philalethes
Member
Yes, he was great at balancing both. A true inspiration for us all.
Absolutely, he was no doubt a great person.
I also think at times we need different inputs depending on what is going on with our physiology and environment. I’ve been here long enough to notice one specific diet does not work for everyone and even at the individual level we must remain mindful and willing to adapt to changes.
I only partially agree with this, but probably not with the general sentiment. The genetic differences between humans all across the planet are simply too small to expect any significant differences in physiological adaptation; there is, as I believe I mentioned in passing previously, less genetic variation across almost all humans than there is within even single populations of our closest relative species, and those of other primates. The cause for this is still discussed, but the most commonly cited reason is typically some genetic bottleneck that happened around the time we migrated out of Africa (which also explains why there is significantly more genetic variation in Africa, especially in sub-Saharan Africa). It would likely take many millions of years for subspecies of humans with so significantly different physiologies that they'd have different underlying dietary needs to appear, but given the increased levels of global contact between individuals I'd say the trend seems to go in the other direction, towards more homogeneity. We're essentially becoming one single population more and more if we look at it historically.
Thus while I can partially agree that one should perhaps be careful when reintroducing a more physiologically suitable diet if one has been eating in other ways, so as to not make any too sudden changes, I don't agree that this is dependent on environment or physiology; this is perhaps most notable when looking at Inuits, which I mentioned previously, and how they see rapid population-wide increases in health when they gain access to more carbohydrate-rich foods due to trade/importation.