Chapter 3

Overfed, yet Starving

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an
invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building,
write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone,
comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act
alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch
manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

–ROBERT A.  HEINLEIN

Let us think back to a time before food delivery apps and
diet gurus, when “Trader Joe” was the guy guarding the
only salt lick in a hundred-mile radius and “biohacking”
was something you did to a fresh kill with a sharpened
stone. Government diet recommendations (or governments,
for that matter) wouldn’t arrive on the scene for millennia,
so you’d have to make do, as your ancestors did, with
intuition and availability. As a forager, your diet would
consist of a diverse array of land animals, fish, vegetables,
and wild fruits. The chief calorie contributor would by and

large be fat, followed by protein.^1 You might consume a
limited amount of starch, in the form of fiber-rich tubers,
nuts, and seeds, but concentrated sources of digestible