Our bodies evolved over thousands of years to adapt to an ever changing environment giving us “feast or famine physiology”, yet today we live in a culture of 24 hours/day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year access to high caloric, high glycemic, nutrient depleted, pesticide laden GMO Franken food. The effect of this disordered living has had devastating consequences on our health as a nation. We spend almost twice as much annually per capita on healthcare in the US but are not the healthiest nor do we live the longest. Our rate of obesity compared with all other countries is alarming. Until the 20th century, over-nutrition was a transient condition for most humans, and life was characterized by cycles of feast and famine. We still have within us our Paleo ancestral genes that are primed feast or famine physiology, cold temperature, predators and more. When there is uncoupling of our sleep/wake cycle, lack of fresh air and sunshine, prolonged sedentary behavior, along with unbridled access to toxic food without a time for metabolic rest and recovery, the results are disastrous: chronic fatigue, brain fog, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and premature death. No prescription medication can reverse this metabolic disharmony with our ancestral genome. We evolved to be outside, pretty much naked, 24/7 where we endured the elements and we actually hunted and gathered our food depending upon the season; sometimes with success, but often with failure which meant we had to live off and burn our fat for both fuel and heat. In fact today we live in a thermo-neutral environment which can contribute to obesity because we never activate our mitochondria in our brown fat to generate heat. Today we live in a society with a  “Comfort Crisis.” Our survival required the need for dynamic metabolic flexibility or Resilient Health, and this is encoded in our genes which have evolved to adapt to an ever changing environment. (See: Network Robustness by Albert-László Barabási).

We have the means to literally reboot our mind and our body. Much like a computer, which has a BIOS (Basic Input Output System) so too does each cell in the body. Our cells respond to many environmental signals, e.g. light, darkness, temperature, physical activity, stressors, etc. Food is a very important environmental signal, as food contains both energy and information. What we eat, what we don’t eat and when we eat can all have a profound effect on our health. Chaos mathematics tells us that small inputs, i.e. “lifestyle habits” can have a dramatic effect in complex/chaotic systems, and this is known as “The Butterfly Effect” which says that a butterfly in Brazil can trigger a tornado in Texas! Small inputs to the body over time can create a strange attractor physiology which doctors label as a “disease”. We have all experienced our personal computer getting “hung up.” Likewise, our bodies can get stuck in a state of disordered physiology, whereby we create a negative feedback loop, and our physiology ends up like a cat chasing its proverbial tail. However, it does not have to be this way as the body can self heal given the right input and output signals to reboot our mind and body!