If you are exhausted by modern diet advice, your skepticism is rational. The usual arguments are built on weak inputs and endless interpretation.
This episode takes a different route. It starts with what cannot be negotiated, then checks the historical record that cannot misremember.
You will hear four constraints that narrow the human diet before you ever talk about preferences:
The protein ceiling: why too much lean protein becomes a real physiological limit, and why fat was not optional for hunter-gatherers
Essential nutrients: what “essential” means biochemically, and why there is no essential dietary carbohydrate requirement
Energy density and survival logic: why fat’s calorie density changes the risk equation in the wild
The metabolic switch: why running on fat and ketones is not a gimmick, and what it implies about the default human fuel pattern
Then the episode checks that model against hard evidence: stable isotope analysis and trophic level signatures preserved in bone collagen. The pattern is consistent. For long stretches of human history, the signature looks like high trophic-level feeding, and the major break comes with agriculture.
Finally, it brings the model into the modern context: why high-fat plus high-carb eating creates “metabolic incoherence,” and why personal calibration still matters through genetics, microbiome differences, and a real adaptation window.
Next episode: The constraints become a practical tool. We move from population-level boundaries to personal calibration, and apply the model to modern diet camps to see what holds up.
Derived from Mark’s essay: What Humans Can Actually Eat | Part II
More audio and essays at Mark’s Substack: HealthUnderControl.com
Mark’s practice (the HUC philosophy in action): Unblocked.Health
