42: Let Nature Dictate what you Should be Eating

[00:00:00] Michael Kummer: Instead, in this episode, I'll tell you how you can let nature dictate what you should be eating. So what would you eat in spring, for example, here in Georgia? If you follow a strict plant based diet, vegan diet, for example, and you want to sustain it year round, taking seasonality and regionality into account, you'd be dead by spring.

[00:00:17] I would probably not be a strict carnivore, because why would I? You know, humans are opportunistic. And so that brings, you know, the concept of intermittent fasting into our diet. And by doing that, You're going to end up being incredibly healthy. It's not anyone telling you, you know, what you can eat and what you cannot eat.

[00:00:32] No, it's determined by nature. You're listening to the Primal Shift Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Kummer, and my goal is to help you achieve optimal health by bridging the gap between ancestral living and the demands of modern society. Get ready to unlock the transformative power of nature as the ultimate biohack, revolutionizing your health and reconnecting you with your primal self.

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[00:01:35] Learn more at shop. michaelkummer. com or check out the show notes. Forget animal based, carnivore, keto, paleo, vegan, and everything in between. And forget what health influencers, dietitians, doctors, scientists, and the government tells you about nutrition. Instead, in this episode, I'll tell you how you can let nature dictate.

[00:01:55] what you should be eating. So join me on this thought experiment that you can actually implement [00:02:00] today to dramatically improve your health and fitness. What I'm referring to is what if you would only eat food that's in season and that's available in your region. So hyperlocal and hyperseasonal. What would that do to you in terms of health and fitness?

[00:02:19] and well being. So in this episode, I want to walk you through a couple of different scenarios, and I'm going to use Georgia here, especially central northern Georgia where I live, as an example to walk you through how your diet would look like if you could only eat what's growing here in Georgia during certain times of the year, you know, if you take seasonality into account.

[00:02:39] And there are a couple of caveats I want to point out, and there I'm going to walk you through two scenarios. One is, We got to assume we would only be eating native plants or plants that natively that are native from Georgia, because that's what our ancestors would have found come across once they, you know, came to North America and especially to Georgia, [00:03:00] and then we got to run the same experiment again, using common plants, you know, stuff that you can grow here in Georgia that grows well.

[00:03:07] Uh, that you can grow yourself, maybe, because that certainly expands our, our variety of foods dramatically. We also are going to ignore hunting regulations because of course, you know, we have hunting seasons. We cannot hunt deer in summer. But from a ancestral perspective, you know, our early humans and our ancestors wouldn't have had those regulations and, and limitations.

[00:03:29] They could just, whenever they saw deer, they could try to kill it and, you know, not be bothered by any sort of regulations. And we also going to ignore for the sake of this little experiment, any modern livestock practices. Like for example, you know, hawks are traditionally slaughtered in fall. We don't care about that at all, because if you come across a wild boar, you know, you want to make, you want to put that boar on your plate and eat it.

[00:03:49] Any time of the year, doesn't really matter. Um, what's best from a, you know, hog rearing perspective. So let's walk through two of those thought experiments. The first one, looking [00:04:00] at native species only, you know. So what would you eat in spring, for example, here in Georgia? Well, you would probably find wild berries.

[00:04:07] You might find wild greens such as dandelion and poke salad. You would find wild leeks and that's probably pretty much it. I mean, there might be some other edibles around, but it's fairly limited in spring. You know, I mean, right at the time of this recording, it's February, end of February. Spring is coming soon.

[00:04:26] But you know, it's still, there's not a whole lot of stuff growing that you can actually eat and get calories and nutrients from, from an animal based perspective, you know, you have a wide variety of, of choices, you know, from a mammal perspective, there is deer, there is black bear, you know, there is a squirrel, there is rabbit, you can, you know, have access to turkey, quail, woodcock, ducks, and geese, even alligators, depending on where you live.

[00:04:52] There is freshwater fish, such as bass, catfish, and crappie. There might even be seafood if you're near the coast, like shrimp and blue crabs. [00:05:00] Uh, and there are eggs, you know, of all of the birds that probably lay eggs in spring to raise their young. In summer, the situation improves, fortunately, but not by much.

[00:05:09] You have access to blackberries and dewberries, maybe. You have pawpaw, which is a fruit. You have persimmon. And again, from an animal protein perspective, you know, the whole gamut, you know, you can, whatever you can hunt, you know, you can eat, you might even get access to shrimp again and crab if you're near the coastal region.

[00:05:26] In fall, it's nut season, you know, so you have access to chestnuts, hickory, pecans, you know, nuts. You might even find some muscadine grapes, you know, and if you know how to ferment, or if you have discovered fermentation yet, you might even make some wine, who knows. You have mushrooms, probably, if you can find them.

[00:05:42] Again, from an animal perspective, and in protein perspective, the whole gamut, you know. There are not really any limitations, again, if you're near the coast, maybe some oysters, you know, groupers, etc., which are more common during that time of the year. In winter, the situation becomes relatively challenging from a plant based perspective.

[00:05:58] There might be some winter greens, like [00:06:00] kale or mustard. You might have stored some nuts that you harvested in fall, but didn't consume. But that's pretty much it. What grows in winter here in Georgia is relatively limited. So, you know, if you don't eat any animal based protein, you're probably dead by spring.

[00:06:15] You know, let's be honest. There is no way of sustaining a pure plant based diet In Georgia, if you only eat what you can find here in the region, and if you go by seasonality, there is just no way you would be either severely sick and too weak to start hunting in spring, or find them foraging in spring, or you'd be dead.

[00:06:37] Now, let's go away from this extreme example, and let's look at, let's run the experiment again, but using common plants that you can grow and find here in the region. So in spring Situation looks significantly better than, you know, with native plants. We have berries, especially strawberries, which might peak in late spring.

[00:06:54] There is asparagus late spring or early spring. There is green peas, there are leafy greens, you know, spinach, [00:07:00] kale, etc. So you have a wider variety. Animal based foods, exactly the same as, you know, we mentioned before, uh, not really any difference, except for if we take common, you know, livestock into account, we now have access to cattle, to chickens.

[00:07:14] Uh, which are not native from here, obviously, pork, et cetera. So all of the, or many of the animals that Europeans, you know, brought into the country many, many years ago. In summer situation looks even better. We have tomatoes, we have peppers, we have watermelons, we have peaches, we have blueberries, we have okra, cord, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:07:31] So there's a much wider variety. of plant based foods that you can help to sustain yourself. Again, animal based foods, exactly the same as, you know, during all of the other seasons. In fall, we have now apples and pears, you know, that, and some of, some varieties you can even store relatively well. So if you have a cool and dark spot, you know, you might be able to, you know, carry some of those apples and, and pears into winter, maybe.

[00:07:56] We have pecans, again, certain nuts grow during the time of the year. [00:08:00] Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms or fungi, more generally speaking. You know, can provide some nutrients and calories in fall in winter, again, even with, you know, modern foods, it's challenging if you don't have a greenhouse or, you know, a hoop house or anything like that.

[00:08:16] So you'll probably be limited to like colored greens, uh, turnips that can be harvested into early winter or maybe mustard greens. But again, If you're, even if you're, you know, with common plans taken into consideration, if you follow a strict plant based diet, vegan diet, for example, and you want to sustain it year round, taking seasonality and regionality into account, you'd be dead by spring, or severely sick, in the best case scenario.

[00:08:42] From an observer, if we look at all of those things, if you really want to take this, You know, too hard and follow a local and a seasonal diet, you're not going to be able to do purely plant based. There is just no way to sustain it and maintain optimal health or anything that comes close to optimal [00:09:00] health.

[00:09:00] You'll either be dead or severely sick and weakened and nutrient deficient. There is just no way around it. And so. From that perspective, I think it's safe to conclude, unless you want to argue with nature and saying that nature is doing it wrong, a vegan diet, a pure plant based diet is just not going to cut it.

[00:09:17] On the flip side, however, I should also say that if I, you know, had to live by what's available around me here in central north Georgia and eat whatever is available during certain times of the year. I would probably not be a strict carnivore because why would I, you know, humans are opportunistic, you know, we have the capacity to consume plants if we process them properly in particular.

[00:09:40] So I would eat whatever, you know, I had access to probably some fruits in summer, you know, I might even, if I'm brave enough, you know, raid a, a, a beehive, hopefully without getting stung a million times, you know, I would eat plants that I could find, et cetera. So I would eat a variety of things, but I would be, I would not eat spinach.[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] You know, 365 days of the year and expose myself to elevated level of oxalates. No, if I, if I were to eat spinach, I would do it probably between during two or three weeks in the year, and then not have spinach again until next year during the same time. And that's a super important piece of information here because, you know, I certainly do not believe in, in the strategy of everything in moderation.

[00:10:26] But even if you apply that, everything that you have access to that grows around you in your region and during a certain time of the year, if you apply that, you know, everything in moderation, you would be moderating yourself by seasonality. So even if you consume a plant that's not meant to be consumed by humans because we don't have the capacity to metabolize it properly and extract nutrients from it without, Maybe certain processing techniques that might not have been invented yet.

[00:10:54] Or even if we consume plants that are high in certain chemicals, like [00:11:00] oxalates, that you cannot mitigate through any processing technique, our exposure to those toxins is very limited during a small time frame throughout the year. So eating spinach for two weeks in a year is probably not gonna be an issue.

[00:11:15] If you don't have access to oxalate containing foods, then for the rest of the year, and that's something that I think is a, a, a nuance that gets often forgotten in the context of a nutritional discussion with a way, you know, don't eat kale because it's an, and spinach and leafy greens in general, because they are high in oxalates and they're not good for you.

[00:11:36] And I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. But it's more important to consider chronic consumption versus one time in the year, you know, you can pretty much do, you can eat a lot of things one time in the year or one week in a year without having any negative health consequences. But if you do it every day, you know, if you buy spinach during a time when it's [00:12:00] absolutely not in season, because it was grown either in a different region or in a greenhouse or, you know, You know, in not in soil at all, you know, maybe in water, in a water solution, then it's a completely different story and it changes everything.

[00:12:12] It changes the way we eat. So that's one important thing. The other thing is if you go back, you know, to hunting your food to, you know, finding foods in the wild, maybe you, one day you couldn't find anything. Maybe the hunt was not successful. So you naturally had periods of fasting of abstaining from food because you didn't have access to food.

[00:12:31] And so that brings, you know, the concept of intermittent fasting into our diet. And so with that, I want to switch gears real quick and, and challenge you to consider implementing a seasonal and regional eating strategy. And I want to look at it from a, on a scale, you know, there is on the one hand, we have the healthiest way of doing it, but also the most challenging way of doing it that probably not many people will consider implementing.

[00:12:58] And on the other side, [00:13:00] we have the most convenient way of eating. That's also the unhealthiest. And let's start with the most convenient and unhealthiest. So that is, you go to the store and you buy, eat whatever you can find in the store, you know, whether or not that food is in season, If it's from your region, if it has been processed in a way that would have been impossible, you know, just hundreds of years ago, ignoring all of those factors and just eating whatever, you know, leads to the health outcomes that we see today.

[00:13:28] It leads to chronic disease and a lot of issues that you can avoid, right? On the other side of the spectrum, the healthiest way of doing it would be to You grow your own food using methods that limit when you can grow certain foods. Like for example, you know, if you don't have a greenhouse, if you don't have a heated greenhouse here in Georgia, then you can only grow, you know, certain vegetables during certain times of the year.

[00:13:55] You grow everything yourself and you realize that not everything that you intend on growing will actually make [00:14:00] it onto your plate because other animals and insects are going to consume what you're growing. You know, there might not be enough rain. Uh, to grow it, you know, it's stuff might dry out. There are so many reasons why, even if you have the best intentions and all the knowledge in the world of how to grow food, you might not end up with as much food as you want, but if you do it yourself and if you apply the seasonality and if you raise maybe, you know, animals that you can then butcher and eat, you know, that's the most challenging way of doing it, but it's arguably the healthiest way of doing it.

[00:14:31] You only eat what you can because it grows in your, in your area. And you don't have access to anything that comes from the outside or that has been processed in a way or that is simply out of season, incredibly difficult. Especially if you, if you assume that you have no long term storage options, so you haven't figured out canning and fermenting maybe, and you don't have a freezer, you know, all of those things, it becomes incredibly challenging and not, or a step down from that is that also incredibly [00:15:00] healthy and almost as challenging is that you go and buy the food in the store, but you only buy what's in season.

[00:15:07] And what's available around you and you walk to the store. So you mimic, you know, what our ancestors would have done by, you know, walking long distances in the search for food and shelter. So instead of, you know, searching for food, you know, where it is, it's in the store, but you have to walk to it. And if that story is five miles away.

[00:15:23] then you got to be walking five miles and you only buy what you can consume before it spoils. And so that means, especially if you want to make animal based food part of your diet, you got to be walking to the store every single day, maybe even twice a day. And what that means is you get a whole lot of exercise.

[00:15:41] You get sun exposure, you get fresh air, you get exposed to the elements, maybe when it's cold or when it's super hot in summer. And by doing that, You're going to end up being incredibly healthy, you know, and it's not anyone telling you, you know, what you can eat and what you cannot eat. No, it's determined by nature.

[00:15:58] You know, what's, what's around [00:16:00] you, you know, both for my animal, as well as from a plant based perspective. And if you want to try it, the plant based perspective, I really encourage you to do it. Try it out, you know, see if you can survive. Well, you're not going to be able to thrive. I can tell you that much already, but see if you can survive on a purely plant based diet.

[00:16:19] By walking to the store, only buying or even growing it yourself, you know, best case scenario. But let's say, you walk to the store, you only buy what's in season or what grows around you, and you only do that for the entire year, including winter. And then in early spring, tell me how you feel. You know, I'd really, I would love to hear it, you know.

[00:16:36] I have a suspicion. But it lasts for you to find out yourself if that's, if that's the way you want to go. But obviously, you know, there is a lot in between, you know, uh, those two extremes. You don't have to, you know, walk to the store every single day to only buy what you can consume before it spoils. And obviously I would also not recommend you buy whatever, you know, you find in the store and just eat that.

[00:16:57] out of seasonality, out of region, you know, highly processed, [00:17:00] etc. But find a way somewhere in between. And that in between, I think should be determined by your state of health. If you're incredibly healthy, you can probably get a little bit farther away from the side of hyper seasonal and hyper local. But if you have a metabolic condition, you probably want to lean as much as you possibly can towards.

[00:17:23] Seasonality and locality. You know, here's the thing. I mean, if you're like, you know, like the us in, you know, we are relatively healthy here in, in, uh, at the Kummer family, but our goal is also to not consume stuff that's out of season. You know, consume things that grow at the particular time of the year and in our, in our, in our region.

[00:17:46] That means, you know, for us. You know, bananas are probably out of the question because they don't grow here. You know, pineapple, you know, coconuts, you know, all of those things that absolutely do not grow here, you know, is probably not something we want to consume predominantly. Now, does it [00:18:00] mean we never have bananas?

[00:18:01] No, absolutely not. But it's something to take into consideration. And speaking of considerations, how about your genetics? You know, my wife's Costa Rican. I'm Austrian, so looking at my genetic makeup, I'm 50 percent Northwestern European, I'm 24 percent Eastern European, and 22 percent Southern European, specifically Italy, and I'm 2.

[00:18:22] 2%, 0. 2 percent Neanderthal, and so those genetics likely play into that whole equation of what our, my ancestors would have had access to, whoop. for, you know, thousands, 10, 000 or even millions of years, you know, depending on how far you want to go back. So you, you most definitely want to take that into account of what is the most appropriate diet based on your genetics.

[00:18:50] But then on the flip side, I would also argue that the environment that you live in plays an equally important role. So for example, You know, [00:19:00] if we're in Costa Rica being explained, because my wife's Costa Rican, and I'm going to use the example of bananas again, you know, eating bananas here in Georgia, I would argue my body responds to those differently than if I had bananas grown in Costa Rica while I am actually in Costa Rica.

[00:19:18] So whenever we go to Costa Rica on vacation, you know, I can tell that the foods, the local foods that I eat there, I respond to differently. then if I had the same foods here in Georgia, and maybe that's because, you know, different sun exposure, different air quality, different microbes, you know, in the soil.

[00:19:38] There might be so many factors, and I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm convinced that there is a factor, an environmental factor, that plays into how your body metabolizes the food you consume. So even if like in the case of my wife, she's Costa Rican, but she lives here in Georgia, you know, so she might have to take into account her [00:20:00] genetic makeup in terms of what she can eat during certain times of the year, but also the environment and then find a mix that works for her by listening to her body and seeing how, you know, she responds to certain foods, maybe not a pineapple that we find here in the store during.

[00:20:18] a time when they naturally would grow in Costa Rica, don't sit well with her because, you know, the environment doesn't support such a food here. Or it might, maybe because the genetics are more important in her case than her environment. So you really have to figure that out. But the bottom line really is, if you want to consume a diet that's most appropriate and most beneficial for your health and well being, let nature dictate what those foods should be.

[00:20:45] are gonna be what foods end up on your plate. So if you eat out of season and if you eat foods that are not available at all in the region that you live in, that you might have lived in for the past few decades, I would argue it's not the best thing you can do for your health. [00:21:00] On the flip side, eating local.

[00:21:02] And what's in season, as much as you possibly can, has a dramatic impact on your health and well being. So let nature dictate your diet, instead of an influencer, or whatever might be trendy right now, or whatever you might hear in the news, or the government tells you what you should and should not be eating, nature knows.

[00:21:21] You know, nature has been trying to figure this out, and has been figuring this out, for millions of years. And humans have a very poor track record of trying to outsmart nature. Nature wins, nature knows, so let nature dictate what you can and cannot eat. And try it out. Let me know how it works for you.

[00:21:40] I'd love to hear, especially if you go one of the extreme routes, you know, send me an email. I'm going to have all my contact information down below or, you know, comment on one of the social media posts. I'd love to hear it. Um, how that concept works for you, especially if you're suffering from a metabolic [00:22:00] condition.