Our bodies are extremely complex, resilient creations. They adapt quickly and can survive under most challenging physical and emotional circumstances. This can make it hard to tell when we’re damaging them, sometimes until it is too late.
In addition to this, Internet, social media, industry and modern life make it harder then ever to decipher what is “good for us” and our bodies and what may be outright harmful. Every year there is more bogus research, more new trends that promise fast results and more reasons to keep interrupting our natural flow in exchange of novelty.
A powerful tool in telling what is beneficiary for our bodies is the Human Condition theory. It states that our bodies benefit from things that humans have done across race, across culture and across time. Simply put: do things that human race has been doing as it thrived and took over this planet.
At first this may seem obvious but when you consider the popularity of veganism, intermittent fasting, drinking coffee or our modern, (deficient) sleep patterns, it becomes clear that it is getting really confusing “what is natural to our bodies and what is not?”
Eating raw foods is a good example of a trend that gains and losses popularity over centuries but it becomes easier to decide upon once we realize that all humans (across races, cultures and time) cook most of their meals. Why do we do this at tremendous cost of time, fuel and having to own specialized cookware? The answer is because cooking (especially for a short time and at high temperature) eliminates bacteria we can’t just wash off of our food and it also breaks down food fibers thus allowing for easier and more complete digestion.
Other examples of behavior that Human Condition Theory makes easy to decide upon are sleep hours and amount of sleep our bodies need, exercise (aerobic vs anaerobic), type of intimate relationships, sexual frequency, importance of breakfast and other patterns of human behavior.