Why Poop Matters & What We Can Learn From Yesterday
"Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better." -Albert Einstein
Throughout human history, 95% of our existence has centered around hunting and gathering. Farming and the greater Agricultural Revolution are recent innovations.
Within this short span of farming, we have drastically changed our diets, become sedentary creatures, and now spend the majority of our lives trapped inside a bunch of right angles, more aptly known as buildings.
We are so far removed from what we used to be, that I find myself hard-pressed not to entertain the idea that our newly revolutionized, Tik-Tokin, Door-Dashin, tube watchin, glyphosate pumping, and comfort-driven lifestyle isn’t at least partly responsible for the mental and physical challenges many have today.
The Hadza
In Western Tanzania, a tribe called the Hadza could very well be the last foraging group of humans in our world, and their poop is paparazzi-worthy.
Before you start cringing, let me finish. The Hadza people possess exemplary gut-microbiome health. Their diet is composed of berries, honey, tubular roots, and wild meat. However, it’s not just the diet of the Hadza that’s responsible for this, but also their environment. I’ll get more into that later.
Today, researchers know how our gut bacteria correspond to the various foods we eat. However, through fecal analysis from a study published in Nature Communications, the Hadza people show bacteria that researchers never knew existed. Furthermore, they have trace levels of what is perceived as “healthy bacteria” by modern science. In addition, they carry high levels of bacteria that are associated with diseases like Crohn’s and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, yet the Hadza have no gut issues.
From Wired magazine:
In westerners, Bifidumbacterium is a microbe that many nutrition scientists thought was essential to good gut health, but it is almost completely absent in the foragers. Likewise, high counts of the bacteria Treponema have been linked to maladies like Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Neither of these diseases exist among the Hadza, but their guts contain abundant Treponema.
It might sound tempting to adopt the #hadzadiet. I could make boo-koo bucks if I started the trend. However, I won’t do that because it’s wrong, nor am I that clever to make anything go viral. However, their diet isn’t solely responsible for their beautiful and majestic gut microbiomes. Their bacteria is a blueprint of our ancestorial past and shows that our environment was integral to our thriving evolution as a species.
According to the Nature Communications study, Amanda Henry, a dietary ecologist from the Max Planck Institute in Germany and co-author of the study said:
“Even if you try to emulate the diet of the Hadza, you're not living in the environment. “There are transfers from the soils, from the animals." In other words, it's not just what the Hadza eat that contribute to their remarkable gut flora, it's where and how they are eating it, too.”
The Hadza are the last traces of our living hunter-gathering past, and the fact that they still live in the manner in which they do can hopefully give us more insight into how we can thrive.
Closing
It’s very possible that farmers coexisted with hunter-gatherers. There is lots of evidence that suggests this in Sapiens, a Brief History of Human Kind, where author, Yuval Hariri shares the same sentiments that I feel today.
“Hunter-gatherers spent their time in more stimulating and varied ways, and were less in danger of starvation and disease. The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure. Rather, it translated into population explosions and pampered elites. The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return. The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud. Who was responsible? Neither kings, nor priests, nor merchants. The culprits were a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than vice versa.” - Yuval Hariri
Our ancestors were highly evolved, sophisticated and resilient. They spent the majority of their lives outdoors. Through our industrialized practices, we have lost many of their traits. This is not to say that technological advancements aren’t amazing or that it hasn’t made our lives easier. However, to live optimally, we need to bring some of yesterday, to today.
The Hadza tribe represents how nature works in a full cycle. The flora and fauna they consumed, continued to grow, graze, and depart into the soil from which they emerged with very little human intervention.
We are far removed from our food and our environment. This is true for people like me that grew up with grocery stores and had access to an abundance of food, which was mostly processed. However, deep in the ether of our spirit and imbued in each crevice of our being longs for this connection with Earth. It longs to touch the ground, find gratitude in the early fall harvest, and look at the stars with wonder.
What’s the solution? That’s a difficult question that will never please the masses.
We don’t need to harpoon our trout or chase down a gazelle anymore, although that would be pretty cool. Instead, we can adopt behaviors that can evoke more connection with self and the greater universe.
For me, it’s really simple. Below are a few of the things I am currently practicing, and others that are on my horizon:
Living more simply.
Cultivating a relationship with nature
Spending less time in polluted cities.
Walking barefoot
Growing food, eating locally and seasonally.
Will these practices make our gut microbiomes better? I don’t know, but what I do know is when I spend time away from devices and remove myself from the world of man-made things from time to time, I feel better.
It could be something as ordinary as a hike through a park, feeling the warmth of the morning sun, or sitting quietly and enjoying a cup of coffee. Simple things bring me peace, and you can’t put a price tag on that.
We are part of this cycle of life. The Earth and all its inhabitants are in this dance together.
Life is about unlearning as much as it is about learning.
With Love,
Anand