Remembering the Weird Idea

Why is there a picture of a colon alongside edible insects at the top of this post?

Glad you asked.

Something (can’t remember exactly what) finally triggered the memory and I remembered the weird idea I wanted to write about.

Several years ago I was conversing with a patent theorist (ivory tower patent experts:? these are the guys who write the opinion and strategy pieces). I asked him what he’d done previously and apparently he came from the nutritional science side of things.? I mentioned my weird idea and he thought enough of it to suggest that someone ought to do a study. (Maybe they have since a number of years have gone by since that conversation.)? Now its your turn.

I was impressed by a report that stated that the incidence of colo-rectal cancer was increasing significantly among Asian populations.? Particularly the emerging wealthy classes.? Hmmmm, I thought, what do wealthy Asian populations have in common with Western populations?

A better question to ask is: what don’t wealthy Asians and Westerners eat?

Insects.? Other than the occasional errant flying bug, the diet of Western nations includes few, if any insects.? On the other hand, go take a stroll through an open air market in Thailand (my current favorite Asian nation) – a market that isn’t next to as McDonalds or KFC – and what do you see?? Insects for sale.? Live insects, fried insects, insect paste, bucket-o-bugs (suitable for snacking). Lots and lots of things that most of you would run away from, step on, drown in DDT or have Indiana Jones style nightmares about.? And never, ever think about eating.

Our forebears were at least part time insectivores. Our primate cousins go ga-ga for termites and the occasional centipede.?

I think someone ought to do a study, even if the end result may be that Doctors will routinely recommend that you ‘take two cockroaches and call them in the morning’.

This particular thought runs in line with other evolutionary hangers-on that I don’t think we pay enough attention to.? For example, they once recommended sleeping exactly 8 hours a day and now have backed off. They recommended eating at regular intervals and have backed off. Backed off of?drinking so much water every day, flooding your system with vitamins every day, on and on.

Every single one of those things runs counter to what I believe the evolutionary legacy?to have been.? Think our ancestors at a well balanced meal at the same three times day?? Think they measured their sleep and water intake with standard measures?? I doubt it. They ate when there was food – gorged themselves in fact, and it was usually a single food item. They drank as much as they could hold when they were at the watering hole. They probably hardly ever slept through the night, and even if they did, I’m pretty sure they went to bed when the sun set and woke up when it rose, despite the changing length of season.

And our bodies were adapted over millennia for just such an existence.? Today we get the protein – tomorrow or the next day we’ll get the greens and the vitamins.

Its pretty clear.? We need to introduce a super-predator back into our civilization.