How to Become Smarter (6 page)
Pathogen
:
Clostridium botulinum
(bacterium)
Source
:
seafood (such as improperly canned goods; smoked or salted fish)
Symptoms of infection
:
double vision, inability to swallow, difficulty speaking, and inability to breathe; can be fatal
Pathogen:
Clostridium perfringens
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw meats
Symptoms of infection
:
abdominal cramps and diarrhea
Pathogen
:
Cryptosporidium parvum
(single-celled parasite)
Source
:
raw dairy
Symptoms of infection
:
without symptoms or watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, upset stomach, and slight fever
Pathogen
:
Escherichia coli, strain O157:H7
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw beef and pork
Symptoms of infection
:
abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
Pathogen:
Giardia duodenalis
(single-celled parasite)
Source
:
raw dairy
Symptoms of infection
:
without symptoms or diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and nausea
Pathogen
:
Listeria monocytogenes
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw pork, poultry, dairy, and seafood
Symptoms of infection
:
abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
Pathogen
:
Norovirus
(Norwalk-like virus)
Source
:
raw oysters, shellfish
Symptoms of infection
:
diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, headache, and fever
Pathogen
:
Norwalk virus
Source
:
raw seafood
Symptoms of infection
:
nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain; headache and low-grade fever may occur
Pathogen
:
Opisthorchis felineus
and
Opisthorchis viverrini
(flatworms)
Source
:
raw fresh-water fish
Symptoms of infection
:
fever, nausea, pain on the right side of the abdomen; possible obstruction of the bile duct
Pathogen
:
Salmonella
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw beef, pork, poultry, eggs, dairy, and seafood
Symptoms of infection
:
abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
Pathogen
:
Shigella
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw dairy products
Symptoms of infection
:
nausea, vomiting, fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea
Pathogen
:
Staphylococcus aureus
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw dairy products, beef
Symptoms of infection
:
nausea, vomiting, fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea
Pathogen
:
Taenia saginata
(tapeworm)
Source
:
raw beef
Symptoms of infection
:
without symptoms or abdominal pain, weight loss, digestive disturbances, and possible intestinal obstruction; irritation of perianal area
Pathogen
:
Taenia solium
(tapeworm)
Source
:
raw pork
Symptoms of infection
:
without symptoms or abdominal pain, weight loss, digestive disturbances, and possible intestinal obstruction; irritation of perianal area; infection of some tissues (other than intestines) with larvae is possible and can be fatal if involves central nervous system or heart
Pathogen
:
Toxoplasma gondii
(single-celled parasite)
Source
:
raw pork, lamb, and wild game
Symptoms of infection
:
without symptoms or “flu-like” symptoms such as swollen lymph nodes or muscle aches; immunocompromised patients can develop severe toxoplasmosis: damage to the eyes or brain
Pathogen
:
Trichinella spiralis
(intestinal roundworm, larvae can form cysts in muscle tissue)
Source
:
raw pork, wild boar, bear, bobcat, cougar, fox, wolf, dog, horse, seal, and walrus
Symptoms of infection
:
nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain, followed by headaches, eye swelling, aching joints and muscles, weakness, and itchy skin; severe cases: difficulty with coordination, heart and breathing problems, can be fatal
Pathogen
:
Vibrio cholerae
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw seafood
Symptoms of infection
:
without symptoms or symptoms of cholera: severe diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps; severe dehydration and death can occur without treatment
Pathogen
:
Vibrio parahaemolyticus
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw shellfish, other seafood
Symptoms of infection
:
chills, fever, and collapse
Pathogen
:
Vibrio vulnificus
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw shellfish, other seafood
Symptoms of infection
:
chills, fever, and collapse
Pathogen
:
Yersinia enterocolitica
(bacterium)
Source
:
raw meats and seafood
Symptoms of infection
:
bloody diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
Going back to the natural diets of animals in the wild, the first primates appeared 60 to 70 million years ago. Humans belong to the order of primates, although we appeared much later in the course of evolution. All known mammals living in the wild today including primates consume a raw diet consisting of plants, animals, or both. For a brief period after birth they consume mother’s milk. They do not consume artificial ingredients (pure chemicals such as food additives and dietary supplements) aside from those that enter their diet by accident through environmental pollution. Early hominids or “great apes” appeared approximately 15 million years ago and were the evolutionary predecessors of
Homo sapiens
. Great apes most likely consumed a diet that resembles the natural diet of modern chimpanzees: raw plants, raw meat and fish and no dairy at the adult age [
39
-
41
]. These early hominids most likely did not consume any artificial ingredients because they did not know how to manufacture those chemicals.
Homo
species did not know cooked food until predecessors of
Homo sapiens
mastered cooking with fire about 300,000 years ago [
42
,
46
]. These immediate predecessors as well as the first
Homo sapiens
(who appeared approximately 100,000 years ago) started consuming cooked food, but there is no evidence that they consumed any artificial ingredients. Domestication of cattle and cultivation of wheat 10,000 to 11,000 years ago led to consumption of dairy by humans at adult age and widespread consumption of cereal grains [
43
]. Humans started consuming salt, one of the first pure chemicals in the diet, approximately 6000 B.C. [
47
]. A small number of chemicals, such as potassium nitrate (a preservative), entered the Western diet during the Middle Ages. A large influx of various artificial ingredients into the human diet (several hundred food additives, at last count) occurred during the Industrial Revolution in the last several centuries. During this period the manufacture of sophisticated chemicals came into its own. In summary, cooked food entered the diet of humans approximately 300,000 years ago, whereas most of the artificial ingredients entered the Western diet during the last several centuries. By “Western diet” or “modern diet” I mean the diet recommended by official food pyramids, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
MyPlate
.
To sum up,
Homo sapiens
(appearing approximately 100,000 years ago) had evolved from hominids or great apes (appearing approximately 15 million years ago). During this process, these primates stayed on a diet that was 100% raw and free of artificial ingredients (the “ancestral diet”). Cooked food appeared earlier than the first
Homo sapiens
did (300,000 years ago versus 100,000 years ago). Nonetheless, the fact remains that it took roughly 15 million years for the
Homo sapiens
species to evolve from the earliest hominids. Most of that evolutionary time, these primates lived off a raw diet free of any artificial chemicals.
Evolution by natural selection ensures that a species becomes well adapted to its environment, including the food available in that environment.
Homo sapiens
must be well adapted genetically to the type of nutrition that was characteristic of the hominids during the past 15 million years. Therefore, it seems logical to theorize that the human brain will function optimally on the ancestral diet. Conversely, it is conceivable that the human brain is not well adapted to nutrition that includes cooked food and artificial ingredients. This is because cooking and artificial chemicals are recent innovations from the standpoint of evolution. It may take several million years of natural selection for humans to adapt genetically to this new mode of nutrition. Right now the process of natural selection is ongoing. Unnatural nutrition is similar to putting the wrong kind of fuel in the gas tank of a car [
48
]. According to this theory, if we compare two random diets, the human brain will function worse on a diet that is more cooked (i.e. the percentage of cooked food in the diet is higher). The brain will be worse off if the cooking involves higher temperatures or if the diet contains greater amounts of artificial chemicals. In a concrete and testable form, the most basic assumption of the natural intelligence theory is the following.
The ancestral diet (for example, a 100% raw diet that consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, salt-water fish, and ground meat, and excludes any artificial ingredients such as food additives and dietary supplements), when used for 4 to 7 days, will improve fluid intelligence.
Some readers might say that this ancestral diet is too dangerous and thus untestable, as no ethics committee will ever approve this kind of experiment on human subjects. This is a valid concern.
Endnote B
describes possible approaches that can make the ancestral diet safe in the future. As you will see in later sections, I tested the above statement on myself repeatedly and it appears to be true. Nonetheless, readers should
not
(and do not have to) follow my bad example. I developed three “smart diets” that are safe and as effective or even more effective than the ancestral diet at different types of tasks. We will talk about these diets in detail in a later section of this chapter. The following implication of the natural intelligence theory may allow for testing of this theory at present:
