Food 101 and Brain 101: They Should Teach These in Every School

Introduction to New Educational Books

Humans are the only organisms on this planet that knowingly do what is bad for them, their families, their habitats and their species. We are also the only species that regularly eat what is bad for us and makes us sick. Yet most of us know more about our phones, apps, games, pets, homes, cars and jobs than about our own brain and body, how they metabolize food, communicate, or get burned out, together. This is the type of insight and information not taught in our schools because it's not profitable or sponsored by food and medical industries.

In search of answers, I used my education and experience in science, food packaging and farming and spent four years to look into unbiased sources and summarize my findings in two small books which were just published independently because I did not want to be beholden to big publishers and sponsors. Here are more details about the books. You can order them using links in this article or receive signed copies of both books by upgrading your subscription to “paid” for a year (first 20 people), which not only encourages me to continue my work as an independent writer and educator, but also allows you access to articles and research available to paid subscribers for a year 🙏.

The ROGUE Brain

This is the “Brain 101” course I wish they taught in every school. The ROGUE Brain (now on Amazon) is a simple and short "User Manual" that helps us understand and balance the Brain-Body metabolic feedback loops, kick bad habits and become our own mechanic. Today, human brains have invented expensive tools to diagnose diseases, and costly crutches to patch us up. Yet few humans realize it is these very same imaginative brains that are causing trouble because they have hijacked our body’s immune system and metabolism. As clearly explained in the book, this unique hard-to-balance metabolism (energy budgeting) is the root of most psychological and physical disorders in humans. As a result, modern humans suffer mostly from abuse and deception by their own brains, and fight their most formidable battles inside their brains. Without balancing the metabolic feedback loops between our brain and body, we are prone to blind spots, bad habits, self-delusions and walking a tight rope between depression and addiction, anxiety and recklessness, fatigue and burnout.

An excerpt from the book:

Most humans today are not slaves to others, but to their own recursive unhealthy habits, thoughts or addictions. This was insightfully phrased by Jean-Jacques Rousseau:

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are!”

In my own circles, it has pained me to witness how the lives of many relatives and friends have been destroyed over the years by bad habits, addictions or depression. I have seen too many intelligent people who are productive and disciplined, yet helpless when it comes to figuring out why they cannot stop certain habits, feelings or behaviors. In America alone, some 400,000 churches and religious congregations, 600,000 psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, mental health professionals and clinics, 20,000 rehabilitation centers and organizations – an estimated $50 billion industry – plus countless proclaimed self-help gurus, talk show hosts and social media influencers offer advice to people about managing their anxiety, depression, bad habits and addictions.

We are also the only species that does not know what’s best for us to eat, drink, watch, etc. Many public school systems in America now spend between $25,000-$60,000 per student every year despite declining performance in learning. Years of research, debate and schooling has not brought us into agreement about the dietary or lifestyle roots of our diseases. While trying to control the universe, we are still ignorant about how our body, mind and soul (spirit) connect with each other. As modern humans are getting closer to conquering Mars, they have a long way to figuring out how to control their gut issues and constipation at home!

The Right Way to Eat

This is the “Food 101” course I wish they taught in every school. The Right Way to Eat (now on Amazon) is a small booklet that offers simple dietary principles and rules of thumb for eating healthy. As a farmer, scientist and food packaging expert, I include little-disclosed facts about eggs, dairy, fruits, meat, gluten and detox protocols because there is a lot of “food” misinformation out there today. Much of the food we eat today ravages our digestive tract instead of nourishing it because food is now a profitable commodity carefully designed, denatured and marketed to maximize corporate profits and not its metabolic contribution to our body.

In fact, humans are the only species that regularly eat what is bad for them and makes them sick. In contrast, wild animals are selective in what they eat and do not suffer from the chronic diseases and cancers suffered by humans, pets and zoo animals raised on processed food. Even wild bears with all that body fat live healthy lives without any diabetes medication! Today, humans with access to processed food and expensive medicines live about 25% of their lives with pain, disease and declining energy (vitality). In the US, we spend 20-25% of our GDP on treating the sick.

This is a host excerpt from the book. I wish I had published these books years ago or had access to books like these when I was younger:

What does Health Mean?

Did you know that long ago, there was only one species on this planet fit enough to outlast gazelles in long chases and hunt them? “Persistence hunting” took place during the hottest time of the day and involved chasing a fat-running animal like a gazelle for hours until it was outrun to exhaustion and captured. But who could outlast a gazelle? The answer is our distant ancestors and early humans.

Humans used to be among the best “endurance runners” on this planet, which had its adaptive advantages because before farming or  domestication of hound dogs, “persistence hunting” was an efficient form of securing food by some humans. If we define health as endurance, humans used to be a healthy species. 

Although biologists attribute human endurance to our ability to …..

Remember, you have access to subsidized or free “medicine” after you get sick, but when it comes to good “food” to prevent disease, you are on your own! Many of the foods we eat today ravage our guts, which (as explained) are called our “second brain” because they are innervated by the second largest neural network in our body (after our brain), including the all-important Vagus nerve, and host the largest bacterial colony in our body responsible for making serotonin, the body’s important modulator of the immune system, mood, digestion and metabolic balance.