Dan's Plan

Our current lifestyle is very different from the way our ancestors lived for thousands of generations. This is especially true with respect to what and how we eat. It is estimated that three fourths of the world’s hunter-gatherer societies consumed most of their calories from animals, with an average mix of 45% plant-based food and 55% animal-based food.¹ While a few societies lived mainly on plants, all ancient societies included animals in their diets. Interestingly, no society existed on plant matter alone, but some societies did survive exclusively on animal products.² This highlights the flexibility of the human metabolism to be able to live on a broad range of plant and animal sources. As Michael Pollan noted in his book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, "The human animal is adapted to, and apparently can thrive on, an extraordinary range of different diets.”

Technology has made it easier than ever for us access and consume both healthy and unhealthy foods. According to Supermarket Guru, the average super market carries 50,000 products and the food industry introduces 15,000 new products every year. With all of those options, how does one decide what she should/shouldn’t eat? This Plan Chapter will help.

In the sections that follow, we will describe what it means to be an Intelligent Eater – our decision framework for food choice. We highlight diets we think are best for supporting optimal health and provide advice on how to take action to live as an Intelligent Eater.

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We define success as follows, an Intelligent Eater will:

Choose foods that will cultivate a long life of health by eating a non-toxic, paleo / ancestral-informed diet. Be a good global citizen: Commit to humane treatment of animals, fair treatment of workers, and the responsible treatment of the environment. Respect the cycle of food generation, preparation, and waste reduction. Enjoy every meal.

In addition to nutritional considerations for health, an Intelligent Eater considers how food choice relates to their own personal value system. Our beliefs surrounding several broadly-related food topics greatly influence what we eat. The business practices, politics and ethics of our food cycle (i.e., production, transport, accessibility and waste) have wide-reaching effects. The food we purchase supports the businesses that produce the food - and therefore, the business practices, politics, and ethics that go into that food product. An Intelligent Eater cares about making food decisions that are good for their health and the world around them.