The longer I think about it, the more I'm convinced that health and fulfillment are found in the extremes, not in moderation.
The paleo/low-carb community makes a big deal out of the supposed health of the Masai and Inuit. Even if it were true (which is sort of is and sort of isn't, at least in terms of longevity vs vigor and physique and quality of life), it's a totally reductionist argument which misses the bigger point:
The Masai and Inuit live what we would consider extreme lifestyles, without the nest of creature comforts and controlled environments that we have constructed for ourselves in the developed world.
And although they're far from vegan, they don't eat junk food (at least traditionally).
To be truly healthy and human, I would argue, requires a combination of extreme diet, extreme movement, and extreme willingness to face physical, environmental, and emotional discomfort without flinching or avoiding these stimuli.
That's why just mimicking the animal-heavy diet of a traditional culture is a silly reductionist justification for meat eating. If someone tells you, “What about the Inuit?”, ask them if they spend 24/7 in subzero temperatures and support themselves through physical labor. Then they might be able to partly mitigate the effects of a bacon-based diet. (Although without the Inuit genetic adaptations, I doubt it.)
Extremism is Normal; Moderation Isn't
The point is, what has been normal human experience for millions of years — a whole food, plant-based diet (not vegan, but mostly plants); the need for movement and exertion to wrest sustenance, security, and shelter from nature; and intermittent exposure to environmental shocks (cold, heat, wind, water, hard surfaces) — is now considered “extreme” by a culture that has elevated comfort food, couch potato-dom, and 72 degrees and dry to biological imperatives.
And we're becoming increasingly sick and miserable as a result. What Nicholas Nassim Taleb would call “anti-fragile.”
And the whole thing is built upon two extremely non-sustainable systems: the winner-take-all capitalism that creates incentives to strip-mine, mono-crop, pollute the commons, and poison our own people with toxic products, and the petroleum reserves that allow us to temporarily exceed our daily allowance of solar energy.
When both come crashing down, whether in 5 years, 50 years, or 500 hundred years (all three mere blinks in the geological time scale), who among us will be able to withstand the world that we will have to inhabit? If indeed it is habitable at all.
No matter what we do individually, we're just plants in the ground. If, as my friend and teacher Tad Hargrave reminds us, the soil itself is toxic, there are severe limits on how healthy and fulfilled each of us can be.
Evolve or Die
What's needed now is a quantum leap in human evolution. Not something dramatic like growing wings or fins, but arguable more profound: to democratize the spiritual quest so it's not just the purview of yogis and monks and Western elites.
To make the care of our souls our top priority. To discover how to be loving. How to be Love.
How to metabolize all our past and present suffering and turn it into the compost in which our souls can grow.
How to surrender our domestication and get in touch with the healing wildness within.
And then to live like Avatars, like archetypal royalty, so that everyone around us is drawn to drink from the same well.
It's no longer enough to chase our own enlightenment and our own physical health and dismiss the rest of the world.
Learn.
Do.
Teach.
We're all in this together. And, to steal a beautiful line from Robert Moss, the time is GO.
Dr Howie Jacobson
This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).
My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.
Here are three gigs that I do:
1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation
I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.
At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.
My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.
2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance
I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.
We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.
The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.
3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams
I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.
So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.
You CAN Change Other People!
Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.
What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.
Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.
Music
The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.
It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.
You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.
Gratitudes
Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.
Disclosure
This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.
Love this piece. Thanks for posting it Howard. You’re the best.
Many thanks, Janet!