WHAT IS THE TERRAIN MODEL DIET OR THE NATURAL HUMAN DIET? HOW IS THE NATURAL HUMAN DIET DETERMINED?
Every animal on our planet is anatomically designed to eat a certain narrow set of foods. It is understood that the foods most easily accessible and readily available for any particular organism, are in fact the foods that incur the smallest possible burden on the organism. Take for example the sea otter. While many of them learn to smash rocks against clam shells to break them open, this is a process that costs more energy than it produces. The sea otter’s natural food source then is not clams, but the small fish that occupy the same waters as the otters, and of which they can easily obtain nutrition without over-exerting themselves.
Humans are classified as frugivores. Our natural diet is fruits, tender leafy greens, tender vegetables, nuts, and seeds, with fruits being predominant. Our natural diet is easy to digest and assimilate, which avoids overworking our cells and organs and creating excess waste.
Fruits provide everything that humans and all frugivore species require to survive and thrive. Proteins, in their usable form of amino acids, fats (fatty acids), vitamins (co-enzymes), minerals, various trace chemicals, and most importantly SUGAR and WATER.
The human body runs on carbohydrates (sugars). Sugar is the fuel for every one of our cells, including our brain cells. It is vital to make the distinction between simple sugars (monosaccharides), like fructose on which we can thrive, and complex sugars, such as Disaccharides – sucrose, lactose (milk sugar), maltose, or polysaccharides – starches, dextrin, Glycogen (stored in the liver) or cellulose.
Fruits match our anatomy and physiology. We see vivid colors allowing us to spot colorful fruits in green leaves. Carnivores and omnivores have a limited color range. Human sight is anatomically designed to be attracted to the bright, pleasing colors of ripe fruit.
We have long slender fingers with a delicate sense of touch to reach into trees and bushes and find the delicate fruits and pluck them from the tree.
We have a weak sense of smell because fruits have strong, pungent, pleasing aromas when they are ripe. We do not need to have a strong sense of smell. Conversely, carnivores and omnivores have a strong sense of smell because prey foods do not have strong smells. Humans can only smell rotting carcasses and their smell is repulsive to us.
Humans have a “sweet tooth”. Our taste buds are tuned to allow us to sense when our natural food is ripe and ready to be eaten. Our senses also warn us of poisons. Bitter tells us that the fruit is unripe or the food is toxic. Sour tells us the fruit is overripe and no longer suitable – rotten food is sour. Fruits contain a little bit of salty flavor, but overly salty foods burn and cause discomfort to our senses. Spicy plants burn our tongues. They also make us sweat and our noses run to warn us that they are toxic. But sweet tastes tell us that our natural food is perfectly ripe and ready to provide us with the essential sugars our body needs to run every cell.
Taste buds are not for emotional highs, they are for survival. They are the messages which tell us what is our food and what is poison. They also tell us when our foods are ready to be eaten for peak nutrition.
We crave sugary desserts after heavy meals because our cells are desperately seeking energy. Sugar is energy. When we properly feed our bodies on fruits those intense cravings for ice cream, cakes, and cookies disappear.
We are attracted to the sweet taste of fruits. They appeal to us and delight our senses. The sight and smell of blood and gore, on the other hand, repulses us. We cook animal tissues and coat them in fruit-based sauces (orange chicken, barbeque sauce, etc) to make them palatable to our senses. We cannot stomach the flavors or smells of raw unadulterated animal tissues. We do not salivate at the sight of blood. We do not relish eating the intestines or bones or organs of a warm body. But a carnivore and an omnivore do.
All carnivores and omnivores eat the bones, feet, fur, and feathers of their prey. These are all essential parts of the diet. On a side note, did you know you can kill a dog by feeding them meat without bone? But they can survive and thrive on bones with just tiny meat scraps attached. All meat-eating species require bones to survive on their diet of flesh foods.
Carnivores and omnivores all have sharp fangs and claws to facilitate ripping through the skin and breaking through the skull bones of their prey. Humans have weak nails perfect for scoring the skin of fruit but useless for ripping the flesh off of a chicken or a cow. Humans have weak teeth and incisors for breaking the skin of an apple or a pear and taking chunks out of fruits. Chewing on bones would break and wear down our delicate teeth.
These are just a few of the anatomical features that humans have based upon our natural diet of juicy, water-rich, easy-to-digest, sugar-filled fruits!
If you are struggling to return to the natural diet fully or new to the diet and want to learn how to transition back to your natural foods with ease, we offer a support group for transitioning, with recipes, meal plans, daily articles to help you get through cravings, and lots of inspiration to help you learn how to eat to maintain health. You can find out more at https://www.therawkey.com/terrain-diet-support-group/