In last week’s post, I talked about how our bodies have not caught up to our modern supply and ability to store food. There are some other ways in which recent changes have affected our health.
We have had many great health innovations such as pasteurization, surgical procedures, and medications. However, we also have recent inventions that in some ways have hurt our health such as packaged and man-made foods to extend shelf life, as well as automobiles that we use to circle the parking lot for the closest parking spot. We should use the best of our current technology and leave the worst of it for our best health, vitality, happiness, and longevity.
Natural light:
Not getting enough natural sunlight creates two problems. Squeezing in 10 or 20 minutes of sunlight in the morning can be tremendously helpful in letting our body know it is morning, waking us up for the day and setting up our circadian rhythm for better sleep that night. We also get better quality vitamin D from sunlight than we can from supplements.
Low level, self-imposed stress:
Cortisone is the master stress hormone. It is meant to help you in multiple ways when you need it. Cortisone is bad for your body when it is overused or dispensed and not needed, such as when somebody at work says something insensitive, but you have a stress response for two days about it.
High Variety of Foods:
Years ago, people ate much less variety on their plates. If a hunter killed a large animal, it was shared with the entire tribe. If there was a harvest of fall vegetables these also fed the whole tribe. People have a large variance of sensitivity when it comes to food and one of those things can involve food combinations. Think about foods that might be fine on your stomach, but not together – maybe fish with cheese and pickles. For some it is the number of different foods during a meal. That number for many seems to be five.
How we exercise:
I think it is true that the best exercise is any that we enjoy and therefore stick with in the long term. I think that staying active is most important. If we go back a few hundred years, people did not exercise for the sake of physical fitness. In fact, they conserved their energy. Technology today requires that we move less and less. If we think about hunting long ago, it involved walking to their spot, some bursts of running, and then dragging something back home. How could we emulate that? Walking for sure. Doing some burst exercises. Carrying some weight or walking with a weighted pack.
We can go down quite a rabbit hole with ancestral diet and lifestyle. Incorporating some less complex activities into your day may be worth the effort. Find what works for you and is something you enjoy.

I agree that natural sunlight is so important in the mornings! Great article!
Just to be sure. That is a stock photo. Not a picture of me.