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Man's World Issue 1 SFW Version

An SFW version of Issue 1 of Man's World.

An SFW version of Issue 1 of Man's World.

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So where does that leave us trying to

understand how best to eat today?

One problem with modernity’s

philosophical core is that we

understand ourselves as individuals

first, not bound fully with kin,

ancestors and those yet to be born.

Dieting today is mostly for one’s self,

sometimes with a thought to being

healthy for your loved ones.

The argument I’ve outlined for grains

also applies to pretty much every

source of carbohydrates, including

honey and tubers.

Honey in particular is highly prized by

modern foraging societies and young

men go to extreme lengths to scale

trees and withstand thousands of

stings to retrieve honey for their

people.

But the time spans of our deep past

are beyond comprehension. The

difference between 19,000 and

28,000 BP is fairly little to an

archaeologist, but 9,000 years is all

of recorded history.

So to truly grasp how our diets have

evolved over several million years

means ignoring the individual and

focusing on populations. It's one

thing to go on a keto or carnivore

diet today, but would you want your

pregnant or breastfeeding wife to

join you? Your toddlers? Your aging

parents? Those who are sick,

immobile or infirm?

To understand the role of

carbohydrates in the human diet we

should be thinking about all stages of

life, and not just how they affect

healthy young males. Again, to be

clear, I’m not saying you need to eat

bread to be healthy, but I’m saying

that breads and grains should not be

excluded from everyone’s diet in the

name of purity or aping our

ancestors.

A Hadza hunter with honeycomb

and bee larvae

During the rainy season the Mbuti

people of the Congo eat up to 80% of

their daily calories in honey, and it's

not unusual for groups such as the

Hadza to eat around 15% of their

daily calories in honey all year round.

MAN'S WORLD 102

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