Are Wildfitness’s teachings a fad?

We recently discovered that the Paleo diet (or caveman diet, Stone Age diet, hunter-gatherer diet or whatever else you want to call the approach to eating based on the presumed ancient diet of our ancestors during the Paleolithic era) has been qualified as a “fad diet” by the National Health Service of England and American Dietetic Association.

It got us thinking.

Is the whole process of looking at our evolutionary origins for guidance on the way we move, eat and live just a fad? Are our teachings at Wildfitness just a fad?

Fad defined: a temporary fashion or notion. Are our teachings a fad? Well yes, in a way. Many of the things we do, believe in and live by are temporary. We are continuing to evolve, continuing to understand who we are, where we came from, how we should live. To say we have answered these questions, for anyone to say they have answered these questions is labelling yourself as limited and a bit silly. But I do believe that looking to nature, looking to what we know of our origins is a rich place to look for these answers. And I also believe that looking to nature and our evolutionary origins is a philosophy that gives a fruitful focus, more so than scientific enquiry that tries to make sense of our physiology and biomechanics outside of this context.

The indefinable truth

To define all of the ‘primal movement patterns’ or specify what fits into the box of ‘the paleo diet’ is stepping on the turf of nature who trademarked these concepts way back. Still it is worth trying to figure out what primal movement patterns are and describing them and giving credit to the people who help to elucidate them. And it is worth trying to figure out what people living in what has been named the Paleolithic era ate. But this has to be done with humility for the inevitable blind spots that we have and the new insights that we will have.

Careful we must be too of labels and boxes because the press love them, especially if they are juicy and sensational. The caveman diet, the Flintstone lifestyle are too easily caricatured and common sense lost. So we intend to rise above labels and with them the fads they create.

The meaning of life

It is not new to have to change opinions once you discover a higher rule. (I think we should be kinder to politicians on this front!) There was a time when antibiotics felt like all we needed, but now our focus is shifting higher up the chain – to keeping ourselves healthy to stop infection in the first place. And so it should be – that we are open to the never ending process of searching upstream for the source. Or perhaps one day we shall find it and there shimmering shall also be the meaning of life.

The dynamic reality

Our world is not as it was, and is changing fast. There are so many of us. Is there space for us all to eat like a hunter-gatherer? Are the alternatives any better for the planet? And anyway, are the veg and fruit that we buy anything similar to the ones we evolved with – or are they bred out of recognition?

Let’s debate this, but accept that, right now there is no conclusive evidence or argument out there. I wish sometimes that those clever people who have opposing opinions on these slippery dynamic issues, would get together in a spirit of joint enquiry rather than spend so much energy defending a line. Or maybe that’s too kissy huggy a way to hone the truth of the matter…. Anyhow let us go on the best information and analysis we have now, but steer clear of the mad fads by keeping an eye on what’s going on, and watching for new evidence and ideas on the best way to live in this fast changing place, the earth.

A deeper place

There is something repellent about much of the fitness industry and the fit lit that comes with it. Something infantile and false it seems. And I think it’s because how you eat and your lifestyle can only ever be an expression of, or platform for, a deeper part of you. How you are in your head and heart and spirit dictates the way you move, the tension you hold, your connection and draw to nature, your tank of effervescence, and whether you eat peacefully or greedily. The answer to healing our deepest bits, I don’t know. But it’s important to recognise that a natural way of eating, moving and living has a vital part in our lives – but focusing on it exclusively will make it a fad as we will always move from it to a deeper consideration of ourselves.

Balance, baby, balance

Whatever the science, whatever the example in nature, a part of our wisdom should always come from our own experience. I can’t believe I ever thought margarine was good for me. It feels wrong and looks funny. But my real point is that living your life as you have been told to, even if it feels wrong, will inevitably fad out. Everything we take on as a way of living should also feel fun, somehow right in the gut area, and not take too much discipline or alienate you from the human throb.

Our wild philosophy uncovers a way to eat, move and live from what we know of nature and our evolutionary past. But fundamentally our philosophy is a search for the real nature of ourselves and our world. Join us. Krrrrrrrrrr.

Tara Wood. December 2009.

Watamu Beach, Kenya, 2009