KPAO by Dave Cortright

The Bowlby Conjecture—how we were designed to live and thrive

As I’ve been talking to people about my idea, I’ve realized that the “razor” concept is too obtuse to be useful. There is a razor aspect to the concept—anything that wasn’t a part of the environment of our ancient ancestors is by and large unnecessary for overall happiness and well-being. However there are exceptions such as antibiotics and other aspects of modern medicine.

But also, it’s not really a black-or-white, true-or-false binary that cuts off the unnecessary from the essential. It’s a gradual spectrum where we can choose to trade comfort or convenience for things that make us proportionally less healthy. And there are also multiple factors at play in every decision; it’s difficult to separate out the purely good from the purely bad.

So my current favorite title is “The Bowlby Conjecture”. Simply stated, because our genes were selected to work optimally in the environment in which our Pleistocene ancestors lived, the closer we live our lives emulating the core aspects of that lifestyle, the more we will thrive. Conversely, the further our lifestyle drifts from those core aspects, the less healthy and happy we will be.

Those core aspects: living in a tight-knit social tribe, moving our bodies throughout the day (especially walking, running, and fine eye-hand motor skills), eating a diet of fresh, whole foods, near-constant exposure to nature, sunlight and the elements. Relying as much (if not more) on your senses and being in the present moment as on your thinking brain.

NatGeo promotes “The Evolution Diet”, which aligns with Bowlby’s Razor

Just came across this article in Nat Geo (Feb 2013) on the diets of our ancestors. One key point missing in the article is the importance of cooking in our ancestors’ diets. Cooking food helps break it down before it enters the body, thereby reducing the amount of work the digestive system needs to do.

And while some populations survive on a meat-heavy diet, most eat primarily a plant-based diet supplemented by whatever meat they can acquire.

But regardless of the amount of meat in your diet, the real key is that foods be reasonably varied and unprocessed. The article says, “you are what your ancestors ate”, which I would rephrase more accurately, your genes were optimized to thrive on the diet of your ancestors. The further from that we stray, the more it will negatively impact our health.

Bowlby’s Razor: the elevator pitch

Humans—and every other organism—are adapted to survive, thrive, and reproduce in a particular set of conditions. Psychologist John Bowlby called this the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation. Given that the last major update to our genetic code was roughly 50,000 years ago (at the latest), then it stands to reason that our genes are adapted to the environmental conditions of life back then—within a close-knit tribe of hunter/gatherers. Nearly everything we've created since that qualifies as “civilization”—agriculture, domesticated livestock, the industrial revolution—while it may be a convenience, isn’t necessary for our overall fulfillment.

In fact many of the things we have run counter to what is actually good for us. We were designed to be outside, in nature, moving our bodies nearly constantly throughout the day, and interacting socially with the members of our tribe. We ate a diet of whole foods (primarily fruits, vegetables, nuts, and tubers), and our sleep patterns were driven by the sun. Contrast this to modern life in the civilized world where our daily routines have us mostly sedentary, inside, looking at screens rather than people, and eating a diet of primarily processed foods. We have certainly made ourselves more comfortable with these conveniences. But they are—each in their own small way—leading us away from the lifestyle for which we were designed to thrive.