diet.

The traditional diet is what we consider commonplace, passed down from generation to generation. It is characterized by cooking in all its known forms, seasoning, mixing, and mechanical processing (grinding, extraction, etc.). Its status is ambiguous in relation to chemistry, which is now old enough to be considered part of tradition.

The instinctive diet, on the other hand, is defined by the consumption of foods provided by nature without resorting to any artificial means that could modify their nutritional or organoleptic characteristics (changes in flavor, texture, etc.). This definition emerged from empirical observations of alliesthesia mechanisms, which were clearly rendered ineffective by culinary techniques. Its goal is to restore conditions in which the food instinct can be expressed or retrained and ensure optimal nutritional balance, while avoiding the molecular denaturation of food through cooking, as well as any source of pollution as much as possible.

Practice

It is not easy to learn to listen to one’s own body. Yet, this is the essential condition for restoring the function of instinctive mechanisms indispensable to nutritional regulation, such as olfactory-gustatory alliesthesia and satiety. Retraining is essential on two levels: firstly, on a psychological level, in order to remain attentive to the signals the body sends through the senses and to know how to interpret them correctly; secondly, to avoid disturbances that could distort these signals or their interpretation.

The required conditions correspond to the criteria of the original diet as defined above: all organoleptic alterations of foods must be avoided, foods must be consumed separately, and attention must be paid to sensory data, the variations of which constitute the key to proper nutritional balance. Indeed, it is changes in sensory perception (exteroception or proprioception) that allow for the correct selection and dosage of food intake, and the avoidance of harmful food combinations.

The instincto diet is thus placed under the sign of original pleasure: maximum pleasure, within the context of natural food, ensures the optimal functioning of the body.