Jan. 11, 2026

The Wisdom and Protection of Kosher Living

The Wisdom and Protection of Kosher Living

Eating the Way We Were Designed: What Kosher Wisdom Still Teaches Us explores how ancient food practices continue to offer surprisingly relevant insight for modern health. Rather than approaching kosher eating as a religious obligation, this episode reframes it as a system of practical wisdom developed in a world where food safety, digestion, and long-term health were matters of survival. By looking at history, biology, and modern health research together, the episode reveals how ancient cultures identified patterns that supported human well-being long before modern science could explain them.Throughout the conversation, we examine why certain animals were traditionally avoided, how food handling and preparation became central to health, and why systems like kosher certification are still respected today—even by secular food companies. Drawing from insights by Jordan Rubin, Dr. Josh Axe, Dr. Eric Berg, and other natural health voices, the episode connects ancient discernment with modern concerns like inflammation, toxins, digestion, and chronic disease.Ultimately, this episode isn’t about rules or restriction—it’s about freedom through understanding. It invites listeners to move beyond trend-based nutrition and toward thoughtful, design-aware eating that supports real life, real bodies, and long-term health. By recovering ancient wisdom and applying it with modern clarity, Chasing Eden encourages a calmer, wiser, and more sustainable approach to food.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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WEBVTT

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Welcome back to the Chasing Eden podcast, where we rediscover

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your body's divine design and explore how faith, science, and

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ancient wisdom come together for whole person health. I'm your host,

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Carolyn Thompson, and thank you for joining me today. Today

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we're starting a conversation that's surprisingly relevant to modern life,

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even though it began thousands of years ago. We're going

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to talk about kosher eating, not as a religious obligation,

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not as a moral requirement, not as something anyone has

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to do, but as a window into how ancient people

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thought about food, survival and the human body, and why

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so much of that thinking turns out to have been

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remarkably wise. Because here's the honest truth. We live in

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the most technologically advanced food system in human history and

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also one of the sickest. We have more choices than ever,

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more conveniences than ever, more calories than ever, and yet

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digestive problems are everywhere. Autoimmune disease is rising, inflammation has

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become normal, Metabolic issues show up younger and younger. So

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the question isn't did ancient people know less than we do?

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The question might actually be did they understand a few

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things we've forgotten? To understand why ancient food systems looked

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the way that they did, you have to imagine a

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world without refrigeration, freezers, preservatives, antibiotics, food inspections, or even

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basic sanitation systems. Food wasn't entertainment. It was risk. Every

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meal carried the possibility of illness, sometimes death. People didn't

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need studies to know that some foods made them sick

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more often. They learned it the hard way. Over generations,

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cultures noticed patterns and quietly adjusted their habits. Some animals

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were safer, some spoiled faster, Some caused strange illnesses, some

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were associated with parasites, some were linked to outbreaks. Long

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before anyone understood bacteria, people still understood cause and effect.

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One of the things we don't talk about enough is

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how much food systems shape history. We like to think

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that wars are decided by generals and weapons. In reality,

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many campaigns failed because armies were weakened by disease, contaminated food,

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or bad water before they even reached a battlefield. In

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the ancient world, dysantry, parasites, and food poisoning could destroy

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an army faster than any enemy. Whole cities suffered when

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food handling broke down. Whole regions were weakened by reoccurring outbreaks.

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So when a culture developed reliable food rules that reduced sickness,

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that culture gained a massive survival advantage. This is one

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of the quiet reasons ancient Israel endured as long as

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it did in such a harsh part of the world.

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There's something else Ancient cultures understood intuitively that modern psychology

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has recently rediscovered. Simple rules that are always followed be

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complex rules that are sometimes followed. The Kosher system wasn't

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built on portion sizes, calories, or complicated chemistry. It was

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built on clear categories. This is food, this is not That.

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Kind of clarity reduces mistakes, and in a world where

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mistakes could kill you, clarity was mercy. Modern peace people

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are incredibly casual about eating. We eat while distracted, while driving,

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while stressed, while exhausted, without much thought at all. Ancient

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people were careful. They had to be. Food was inspected,

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food was smelled, food was watched, food was respected. Cultures

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that weren't careful paid for it. Almost no ancient culture

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believed that everything that could be eaten should be eaten.

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That idea really only shows up in the modern industrial era,

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when food supply chains get long, consequences get delayed, responsibility

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gets outsourced. For most of human history, if something made

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people sick, they stopped eating it. Over time, that became

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tradition than culture, than law. This is where Jordan Reuben's

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work becomes so helpful for modern audiences. He doesn't frame

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ancient food wisdom as mystical or magical. He frames it

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as design aware. His core idea is simple, if something

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is designed, it usually works best when it's used according

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to that design. He's careful to say this isn't about

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religion or earning anything. It's about working with your biology

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instead of against it. That's a refreshingly modern way to

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look at ancient ideas. Instead of asking is this allowed,

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he asks is this compatible with how the body actually works.

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One of the great illusions of modern life is the

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idea that technology has made us immune to consequences. We

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assume if it's sold in a store, it must be fine.

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If it doesn't make us sick immediately, it must be safe.

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If everyone eats it, it must be okay. But the

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body doesn't work on immediate feedback. It works on accumulation, inflammation,

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builds quietly, damage stacks slowly. Systems compensate until they don't.

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Ancient people didn't have the luxury of ignoring consequences for

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twenty years. They felt them right away. This brings us

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to animals like pigs and shellfish. From an ecological point

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of view, these animals are important. They clean up, they

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eat waste, they consume decaying matter. They process things other

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animals avoid. That's not a flaw, it's a function. But

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that function also means they tend to accumulate toxins, carry

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more parasites, concentrate whatever is in their environment. Modern health

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voices like doctor Acts and doctor Burg often talk about

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this in terms of inflammation and toxic gload. The ancient

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world didn't have that language, but they noticed the outcomes.

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One of the biggest differences between ancient and modern thinking

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is that ancient cultures didn't treat food as purely individual choice.

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They treated it as infrastructure. If your food system makes

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people sick, your society weakens. If your society weakens, you

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don't last very long. So cultures paid close attention to

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what patterns worked over time. Many cultures had food taboos.

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What made the kosher system different was that it was consistent, structured,

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carefully transmitted, and built into daily life. It created a

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culture of attentatives. Attentiveness around food. People thought before they ate.

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That alone changes everything. For about seventy years, modern culture

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believed we had out engineered biology. We believed processing didn't matter,

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origins didn't matter, quality didn't matter. The body would just adapt.

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Now we're discovering the body keeps score inflammation, autoimmune disease,

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digestive disorders, metabolic syndrome. These aren't random, they're systemic. Ancient

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people would probably find it bizarre that we eat without

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knowing where our food comes from, eat without knowing what's

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in it, eat without thinking about long term effects, eat

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without expecting consequences. To them, that would look reckless. At

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their best, ancient food rules did three things. They reduced sickness,

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the increased survival. They trained people to think before consuming.

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That last one might be the most important. This isn't

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about romanticizing the past. It's about learning from it. We're

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not trying to live in tents. We're trying to live

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in bodies that work well. One of the things things

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we forget in a world of refrigerators and freezers is

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that For most of human history, food didn't wait patiently

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for you to eat it. It fought back, It spoiled,

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it rotted, it attracted insects, it became dangerous, and it

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did all of that very quickly. So ancient cultures weren't

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just concerned with what they ate. They were deeply concerned

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with how food was handled, prepared, and preserved. Meat in particular,

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was risky. If it wasn't treated properly, it could become

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unsafe in a matter of hours. This is one of

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the reasons you see so many ancient traditions around, like

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drying meat, salting meat, cooking it thoroughly, and being extremely

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cautious with anything that looked or smelled quote unquote off.

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These weren't cultural quirks. They were survival strategies. Long before

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any one understood bacteria, people noticed something very consistent. Meat

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that still contained a lot of blood spoiled faster, it

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smelled worse, it attracted insects more quickly, and it made

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people sick more often. Blood is a nutrient rich environment

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for microbes. Even without knowing what microbes were, ancient people

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knew the results, so cultures all over the world developed

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practices around draining blood, salting meat, and thoroughly cooking it.

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What makes the Biblical kosher system interesting is that it

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made these practices non optional and consistent. Not because ancient

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people were spiritual, but because consistency saves lives. This is

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an important distinction that modern culture has almost completely lost.

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Something can be etible and still not be wise to

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eat regularly. You can technically eat a lot of things.

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That doesn't mean your body will thrive on them. Ancient

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cultures were far more comfortable with this idea than we are.

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They understood that just because something could be eaten didn't

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mean it belonged in the daily diet. Modern food culture

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often confuses availability with suitability, convenience with wisdom, marketing with safety.

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For most of human history, food preparation was a craft.

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You knew that the animal, you knew the source, you

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knew the process, you knew the risks. Today food is

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an industry, long supply chains, invisible processes, unknown origins, and

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lots of trust placed in systems we never see. That

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has advantages, it also creates distance between us and consequences.

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No matter how advanced our food systems become, the body

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hasn't changed. It still has the digestive system, the same

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immune system, the same detox pathways, the same limitations. It

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still reacts to toxins, pathogens, inflammatory foods, poor quality inputs.

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Technology can delay consequences, but it can't eliminate them. Now,

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one of the things that Jordan Rubman does so well

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is translate ancient wisdom into modern language. He doesn't ask

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people to live like it's one thousand BC. He asked

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them to think like designers, to ask themselves, what was

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this body built to process well? What kinds of foods

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consistently create problems? What patterns show up over and over

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in human health. That's not religious thinking, that's engineering thinking.

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This whole conversation is not about being perfect. It's not

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about creating fear. It's not about obsessing, which is something

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I have a tendency to do. It's about direction, about

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stacking small, sensible decisions in your favor over time. Ancient

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cultures did not eat perfectly, They just ate more carefully.

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So the real shift is invited you to ask the

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question from what do I feel like eating to what

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actually supports the kind of health I want long term?

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And that's a very different question. And if you could

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bring an ancient physician or a healer into the modern

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world and show them our chronic disease patterns. Can you

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imagine wouldn't they be shocked to see what is happening

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today with Americans health and health around the world. They

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would probably say something like, you've disconnected food from consequence

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or they lived in a world where consequences were immediate,

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so and we live in a world where they seem

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to be delayed. It's like a quiet poisoning that's happening

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to us as we eat all these chemicals and preservatives

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that were created for our convenience but are actually foreign

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to our bodies and creating illness in them. One of

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the hidden benefits of any thoughtful food system is that

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it slows you down, It makes you think, it makes

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you plan, it makes you more aware of what you're

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putting into your body, and that alone improves outcomes. So

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here's the real question we're left with after this part.

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What if ancient food wisdom wasn't primitive but more honest

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about how the body actually works? And what if modern

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health struggles aren't mysterious but the predictable result of ignoring

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design for a very long time. So in the next part,

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we're going to get more practical. We're going to talk

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about why kosher food handling became a gold standard for safety,

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why blood removal and careful processing mattered so much, how

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kosher certification works today, what those symbols on food packages

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actually mean, and why even modern secular food companies respect

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the system not as religion but as reliability. The past

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doesn't have all of the answers, but it often has

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better questions. And one of the best questions it keeps

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asking us is this, are we eating in a way

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that works with our bodies or constantly asking them to

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clean up after us. That's the heart of this. When

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we come back, we'll explore how kosher food handling and

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preparation became one of the most trusted food safety systems

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in the world, and why its influence is still everywhere today.

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We spent the first part of the series asking what

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people ate and why certain ancient food systems avoided particular animals.

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Now we're going to shift the focus to a different,

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but equally important question, how was food handled? Because in

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the ancient world, food didn't just become dangerous based on

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what it was. It became dangerous based on what happened

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to it after it was killed, harvested, or gathered. This

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is where kosher wisdom becomes especially fascinating, not as a

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list of foods, but as a system of process care

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and consistency. In many ways, it's one of the earliest

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examples of a comprehensive food safety framework, not in scientific language,

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not with laboratories, but with habits, rules, and repetition. Even today,

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with all of our modern technology, a huge percentage of

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food born illness doesn't come from bad food. It comes

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from things like improper handling, cross contamination, inadequate cooking, poor storage,

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or breakdowns in hygiene. In other words, the danger often

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isn't the ingredient, it's the process. Ancient people didn't have

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germ theory, but they absolutely understood patterns. They knew that

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when certain steps were skipped, people got sick more often.

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Over time, cultures that survive learned to build ritual and

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routine around food preparation. One of the quiet strengths of

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the kosher system is that it doesn't rely on individual

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judgment in the moment. It relies on standard practice. And

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I might want to point this out because some people

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were saying on social media that if you wanted to

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get your airline food first, to just request kosher when

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you were paying for your ticket. And those people who

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are kosher and I think vegan, vegetarian, they all get

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their food first before anybody else. That's just one little

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tidbit I thought i'd throw in there now. When something

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is standardized, fewer mistakes happen, and that's true in things

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like aviation, medicine, engineering, and food safety. The kosher system

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created a world where food wasn't prepared however someone felt

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that day, it was prepared the same careful way every time.

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That kind of consistency dramatically reduces risk. We touched on

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this briefly in Part one, but it's worth slowing down here.

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The blood removal, which became central across many ancient cultures.

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People noticed that meat containing a lot of residual blood

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spoiled faster, smelled worse, attracted insects more quickly, and made

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people sick more often. Blood is biologically rich, it's full

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of nutrients. That's great when it's inside a living body.

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It's a problem when it's sitting in dead tissue. The

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kosher process requires that meat be thoroughly drained salted to

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draw out remaining blood, and then rinsed. Now, if you're

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like me, you salt your steak and you let it

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rest for at least thirty minutes. That's what I like

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to do. And you know what, when you go to

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cook that steak, to me, it just tastes more delicious.

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It infuses the salt into the steak and all of

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the flavor and it's very, very wonderful. It's a wonderful

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way to make your steak. And you will notice if

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you're letting it rest like I do on a cutting board,

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that yeah, there's a pool of blood underneath it. And

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you know, that's just a reminder that you're doing something proper.

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You're doing the right thing. You're drawing the blood out

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of your meat. But in addition to that, you're going

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to make it taste that much better when you go

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to cook it. So you want to make sure again

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that it's thoroughly drained, it's salted to draw out remaining blood,

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and then rinsed. This does two things at once. It

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slows spoilage, it reduces microbial growth. Ancient people didn't know

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I know the word bacteria to know that this worked.

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They only needed to notice that meat prepared this way

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was safer more often. It's important to understand that ancient

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food safety wasn't about making food perfect. That wasn't possible.

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It was about making it predictable. Predictable food is safer food.

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If you always handle meat the same careful way, you

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drastically reduce the odds of disaster. The kosher system was

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essentially a way of logging in best practices so they

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weren't forgotten, rushed, or ignored. Another underrated aspect of ancient

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kosher culture is how much emphasis it placed on clean

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environments and clean tools. Even without modern disinfectants. People understood

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that dirty surfaces spread problems, dirty tools carried contamination, and

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cleanliness mattered. Ritual washing, tool separation and careful inspection weren't

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about superstition. They were about risk management. One of the

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most famous features of kosher kitchens is the separation of

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meat and dairy, different tools for different purposes and different

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preparation areas. From a modern perspective, this looks a lot

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like cross contamination prevention. Once again, ancient wisdom arrives at

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a very modern concept. Don't let one risky thing contaminate

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everything else. At a certain point, food rules stop being

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rules and they start becoming infrastructure. They shape things like

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how markets operate, how homes are built, how tools are designed,

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and how meals are planned. Kosher practice didn't just change

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what people ate, It changed how entire communities organized daily

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life around food safety. That's a level of seriousness modern

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culture rarely applies to eating anymore. Over centuries, people noticed

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something food prepared under kosher standards was consistently safer, not perfect,

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not immune to problems, but more reliable. That reputation followed

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Jewish communities wherever they went, and many parts of Europe

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and the Middle East. Even non Jewish neighbors would prefer

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to buy meat from Jewish butchers because they trusted the process,

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not the theology the process. If you've ever worked in

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an industry with safe with strict safety protocols, this will

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feel familiar. Pilots don't rely on memory, they use checklists.

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Surgeons don't rely on intuition, they use protocols. Food safety

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inspectors don't rely on vibes. They used standards. The Kosher

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system was doing something very similar long before anyone called

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it quote unquote quality control. Now this is kind of cool.

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I saw somebody posting some video of the different symbols

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that you can look for if you're interested in the

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00:27:31.480 --> 00:27:37.000
extra safety standards that buying kosher offers, and I know

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I am. There are some symbols that you can look

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for on the packaging to know that it went through

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an extra inspection. So as communities grew and trade expanded,

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it became harder to personally know who prepared your food,

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how it was handled, what standards were followed. So the

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systems of verifications began to develop arcs seals certifications not

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for religious bragging, but for trust. Today you see little

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symbols on packages like the capital O, capital U, the

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capital K, the capital OK, and star K and some others.

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Now you can look these up. I believe you can

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just do chat gpten and look them up where you

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can look them up on Google images and you can

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00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:32.359
also see examples of the pictures on that or go

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to social media. There are plenty of people who make

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videos of it because they're also interested in making sure

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that they're buying a product that they can trust in,

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that is reliable and has gone through an extra extra

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safety standard or inspection. Now most people barely notice these symbols,

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but they're becoming more aware. But they represent something profound,

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a promise that someone checked the process, not just the ingredients,

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the process. Right. So, one of the most interesting things

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about kosher certification today is how many completely secular food

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companies pursue it, not because they're religious, but because it

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opens markets for them, It increases trust for the consumer,

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It signals quality control, and it shows process discipline. In

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other words, kosher certification has become a proxy for careful handling. Now,

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Jordan Reuben often emphasizes that health isn't just about what

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you eat. It's also about where it came from, how

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it was raised, how it was handled, how it was prepared.

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He points out that ancient systems were often better at

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this than we are now, not because they were smarter,

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but because they were forced to be careful. If you

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are a Jordan Reuben fan, you may have read his

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book The Maker's Diet. He just came out with another book.

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He co wrote it with doctor Josh Acts. It's called

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The Biblio Diet. I did just start reading it and

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I'm really really enjoying it so far. So this is

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how kosher became the gold standard for food handling. Okay,

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most people walk through the grocery store and barely notice

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the small symbols on the packages, and I'm going to

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go over in one more time. Just the few most

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well known ones, the capital O U, the capital K,

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the capital O K, and the star K, as well

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as some others. They look like obscure logos, like something

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only religious shoppers would care about. But what those symbols

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actually represent is something much bigger. They represent a third

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party verifying not just what's in the food, but how

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the food was handled. Now, that's a very modern idea.

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In most of the food industry, you're largely trusting the manufacturer.

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With co rure certification, there's an outside system of inspection involved.

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It's not perfect, no system is, but it adds a

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layer of process accountability. One of the most consistent findings

358
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in quality control in any industry is that inspection changes outcomes.

359
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When people know their work will be reviewed, they follow

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procedures more carefully, cut fewer corners, keep better records, and

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maintain cleaner environments. This is true in medicine, aviation manufacturing,

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and it's true in food. Kosher certification introduce this idea

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00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:55.920
centuries before modern regulatory agencies existed. Today, kosher supervision typically

364
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involves things like reviewing ingredients and their sources, inspecting facilities,

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verifying cleaning procedures, monitoring equipment usage, ensuring separation rules are followed,

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and doing surprise audits. Not because anyone assumes people are dishonest,

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but because systems work better when they're verifiable. One of

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00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:30.480
the most fascinating things about kosher certification today is how

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many global brands pursue it without any religious motivation at all,

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and they do it because it opens access to Jewish

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and Muslim markets. It signals high process standards, it reassures

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certain consumers, and it integrates well with other quality systems

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and many factories. Kosher certification runs alongside hccp ISO standards,

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FD inspections and internal quality programs. It becomes a part

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of a culture of discipline. At the end of the day,

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food systems don't just sell calories. They sell trust, trust

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that the food is what it says it is, the

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process is followed, the environment is clean, and the risks

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00:33:24.920 --> 00:33:29.759
were managed. Kosher systems historically were one of the earliest

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00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:36.359
attempts to institutionalize trust in food. One of the deeper

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lessons in all of this is something that applies far

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00:33:39.720 --> 00:33:44.640
beyond food. People do better when good habits are built

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00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:49.519
into systems instead of relying on willpower. The Kosher system

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didn't depend on someone quote unquote having a good day.

385
00:33:54.319 --> 00:34:00.839
It depended on structure. That's true wisdom. Jordan Reuben often

386
00:34:00.920 --> 00:34:07.799
talks about how modern people obsess over ingredients while ignoring processing.

387
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:11.320
The last thing's like this is me, this is so me.

388
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:15.440
Is it organic? Is it grass fed? Is it gluten free?

389
00:34:15.559 --> 00:34:19.119
But not things like how was it handled, how clean

390
00:34:19.239 --> 00:34:22.079
was the facility, how many steps did it go through,

391
00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:26.679
how many chances were there for contamination? Ancient systems cared

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00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:33.679
deeply about those questions. Now, did you see the viral

393
00:34:34.119 --> 00:34:41.559
video around Christmas time of the Christmas cookies that come

394
00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:44.960
in the round ten I think they're like Dutch or

395
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.199
holand Christmas cookies and they're in different shapes. It's like

396
00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:54.119
little butter cookies or something. I think they're shortbread cookies.

397
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And they filmed the inside of the process of making

398
00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:01.159
these cookies and it was filter I mean it was

399
00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:04.000
they made it into something funny. They were playing a

400
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:06.960
Christmas song in the background, but it was they were

401
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:10.320
rats running across the table when the guy was printing it,

402
00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:14.519
like when he was stamping out the cookies, and people

403
00:35:14.519 --> 00:35:16.800
were dressed filthy, and they had filthy hands, and they

404
00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:19.199
were rolling the dough and it was just really gross.

405
00:35:20.519 --> 00:35:23.280
So people got really upset when they saw this. They thought,

406
00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:25.880
could this be real? And then somebody went to the

407
00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:28.920
store and they grabbed that same tin of cookies. They

408
00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:32.559
flipped it over and it said made in India, And so,

409
00:35:33.639 --> 00:35:35.840
you know, I have to admit, it's not something I

410
00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:38.519
thought a lot about. I trusted the companies, I trusted

411
00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:41.719
the process. I've trusted that these things are being inspected.

412
00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:44.599
So it's nice to know that. If you are one

413
00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:46.800
of those people that want to go the extra step

414
00:35:47.159 --> 00:35:50.119
to ensure that, you know it's not a perfect process,

415
00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:53.400
but to ensure that your food is most likely being

416
00:35:53.400 --> 00:35:56.599
handled correctly, you might want to start looking for these symbols.

417
00:35:56.639 --> 00:36:01.079
I know I'm going to start doing that. Modern food

418
00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:04.239
travels far right. Under statement, if it travels clear from

419
00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:07.199
India to the United States, it passes through many hands.

420
00:36:07.960 --> 00:36:10.360
It sits in many warehouses. I mean, we don't know

421
00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:13.719
how many, or for how long, or what conditions it's

422
00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:16.960
handled by a lot of people. In fact of what

423
00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:20.239
some people I know don't realize is if you go

424
00:36:20.280 --> 00:36:23.679
buy new clothing, I've seen people just oh, it's brand new,

425
00:36:23.719 --> 00:36:27.400
I'll just wear it now, without realizing how many hands

426
00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:31.960
touched that article of clothing before it reached your shopping

427
00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:35.280
bag and before it got to your home. Somebody had

428
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.599
to sew it, somebody had to fold, somebody had to

429
00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:39.800
package it, somebody had to put it in a box,

430
00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:42.960
somebody had to unpack the box, somebody had to hang

431
00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:46.039
it up to be sold. And how people touch that

432
00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:49.320
or even tried it on before you bought it. So

433
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:54.199
knowing this that makes process discipline more important than ever.

434
00:36:55.639 --> 00:36:59.719
Every major food scandal follows the same pattern. A shortcut

435
00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:03.639
was tacon a rule was ignored, a process broke down,

436
00:37:03.960 --> 00:37:08.840
and people got hurt. The kosher system was designed specifically

437
00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:13.719
to reduce the odds of that chain reaction. Now you

438
00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:16.920
don't have to eat kosher to learn from kosher. The

439
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:21.400
deeper lesson is this, how food is handled matters as

440
00:37:21.480 --> 00:37:25.880
much as what food is. Systems matter more than intentions.

441
00:37:26.239 --> 00:37:33.880
Consistency protects people. So many modern health problems are blamed

442
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:39.079
on mystery causes, but often the causes aren't mysterious at all.

443
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:46.199
Their systemic overprocessed food, over handled food, over stored food,

444
00:37:46.719 --> 00:37:56.199
over complicated food. Ancient systems aimed for simplicity and predictability.

445
00:37:56.840 --> 00:37:59.800
So the next part I want to talk about some

446
00:38:00.119 --> 00:38:09.760
controversial it's the consumption of foods like pork, shellfish, scavengers, parasites,

447
00:38:10.840 --> 00:38:14.679
these things that have toxins that cause inflammation, and what

448
00:38:14.760 --> 00:38:17.960
modern doctors like doctor Acts and doctor Bergh actually say

449
00:38:17.960 --> 00:38:24.679
about them, not emotionally, not culturally, but biologically. The real

450
00:38:24.760 --> 00:38:27.840
gift of ancient food wisdom isn't a list of rules.

451
00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:32.840
It's a way of thinking careful systems protect human beings.

452
00:38:33.519 --> 00:38:36.840
That was true three thousand years ago. It is still

453
00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:40.159
true now. When we come back, we're going to talk

454
00:38:40.199 --> 00:38:44.280
about the foods. Nobody likes to question pork, shellfish and

455
00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:49.079
other scavengers and look honestly at what modern health science

456
00:38:49.360 --> 00:39:17.840
says about them. There are certain foods that people don't

457
00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:27.320
just eat, they identify with them. Okay, here's a few bacon, shrimp, crab,

458
00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:32.079
pulled pork, and ribs, and you know what I get it.

459
00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:37.039
When I was little, my grandmother would make bacon in

460
00:39:37.079 --> 00:39:41.719
the kitchen. It brings back amazing memories of bacon crackling

461
00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:44.480
in the kitchen and she would take it out, drain

462
00:39:44.559 --> 00:39:47.199
it on a paper towel, and then she would fry

463
00:39:47.599 --> 00:39:51.559
eggs in the bacon grease. And I remember how delicious

464
00:39:51.559 --> 00:39:55.519
that was, the taste of the bacon and the bacon

465
00:39:55.880 --> 00:39:59.760
fried bacon grease, fried eggs. It was a great memory

466
00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:02.679
that I have even now. When I think of things

467
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:05.360
like pulled pork, I think about the trip we took

468
00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:10.239
to Hawaii and how they made a I don't know

469
00:40:10.280 --> 00:40:13.480
if you roast it anyway, they cooked a pig in

470
00:40:13.639 --> 00:40:17.320
the sand on the beach and they pulled that out

471
00:40:17.440 --> 00:40:20.440
and they pulled the pork apart, and out of it

472
00:40:20.440 --> 00:40:23.440
they pulled the meat and it was delicious. It was incredible.

473
00:40:23.480 --> 00:40:26.400
It was absolutely incredible. And when I think about things

474
00:40:26.440 --> 00:40:30.639
like pork ribs, we like to go out and eat barbecue,

475
00:40:31.559 --> 00:40:35.519
but very often I can't find beef ribs. If I'm

476
00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:38.960
trying to avoid pork, the ribs typically are pork ribs.

477
00:40:40.119 --> 00:40:42.639
Mention the idea that these might not be ideal foods,

478
00:40:42.800 --> 00:40:45.800
and you often get a reaction that's more emotional than rational.

479
00:40:46.719 --> 00:40:50.320
That alone is interesting. We don't usually defend broccoli with

480
00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:53.360
that much passion, right, But these foods sit right at

481
00:40:53.360 --> 00:40:58.719
the intersection of comfort culture and our traditions. So before

482
00:40:58.760 --> 00:41:02.719
we talk about biology, we have to acknowledge something. This

483
00:41:02.760 --> 00:41:05.639
is not a conversation about taking away anyone's favorite foods.

484
00:41:06.599 --> 00:41:10.159
It's a conversation about understanding what certain foods actually do

485
00:41:10.239 --> 00:41:15.519
in the body. Now, from an ecological point of view,

486
00:41:16.159 --> 00:41:22.360
animals fall into different functional categories. Some are grazers, some

487
00:41:22.559 --> 00:41:30.119
are browsers, some are predators, some are scavengers. Scavengers exist

488
00:41:30.280 --> 00:41:34.159
for a reason. They clean up what would otherwise rot

489
00:41:34.239 --> 00:41:39.719
and spread disease in the ocean that includes many shellfish.

490
00:41:40.400 --> 00:41:45.239
On land, that includes pigs. That's not an insult to

491
00:41:45.239 --> 00:41:49.400
these animals. It's their job, but that job comes with

492
00:41:49.519 --> 00:41:55.440
a biological cost. They tend to accumulate things like toxins, pathogens,

493
00:41:56.039 --> 00:42:00.639
and whatever is in their environment. They are designed to

494
00:42:00.840 --> 00:42:07.079
process waste, not to become premium food sources. If you

495
00:42:07.199 --> 00:42:10.199
ever had fish growing up as a kid, do you

496
00:42:10.280 --> 00:42:11.960
I remember this. I never had a fish tank, but

497
00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:15.039
my sister did, and she had this fish. Now I

498
00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:17.599
don't know the formal name of the fish, but she

499
00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:20.480
called it a suckerfish. And do you remember these fish

500
00:42:20.519 --> 00:42:23.239
They would cling to the sides of the fish bowl

501
00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:27.320
or the aquarium and they would just eat up the gunk. Right,

502
00:42:27.719 --> 00:42:31.440
That's what they were there for. That's the thing that

503
00:42:31.480 --> 00:42:35.239
comes to my mind when I think about it now.

504
00:42:35.519 --> 00:42:38.599
When doctors like doctor Josh Ax and doctor Eric Berg

505
00:42:38.679 --> 00:42:42.199
talk about pork and shellfish, they're not making religious arguments

506
00:42:42.199 --> 00:42:45.400
at all. They're not going there. They're talking about things

507
00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:50.480
like inflammation and toxicity. Doctor Axe often points out that

508
00:42:50.519 --> 00:42:55.599
many bottom feeding and scavenger animals are more likely to

509
00:42:55.800 --> 00:43:00.440
concentrate heavy metals, they're more likely to carry per sites,

510
00:43:01.119 --> 00:43:06.719
they're more likely to trigger inflammatory responses to particularly sensitive people.

511
00:43:07.880 --> 00:43:11.159
Doctor Burke talks about pigs in particular as animals that

512
00:43:11.679 --> 00:43:17.039
they'll eat almost anything, they store toxins differently than grazing animals,

513
00:43:17.679 --> 00:43:23.199
and reduce meat that is often harder for people to digest. Again,

514
00:43:23.320 --> 00:43:29.679
this is not moral language, its physiology. Parasites are one

515
00:43:29.679 --> 00:43:33.480
of those topics that make people uncomfortable, so we tend

516
00:43:33.519 --> 00:43:38.960
to pretend they're not relevant anymore, but they are even today.

517
00:43:39.840 --> 00:43:46.440
Triconosis from undercooked pork still exists. Shellfish poisoning still happens,

518
00:43:47.199 --> 00:43:53.159
Contamination outbreaks still occur. The difference is that modern systems

519
00:43:53.239 --> 00:43:59.960
reduce risk, they don't eliminate them. Ancient people lived in

520
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:05.320
a world where these risks were everyday realities, and over

521
00:44:05.400 --> 00:44:09.559
time they noticed which animals were more consistently connected to

522
00:44:09.679 --> 00:44:18.039
the problems. So how do you cook your food? Because

523
00:44:18.079 --> 00:44:20.960
some people will say things like when you tell them

524
00:44:20.960 --> 00:44:24.880
about this, well, we cook our food now, So it's fine.

525
00:44:24.920 --> 00:44:26.800
We cook our food, we cook it thoroughly. I cook

526
00:44:26.840 --> 00:44:29.519
my food really good. I cook it, you know, for

527
00:44:29.559 --> 00:44:34.119
a long time. And cooking does reduce risk, but it

528
00:44:34.159 --> 00:44:37.719
does not erase everything. And I used to think this too.

529
00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:39.360
I used to think if I just cooked it, you know,

530
00:44:39.440 --> 00:44:42.400
really like I cooked that bacon you until it's almost burnt,

531
00:44:42.400 --> 00:44:46.639
it's probably fine. But some toxins are heat stable. I

532
00:44:46.679 --> 00:44:50.079
know it's hard to believe, but they are. Some inflammatory

533
00:44:50.119 --> 00:44:55.440
compounds survive cooking. And some problems are about what the

534
00:44:55.519 --> 00:44:59.880
animal accumulated during its life, not just what happens after

535
00:45:00.159 --> 00:45:05.280
it's killed. Modern farming practices can make this better or worse,

536
00:45:06.119 --> 00:45:10.639
but they don't change the basic category that the animal

537
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:16.480
belongs to. So think about it. This way. If an

538
00:45:16.519 --> 00:45:23.039
animal's job is to eat waste, debris and leftovers, then

539
00:45:23.079 --> 00:45:25.679
whatever is in that environment ends up inside that animal.

540
00:45:27.199 --> 00:45:32.800
Heavy metals in water, they concentrate, toxins. In soil, they

541
00:45:32.800 --> 00:45:39.679
accumulate industrial pollution, it gets stored. This is especially true

542
00:45:39.880 --> 00:45:45.559
in shellfish, which filter large volumes of water. Again, this

543
00:45:45.639 --> 00:45:51.440
isn't fear mongering. It's literally about biology and the biological

544
00:45:51.559 --> 00:45:59.239
rules that these animals have in nature. Grazing animals like cattle, sheep,

545
00:45:59.320 --> 00:46:04.320
and goats they eat grasses, plants, and relatively clean, consistent

546
00:46:04.400 --> 00:46:09.280
food sources. They also have digestive systems designed to break

547
00:46:09.320 --> 00:46:15.199
down plant matter slowly, neutralize many toxins, and produce more stable,

548
00:46:15.480 --> 00:46:19.679
predictable meat. That doesn't mean their meat is always perfect,

549
00:46:20.199 --> 00:46:23.440
but it does mean they generally start from a cleaner input.

550
00:46:23.480 --> 00:46:27.920
And of course we're talking about animals that are allowed

551
00:46:27.960 --> 00:46:31.280
to be out to pasture, not the big farm you know,

552
00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:36.000
those big farm raised animals, not farm raised industrial a

553
00:46:36.039 --> 00:46:38.000
way of raising animals where you're shooting them up with

554
00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:41.320
antibiotics and feeding them corn, which is which isn't even

555
00:46:41.480 --> 00:46:45.840
meant for their digestive systems. We're not talking about that. Mostly,

556
00:46:46.079 --> 00:46:50.239
the healthy meat. The grazing animals are exactly that pasture raised,

557
00:46:50.280 --> 00:46:54.039
grazing on grasses and things that are clean, which is

558
00:46:54.079 --> 00:46:56.280
hard to find these days. It's hard to find. I

559
00:46:56.360 --> 00:47:00.320
understand that we go through this quite a bit when

560
00:47:00.360 --> 00:47:03.719
we're looking around for meat and meat sources and we

561
00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:07.920
actually have a guy that pasture raises his beef and

562
00:47:07.960 --> 00:47:10.679
he we're lucky here. We're really lucky because he delivers

563
00:47:10.679 --> 00:47:13.920
it to our door every few weeks. He sends us,

564
00:47:13.960 --> 00:47:16.039
shoots us a text message that he's going to be

565
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:20.480
in town, and he delivers in the Tulsa area. So

566
00:47:20.519 --> 00:47:25.840
we're very, very lucky here for that now. Jordan Reuben

567
00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:30.039
often frames this not as good foods versus bad foods

568
00:47:30.039 --> 00:47:34.880
when he's talking about the meat particularly, but he says

569
00:47:34.920 --> 00:47:39.719
things like which foods consistently support human health over time?

570
00:47:40.639 --> 00:47:43.320
And he points out out that if you look across

571
00:47:43.360 --> 00:47:48.400
cultures in history, the foods most consistently associated with long

572
00:47:48.519 --> 00:47:53.559
term health tend to come from grazing animals, clean waters,

573
00:47:54.079 --> 00:47:59.000
and simpler processing, whereas foods that come from scavengers show

574
00:47:59.079 --> 00:48:02.960
up much more often in stories of illness, outbreaks and

575
00:48:03.079 --> 00:48:07.840
digestive problems. Just something to think about. One of the

576
00:48:07.880 --> 00:48:15.039
biggest problems in nutrition is that culture often outruns biology.

577
00:48:15.079 --> 00:48:20.880
If something becomes associated with comfort, celebration, or identity, we

578
00:48:21.039 --> 00:48:25.880
stop questioning it. We don't ask does this actually serve

579
00:48:25.960 --> 00:48:30.039
my body? How does this affect me long term? What

580
00:48:30.320 --> 00:48:33.599
pattern does this create? We ask things like does this

581
00:48:33.639 --> 00:48:37.119
taste good? Does this feel familiar? Those are not the

582
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:39.920
same questions. And you know, this makes me think of

583
00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:43.559
certain people who on social media will go to Texas

584
00:48:43.559 --> 00:48:46.480
and they'll have Texas barbecue and the pork ribs and

585
00:48:46.480 --> 00:48:48.400
all this stuff, and you know, it's a thing that

586
00:48:48.400 --> 00:48:50.679
they do. It's a part of the culture. It's just

587
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:52.400
they hang out with their buddies and they have a

588
00:48:52.440 --> 00:48:55.400
beer and they have a bunch of pork barbecue and

589
00:48:55.440 --> 00:48:58.559
pulled pork sandwiches and they brag about it. And it

590
00:48:58.599 --> 00:49:01.159
looks delicious, it looks wonderful. So it is one of

591
00:49:01.199 --> 00:49:04.079
those things that becomes a part of your celebration, your comfort,

592
00:49:04.119 --> 00:49:07.639
and your identity and something that you don't necessarily feel

593
00:49:07.639 --> 00:49:13.079
like giving up. Now, if you look at modern health statistics,

594
00:49:13.119 --> 00:49:15.719
you're going to see things like, and I know I've

595
00:49:15.719 --> 00:49:19.000
said this before, chronic inflammation. It seems like everybody I

596
00:49:19.039 --> 00:49:25.159
know has this digestive disorders. It's becoming the norm. Autoimmune issues,

597
00:49:25.639 --> 00:49:31.639
metabolic disease. These aren't random, they are patterned, and they

598
00:49:31.639 --> 00:49:37.440
correlate strongly with things like highly processed foods, high talks

599
00:49:37.480 --> 00:49:44.280
and foods, and heavy conception of hard to digest animal products.

600
00:49:46.800 --> 00:49:51.880
So this conversation's not about fear or obsession or trying

601
00:49:51.880 --> 00:49:54.880
to eat pure in a broken world. I'm not trying

602
00:49:54.920 --> 00:49:57.480
to push that or make that claim that I do

603
00:49:57.559 --> 00:50:01.719
that myself. We have a uh pork every now and then.

604
00:50:01.960 --> 00:50:04.280
As a matter of fact, we just recently a couple

605
00:50:04.320 --> 00:50:08.760
of months ago, gave up pork bacon again and we're

606
00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:11.360
now eating turkey bacon. And there was a time where

607
00:50:11.360 --> 00:50:13.360
we just didn't have bacon at all, and then we

608
00:50:13.440 --> 00:50:15.800
just decided, you know what, let's get some turkey bacon

609
00:50:15.840 --> 00:50:17.440
so we can have some bacon. And you know what,

610
00:50:17.480 --> 00:50:23.639
it's pretty darn good. You should give it a try. So, again,

611
00:50:23.679 --> 00:50:26.519
it's not about trying to eat pure. We do live

612
00:50:26.519 --> 00:50:28.039
in a broken world, and there are times when you

613
00:50:28.079 --> 00:50:31.320
can't always eat the way that you want to, especially

614
00:50:31.320 --> 00:50:33.960
when you travel or when you're on a really really

615
00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:38.079
tight budget. So what kinds of foods does the human

616
00:50:38.119 --> 00:50:41.320
body generally handle well, that's a good question to ask yourself.

617
00:50:42.159 --> 00:50:45.599
And what kinds of foods create more trouble over time,

618
00:50:45.800 --> 00:50:51.280
that's another thing to ponder. So let's talk about pork.

619
00:50:53.199 --> 00:50:58.679
Pigs are remarkable animals. They're intelligent, they're adaptable, they can

620
00:50:58.679 --> 00:51:01.920
survive in a huge rain of environments, and some people

621
00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:05.119
like to keep them as pets. If you remember, George

622
00:51:05.159 --> 00:51:08.400
Clooney used to have a pet pig. And they can

623
00:51:08.400 --> 00:51:12.280
eat almost anything. That's both their strength and the reason

624
00:51:12.320 --> 00:51:15.360
their meat has always been viewed with suspicion in many cultures,

625
00:51:15.440 --> 00:51:19.599
although a lot of cultures eat pork, especially the Italian

626
00:51:19.639 --> 00:51:22.880
culture and the British culture. If you ever go over there,

627
00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:25.880
they're pushing that blood sausage on you over there in

628
00:51:26.039 --> 00:51:31.039
Ireland and those places, and in Italy they eat a

629
00:51:31.079 --> 00:51:34.960
lot of salami and things like that. Now, because pigs

630
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:38.159
are omnivorous scavengers, they don't just eat clean plant matter.

631
00:51:38.199 --> 00:51:41.239
We talked about this. They eat scraps, waste, carrion, and

632
00:51:41.320 --> 00:51:44.719
whatever else is available. Just the thought of them eating

633
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:50.519
carcasses makes me not want to eat them. That means

634
00:51:50.559 --> 00:51:56.079
whatever is in their environment tends to end up in them. Historically,

635
00:51:56.119 --> 00:52:02.880
pork has been closely associated with parasites, especially trichinosis. Modern

636
00:52:02.960 --> 00:52:07.719
farming and inspection have reduced that risk dramatically, but they

637
00:52:07.800 --> 00:52:14.199
haven't changed the biological category of pigs. Doctor Bergh often

638
00:52:14.239 --> 00:52:19.039
points out that pigs also store fat and toxins differently

639
00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:23.920
than grazing animals, and that many people find pork heavier

640
00:52:24.239 --> 00:52:29.599
and harder to digest than meats like lamb or beef. Again,

641
00:52:29.960 --> 00:52:33.559
this isn't moral language. It's about how our bodies respond

642
00:52:33.880 --> 00:52:40.880
to these types of foods. And what about shellfish. Shellfish

643
00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:47.840
have an equally important ecological role. They're filters, cleaners, bottom feeders.

644
00:52:49.119 --> 00:52:54.760
They process huge amounts of water, pulling out organic matter, debris,

645
00:52:55.159 --> 00:52:59.320
and whatever else happens to be there. That's exactly why

646
00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:06.159
environmental agencies still issue shellfish advisories when water quality drops.

647
00:53:06.840 --> 00:53:10.320
If toxins are in the water, shellfish don't ignore them,

648
00:53:10.920 --> 00:53:17.000
they concentrate them. This is why shellfish poisoning still exists

649
00:53:17.320 --> 00:53:21.719
even in modern times, and why outbreaks tend to follow

650
00:53:22.079 --> 00:53:29.280
algae blooms, industrial runoff, or warming waters. Again, cooking helps,

651
00:53:29.880 --> 00:53:32.800
it doesn't change the fact that some of the risk

652
00:53:33.280 --> 00:53:39.039
is already built into the animal. Now, it's important to

653
00:53:39.199 --> 00:53:43.920
be fair here. Modern farming has reduced many parasite risks,

654
00:53:44.559 --> 00:53:50.920
improved sanitation, improved inspection, improve storage and transport. That's a

655
00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:55.920
real achievement, but it doesn't change the fact that the

656
00:53:55.960 --> 00:54:00.280
ecological role of the animal is there. The way it

657
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:05.480
processes food, the way it stores toxins, or the way

658
00:54:05.599 --> 00:54:11.199
human bodies tend to respond to it. Technology can reduce risk,

659
00:54:11.599 --> 00:54:16.679
it doesn't make every category of food equally supportive of health.

660
00:54:19.119 --> 00:54:21.440
One of the ways modern doctors look at food now

661
00:54:21.519 --> 00:54:26.079
is in terms of digestive and immune burden. This is

662
00:54:26.159 --> 00:54:29.760
interesting to me because I have heard over and over

663
00:54:29.800 --> 00:54:36.119
again that modern medical doctors maybe get fifteen minutes of

664
00:54:36.239 --> 00:54:41.599
nutrition in their entire education. So I know that they're

665
00:54:41.639 --> 00:54:44.400
becoming more aware of that. They've talked about it, people

666
00:54:44.480 --> 00:54:49.119
have talked about it, so now they're starting to think

667
00:54:49.199 --> 00:54:51.599
more in terms I believe. I'm starting to see them

668
00:54:51.599 --> 00:54:55.440
talk about it more in social media online. They're starting

669
00:54:55.480 --> 00:54:57.639
to realize, hey, I didn't get a lot of new

670
00:54:57.719 --> 00:55:01.960
I didn't get nutrition in my mid me training. So

671
00:55:02.719 --> 00:55:04.960
they're starting to see foods now in the digestive an

672
00:55:04.960 --> 00:55:09.760
immune burden, and they're educating themselves to that degree. Some

673
00:55:09.800 --> 00:55:13.800
foods they will say they digest easily, create little inflammation,

674
00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:18.000
and don't stress the system much. Now, the thing that

675
00:55:18.039 --> 00:55:22.360
concerns me about this is when we're talking about gluten

676
00:55:22.400 --> 00:55:25.679
sensitivity or people who say I can't eat bread or

677
00:55:25.719 --> 00:55:32.000
I can't eat dairy. There's a deeper story behind that

678
00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:37.079
that isn't being addressed always. So if you want to

679
00:55:37.199 --> 00:55:40.159
find out what happened, why did raw milk become the villain?

680
00:55:40.199 --> 00:55:44.679
That's one of my podcasts, And there's also the one

681
00:55:44.719 --> 00:55:49.199
about bread that I did. How we fractured the staff

682
00:55:49.199 --> 00:55:51.960
of life. I believe that was what it's called now

683
00:55:52.880 --> 00:55:57.000
because it's different now. We pasteurize our milk, we use

684
00:55:57.039 --> 00:55:59.760
a different type of milk. There's an a to milk

685
00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:03.000
which which is from a different type of cow that

686
00:56:03.039 --> 00:56:05.599
you can get a hold of. That is actually some

687
00:56:05.639 --> 00:56:08.599
people claim that they're no longer lactose intolerant when they

688
00:56:08.760 --> 00:56:12.119
consume that milk and so on. Some people are starting

689
00:56:12.119 --> 00:56:15.559
to buy wheatberries and grind their own grain and make

690
00:56:15.599 --> 00:56:18.480
their own bread, and they're discovering that they're no longer

691
00:56:18.599 --> 00:56:22.400
quote unquote gluten intolerant. So we have to take into

692
00:56:22.440 --> 00:56:27.320
consideration the deeper story. So as we're getting kind of

693
00:56:27.320 --> 00:56:32.760
a surface level guidance from modern doctors about these particular foods,

694
00:56:33.280 --> 00:56:37.519
oftentimes that does not address the path, the historical path

695
00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:41.199
of these foods and how they've changed over time. So

696
00:56:41.239 --> 00:56:44.599
they will separate these foods into some foods that digest easily,

697
00:56:45.039 --> 00:56:48.320
create little inflammation, and don't stress the system. Then other

698
00:56:48.360 --> 00:56:52.679
foods take more work to process, trigger more immune activity,

699
00:56:53.159 --> 00:56:57.039
and leave more residue behind. Now, many people notice, even

700
00:56:57.079 --> 00:57:01.280
without this ideology, they feel heavier after pork, they feel

701
00:57:01.280 --> 00:57:05.199
more sluggish after shellfish, and they recover more slowly from

702
00:57:05.280 --> 00:57:09.039
heavy ridge meals. And you know what, that's not their imagination.

703
00:57:09.239 --> 00:57:16.239
That's physiology at work right there. So food is personal.

704
00:57:17.320 --> 00:57:21.800
Food is it's in our memories. We associate foods with

705
00:57:22.079 --> 00:57:24.519
like I do with my grandmother and the bacon and

706
00:57:24.559 --> 00:57:30.559
the eggs. Food is family, it's gathering, it's warmth, it's community.

707
00:57:31.159 --> 00:57:34.440
Food is a part of our culture. So when someone

708
00:57:34.480 --> 00:57:37.639
suggests that a beloved food might not be ideal, it

709
00:57:37.679 --> 00:57:40.760
doesn't feel like a scientific comment. Sometimes it feels like

710
00:57:40.800 --> 00:57:43.239
a personal attack, and people can feel threatened by it

711
00:57:43.320 --> 00:57:47.360
or get emotional, and that's only human. But it also

712
00:57:47.440 --> 00:57:51.920
means we sometimes protect foods that don't protect us. One

713
00:57:51.960 --> 00:57:54.000
of the things that Jordan Ruben is careful to say

714
00:57:54.079 --> 00:57:57.639
is that this is not about fear or condemnation. It

715
00:57:57.719 --> 00:58:01.800
doesn't teach that eating pork one runed your health. It

716
00:58:01.880 --> 00:58:05.880
teaches patterns. What do you eat regularly, what do you

717
00:58:05.920 --> 00:58:09.559
build your diet around, What does your body have to

718
00:58:09.599 --> 00:58:12.960
deal with every single day. That's where health is shaped.

719
00:58:14.199 --> 00:58:17.800
Ancient people didn't avoid certain animals because they were superstitious.

720
00:58:18.280 --> 00:58:22.159
They avoided them because enough people got sick often enough

721
00:58:22.639 --> 00:58:27.480
that patterns became impossible to ignore. They didn't have statistics,

722
00:58:27.840 --> 00:58:32.679
they had experience. We're in a strange place now. We've

723
00:58:32.679 --> 00:58:35.079
made food so safe in the short term that we've

724
00:58:35.119 --> 00:58:40.559
become careless about long term effects. We don't usually get

725
00:58:40.599 --> 00:58:45.639
sick immediately, so we assume everything is fine. But chronic

726
00:58:45.679 --> 00:58:50.119
disease doesn't work that way. It works in slow accumulation.

727
00:58:52.119 --> 00:58:54.559
So I'm not trying to declare food is evil, or

728
00:58:54.599 --> 00:58:56.920
create fear or tell you what you have to do.

729
00:58:57.920 --> 00:59:03.280
This is just about making invisible patterns visible and letting

730
00:59:03.320 --> 00:59:08.880
adults make informed choices. The question is worth asking. Instead

731
00:59:08.880 --> 00:59:14.079
of asking can I eat this? Maybe ask yourself how

732
00:59:14.119 --> 00:59:18.440
does this affect me? Over time? When we come back,

733
00:59:19.000 --> 00:59:22.400
we'll talk about how to take all of this and

734
00:59:22.599 --> 00:59:27.719
actually live with it without fear, without legalism, and without

735
00:59:27.760 --> 00:59:55.920
turning food into a full time job. By this point

736
00:59:55.960 --> 00:59:59.519
in the conversation, you may be feeling one of two things.

737
01:00:00.320 --> 01:00:03.480
Either you're thinking this actually makes a lot of sense,

738
01:00:04.199 --> 01:00:07.119
or you might be thinking, okay, but how do I

739
01:00:07.199 --> 01:00:11.719
live this without becoming rigid or anxious? And that's exactly

740
01:00:11.760 --> 01:00:14.360
where we need to land, because the goal of ancient

741
01:00:14.400 --> 01:00:17.840
food wisdom and the goal of modern health is not

742
01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:25.280
restriction for restriction's sake, it's freedom that actually works. One

743
01:00:25.280 --> 01:00:28.519
of the reasons people resist conversations like this is because

744
01:00:28.599 --> 01:00:34.920
modern wellness culture tends to swing to extremes. Either nothing matters,

745
01:00:35.119 --> 01:00:39.119
eat whatever you want, or everything matters. Control everything. That's me.

746
01:00:39.440 --> 01:00:42.800
Everything matters, control everything. So I struggle to find this

747
01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:47.159
balance I do. It's a weakly daily thing for me. Now.

748
01:00:47.239 --> 01:00:49.960
Neither of these produces peace, right, it just makes us anxious.

749
01:00:50.719 --> 01:00:53.800
And ancient wisdom lived in a much calmer middle ground.

750
01:00:53.840 --> 01:00:58.360
That's what I prefer, it said, eat thoughtfully, eat consistently.

751
01:00:59.159 --> 01:01:05.679
Eat in ways that's life, not perfectly, not obsessively, just wisely.

752
01:01:07.599 --> 01:01:11.119
One of the most helpful things that Jordan Rubin emphasizes

753
01:01:11.239 --> 01:01:16.920
is this design principles are about alignment, not salvation. Eating

754
01:01:16.960 --> 01:01:20.440
in ways that support your body doesn't make you more virtuous.

755
01:01:21.039 --> 01:01:26.360
It makes you more functional. And that distinction matters because

756
01:01:26.360 --> 01:01:29.960
when health becomes a moral badge, it stops being helpful

757
01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:33.519
and starts becoming stressful. The body doesn't respond to guilt,

758
01:01:34.079 --> 01:01:39.239
it responds to inputs. Here's the most practical way to

759
01:01:39.320 --> 01:01:43.599
think about everything we've discussed. Instead of asking am I

760
01:01:43.639 --> 01:01:47.079
allowed to eat this? Try asking how often does this

761
01:01:47.119 --> 01:01:52.119
support how I want to feel? That single question removes

762
01:01:52.159 --> 01:01:57.119
fear and brings clarity. You don't need perfection, You need

763
01:01:57.199 --> 01:02:02.800
patterns habits that work in a modern world. Eating with

764
01:02:02.920 --> 01:02:07.320
ancient wisdom might look like this. Building most meals around

765
01:02:07.360 --> 01:02:16.800
foods that digest easily, prioritizing cleaner protein sources, being cautious

766
01:02:16.840 --> 01:02:22.440
with foods that are heavy, inflammatory, or toxin prone, paying

767
01:02:22.480 --> 01:02:26.599
attention to how your body responds instead of ignoring it.

768
01:02:27.519 --> 01:02:34.280
Treating indulgence as occasional, not foundational. That's not extreme, that's

769
01:02:34.400 --> 01:02:40.679
adult decision making. One of the quiet benefits of eating

770
01:02:40.760 --> 01:02:45.880
this way is that it removes constant decision fatigue. When

771
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:49.960
you already know which foods generally serve you well, you

772
01:02:50.039 --> 01:02:53.880
don't have to debate every meal. You're not reacting, You're

773
01:02:53.920 --> 01:03:00.480
operating from understanding. Ancient systems weren't stressful because the dominated

774
01:03:00.679 --> 01:03:03.719
endless choice, and that makes it hard today, doesn't it

775
01:03:03.719 --> 01:03:06.079
because we go through the grocery store and there's so

776
01:03:06.400 --> 01:03:11.000
many options there. But the ancient diet was actually pretty simple.

777
01:03:14.320 --> 01:03:18.440
So what about social life and celebrations. That's a tough one,

778
01:03:18.519 --> 01:03:20.880
right because if somebody you go to somebody's house, I

779
01:03:20.920 --> 01:03:24.159
don't like to put restrictions on what somebody cooks for me,

780
01:03:24.360 --> 01:03:27.920
to be honest, if they ask, what foods do you

781
01:03:28.039 --> 01:03:30.840
not like? You know, I might say, well, I don't

782
01:03:30.920 --> 01:03:34.440
like raw onions or something, or my husband doesn't eat

783
01:03:34.760 --> 01:03:39.440
raw tomatoes. But if they don't ask, I just show

784
01:03:39.519 --> 01:03:41.239
up and eat whatever's put in front of me. So

785
01:03:41.639 --> 01:03:43.920
if somebody put a pork chop in front of me,

786
01:03:44.719 --> 01:03:47.280
I would eat it, to be honest, that's just me. Okay,

787
01:03:48.119 --> 01:03:51.760
So what about social life, celebrations? Enjoy this is important.

788
01:03:52.519 --> 01:03:55.440
Food is not just ful just not just fuel, right,

789
01:03:55.519 --> 01:03:58.559
it's connecting with people, it's culture, it's a part of

790
01:03:58.559 --> 01:04:01.760
our memory. Ancient people understood this better than we give

791
01:04:01.760 --> 01:04:05.679
them credit for, because they did feast, they celebrated, and

792
01:04:05.719 --> 01:04:09.719
they had special meals. The difference was that celebration was

793
01:04:09.760 --> 01:04:13.920
the exception, not the baseline. When every meal is indulgent,

794
01:04:14.559 --> 01:04:18.199
indulgence loses its joy and your body pays the price.

795
01:04:18.599 --> 01:04:21.920
And I can tell you that from personal experience. Now

796
01:04:21.960 --> 01:04:27.440
this may sound counterintuitive, but it's true. Real freedom requires structure.

797
01:04:28.760 --> 01:04:32.199
Think about that, because if you don't have structure and

798
01:04:32.440 --> 01:04:35.679
you're just eating whatever you want, then what kind of

799
01:04:35.760 --> 01:04:37.960
freedom does that give you? When your body breaks down

800
01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:40.239
and you don't have your health, Now, your freedom is

801
01:04:40.280 --> 01:04:44.400
taken away, isn't it. So Without structure, everything becomes reactive,

802
01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:50.519
habits form accidentally, health erodes quietly. Structure doesn't trap you,

803
01:04:50.960 --> 01:04:54.360
it supports you. One of the most striking differences between

804
01:04:54.400 --> 01:04:58.840
ancient and modern thinking is time horizon. Ancient people thought

805
01:04:58.840 --> 01:05:02.599
in generations, and we tend to think of moments. Ancient

806
01:05:02.599 --> 01:05:06.440
wisdom asked what keeps people healthy over a lifetime, and

807
01:05:06.559 --> 01:05:11.079
modern culture often asks what tastes good right now? Neither

808
01:05:11.239 --> 01:05:16.199
question is evil, but only one of them builds sustainable health.

809
01:05:18.159 --> 01:05:20.960
So why does this matter? In twenty twenty six and beyond,

810
01:05:21.960 --> 01:05:26.880
as food systems become more complex, more processed, and more industrial,

811
01:05:28.039 --> 01:05:33.880
discernment matters more, not less. We are surrounded by abundance,

812
01:05:33.920 --> 01:05:39.440
but not necessarily nourishment. Ancient wisdom doesn't tell us to

813
01:05:39.559 --> 01:05:45.559
reject modern life. It teaches us how to navigate it intelligently.

814
01:05:47.440 --> 01:05:50.360
If you take nothing else from this series, let it

815
01:05:50.400 --> 01:05:55.440
be this. Your body is not confused. It responds honestly

816
01:05:55.719 --> 01:05:59.360
to what you give it. The more consistently you support it,

817
01:05:59.800 --> 01:06:05.119
the more consistently it supports you. You don't have to

818
01:06:05.159 --> 01:06:08.960
adopt labels, you don't have to follow rules, You don't

819
01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:12.559
have to explain your choices to anyone. You just have

820
01:06:12.639 --> 01:06:15.639
to decide whether you want to eat in a way

821
01:06:15.679 --> 01:06:19.320
that works with your body or keeps or keeps it

822
01:06:19.360 --> 01:06:26.880
asking to compensate for poor eating. So ask yourself that question,

823
01:06:27.960 --> 01:06:31.000
is this food? Is this way of eating going to

824
01:06:31.280 --> 01:06:34.119
support my body in the way I want to function today,

825
01:06:34.639 --> 01:06:37.199
or is it going to make my body try to compensate.

826
01:06:39.559 --> 01:06:44.840
Ancient food wisdom was never about control. It was about care, care,

827
01:06:44.880 --> 01:06:48.000
for the body, care for the community, care for their future.

828
01:06:48.840 --> 01:06:53.920
That kind of wisdom doesn't age. Thank you so much

829
01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:56.800
for spending this time with me on the Chasing Even podcast.

830
01:06:57.400 --> 01:07:01.639
If this episode helped you think different about food, health

831
01:07:01.800 --> 01:07:05.480
or ancient wisdom, I'd love for you to like, follow

832
01:07:05.800 --> 01:07:08.719
and share the show with someone who might enjoy it too.

833
01:07:09.360 --> 01:07:14.039
You can find more episodes, resources and encouragement at Chasing

834
01:07:14.440 --> 01:07:18.400
Eden dot net. Until next time, keep listening to your body,

835
01:07:18.760 --> 01:07:21.760
keep learning, and keep chasing eating