Meet Central Park Joe, a 58 year old man living in Manhattan. His diet is very close to the best for healthy living in humans. Although it is not perfect. So what does Joe eat and why is it the best?
It is possible to be in good shape and be unhealthy. For example, many health & fitness influencers have great results. But they do so using drugs such as steroids. Drugs can make you appear to be healthy on the outside. But the side effects cause damage to your internal organs
Influencers who are in shape are usually doing many things right. But the only way to be sure someone is following the best diet is to see results over long periods of time. Here is where Central Park Joe comes in. He’s 58 years old. Nobody can achieve his results by taking performance enhancing drugs. The only way is by making the right decisions. Being consistent. Disciplined. Every day
There are no secrets. The knowledge of a healthy diet has been known to humans since pre-history. Because a healthy diet is set by evolution. It is written into our genes
So what is in his diet?
- water
- root vegetables
- carrots and sweet potatoes
- berries
- bananas and watermelon
- meat
- beef, chicken, salmon and sardines
- eggs
- apples
- rice cakes
- popcorn
- protein powder
- whey and pea
- pickle juice
- coffee
- dark chocolate
- aspirin
The reason why this diet is so healthy is because it is inclusive. What do I mean by that?
Almost everything Joe eats can be eaten by almost every other human on the planet. Without developing allergies, intolerances, chronic disease or cancer. His diet closely resembles the diet of the first humans. We know this because the last of the first humans still exist today. They are the Hadza Hunter Gatherers of Tanzania in East Africa. The Hadza have lived in the same way since the dawn of humanity. Their diet consists of water, root vegetables, berries, meat, honey, fruit, eggs and corn porridge. Sounds familiar?
The Hadza have no reported cases of obesity, diabetes, autoimmune conditions, acne, or cancer. They do not live as long as modern day humans (on average) because of accidents and infectious diseases. But many Hadza live into their 60s, 70s, or 80s. And most do not even get grey hair until they are very old
If you moved a Hadza hunter gatherer to modern day Manhattan, they would be happy with Central Park Joe’s diet. Minus the coffee, protein powder and aspirin. They would not be happy with pizza and hot dogs. His diet is inclusive and consistent with human evolution. This is why he has had great results
But his diet is not perfect. He drinks pickle juice, which sounds awful. He also drinks coffee, which contains bitter toxins. The other drug he takes is a baby aspirin. He said this is to protect against blood clots. I suspect he is at risk of clots because he eats too many eggs and too much meat, which makes his diet high in cholesterol
When people get sick they often go to the doctor to look for a quick fix such as a pill. But sometimes the best way to treat yourself is not to add things into your life. But to cut things out of your life. Cut alcohol. Cut processed foods. Cut negativity
Our ancestors lived in Africa for a million years eating the same diet. And this diet is written into our genes. Many foods eaten today were not eaten by humans more than 10,000 years ago. There has not been enough time for evolution to make many changes to our genomes
If you want a healthy diet, eat like folks who actually are healthy. And who have been healthy for a long time
Eat like Central Park Joe