You’ve heard by now of the natural fallacy, right? It’s the idea that something is inherently good because it’s natural. Well, it’s a fallacy because of its broken logic and it’s logic we often get tricked into believing. It’s the reason why “All Natural” is a valuable label claim on food packaging to this day. Nonetheless, natural sugar still isn’t a health food, for example.
That being said, there is something to say for this logic. Time, specifically through evolution, is a very rigorous process. Contemporary philosopher, options trader, and author, Nassim Taleb, summarizes this with a mind bending maxim. To paraphrase, he believes that probability says the oldest things with live the longest and the newest things will live the shortest.
Think about that in the context of health. There are troubling illnesses coming up in the news regarding vaping, for example. Forget vaping being bad for you because it’s not natural, but rather think about how little time this habit has been tested in our history. It’s brand new and we’re obviously finding out that it’s killing us. However, time has shown what has worked for thousands of years.
Meat, fish, poultry, and plants aren’t good for you because they are natural. They are good for you because we’ve got thousands of years of evidence to support it.
My recommendation? Let the history of humanity be the guinea pig for you. Or, I guess you can eat Tide pods to help future kids know it’s not a good idea.
Logan Gelbrich
@functionalcoach
9/12/19 WOD
5-5-5-5-5
Front Squat
EMOM 12
Minute 1: 10-15 AB Cals
Minute 2: 20 DB Snatches (40/25)
Minute 3: 5 Muscle Ups