Thread by @AlanLevinovitz

Wondering why I'm skeptical of health influencers who "know the secret THEY are keeping from YOU"?

Okay, buckle up, and let me tell you about someone you've never heard of...one of the biggest health influencers of the 20th century.

Horace Fletcher, aka "The Great Masticator."

When I say Horace Fletcher was big, I mean BIG.

All the famous people loved him: John D. Rockefeller (the Elon Musk of his day), Henry James, heck, even Mark Twain was into him.

See, he had THE secret to healthy eating. It was called "Fletcherism," and everyone swore by it.

What was Fletcherism, and why were people falling for it? Why did they believe it cured all illnesses? (No, really.)

Well, the principle was simple. You had to chew every single bite of food 100 times. Even liquids had to be "chewed". This was the only way to extract all the nutrients from the food.

Seems ridiculous, right? No one does that today! He was wrong!

So why did everyone believe him?

It's kind of amazing. At 58 years old, he challenged college kids to fitness tests. Not just any college kids. Athletes!

And he supposedly did better than any of them, entirely in virtue of his mastication philosophy. The head of Yale athletics was shocked. Amazed. Confused. And convinced.

Oh, there was something else, too. Fletcher needed all the evidence he could get that his mastication philosophy was the real deal.

So — and I'm not making this shit up, no pun intended — he MAILED STOOL SAMPLES TO PEOPLE.

That's right. He believed that the best evidence of health was shit that didn't stink. "Digestive ash," he called it, and if you didn't believe him, he sent that shit your way.

Fletcher had a great slogan, too.

"NATURE WILL CASTIGATE THOSE WHO DON'T MASTICATE"

Nice.

Anyways, between challenging college athletes and mailing his digestive ash to anyone who wanted it, Fletcher managed to convince a nation he held the secret to good health.

Needless to say, Fletcher was a loony. Chewing your food (and liquids) 100 times is not the key to warding off illness.

But — and this is the essential thing — many, many, many people swore that once they adopted his approach, they miraculously became healthy!

The pounds melted off. Chronic conditions resolved. The list goes on.

Another thing Fletcher had going for him was that he was ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT.

The medical professionals of the day told everyone he was nuts. This backfired, as it always does. I mean...they were the ones who couldn't cure illnesses. They were the ones making money off meds.

And here was a 58-yr-old who was stronger than college athletes and pooped shit that didn't stink.

Not only that, but thousands upon thousands of people swore that The Great Masticator had cured otherwise unresolvable health conditions.

Who you going to believe? The 58-yr-old maverick, or those pasty doctors telling you not to believe him?

Now, I happen to be a specialist in classical Chinese philosophy. I study ancient texts written by old Daoist monks...and you're not going to believe this, but they ALSO convinced thousands of people they had the secret to curing all illnesses.

They also promised that their secret diet and health regimen would make you immortal, clear up your skin (no, for real), and prevent baldness.

Spoiler alert: The ancient Daoists were not on the carnivore diet. They were not anti-seed-oil. And they did not participate in Fletcherism.

They avoided the "wu gu," aka "the five grains."

I bet you can guess what people say when I tell them about the monks and the evil five grains...

IT'S THE GLUTEN ALAN IT'S THE GLUTEN

And that's when I have to tell them that the five grains typically weren't gluten containing grains. (The monks weren't super consistent about this.)

Needless to say, this was 2000 years ago, so these weren't genetically modified grains. There was no glyphosate or pesticide or seed oil.

These grains that were supposedly making everyone sick? They were heirloom grains. Organic grains. The best grains you can imagine. The most natural grains.

And yet...there were still people getting sick, and health influencers promising that they knew the One Trick for never being sick again (or bald — haha humans, always insecure).

Between 20th century "Nature Will Castigate Those Who Don't Masticate," and ancient Daoist monks telling you to eat only wild-gathered foods, there are endless examples of the same thing.

People promising they know the secret. It's always a different secret. Carnivores. Vegans. Masticators. Foragers.

They're always beating college athletes (or the equivalent). They're charismatic. Anti-establishment. Confident.

And there's always people testifying that until they tried [INSERT SECRET], they were sick and miserable, and then [INSERT SECRET] changed their lives instantly and effortlessly.

Complexion clears up. Chronic diseases resolves. You name it.

Which raises the question: If there are hundreds upon hundreds of secret health solutions that They Don't Want You To Know, and all of them have thousands of people testifying to how effective they are, and the gurus are mailing people envelopes full of shit...

What explains all of that?

The answer, as far as I'm concerned, is pretty straightforward. Humans have ever and always been seeking simple dietary answers to the frightening fragility of the human condition.

We die. We get sick. We age.

In addition, we find it difficult to live healthfully. To eat well, to exercise, to break bad habits. To feel hopeful and motivated about our lives.

And so people come along who promise us answers. The ancient monks. Horace Fletcher. We believe them.

And sometimes, believing them gives us the motivation we need to change our lives. The hope that finally gets us out of bed and clears up our brain fog.

But it's not because they have discovered some kind of physiological secret. It's not because the wugu are killing you, or Nature Is Castigating Those Who Don't Masticate, or seed oils are the devil.

It's because humans need hope and change, and one of the easiest ways to provide it is in the form of dietary ritual.

There is, in my opinion, no other explanation for the parade of healers, gurus, and influencers who are all selling the Secret, secrets that often directly contradict each other, but somehow receive the endorsement of entire generations of people.

It can't be that they're all right. Instead, it is because they are all tapping into a deep need that humans feel, and providing novel resolutions of that need.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

There is no "one easy trick" that the establishment doesn't want you to know.

Everyone's shit stinks, even Horace Fletcher's, and some of those ancient Chinese monks went bald, despite their super-secret dietary principles.

So when the next monk or Horace Fletcher comes along, mailing envelopes and drinking Bulletproof coffee and flexing his/her muscles and telling you they've got the secret, just remember my motto, which swaps a synonym for thinking in for mastication:

Nature Will Castigate Those Who Don't Cogitate.

The truth is that there is no easy answer. As Michael Pollan put it, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants," is a pretty good start — but honestly, even that is too specific. I think you could probably be fine eating a fair amount of meat!

As for exercise, the secret is about the same. "Exercise regularly, not too strenuously (or vainly), and in a way you can sustain over the course of your life."

You don't need Huberman or Wim Hof or ice baths or hyperbaric oxygen or carnivore diets or veganism or Bulletproof Coffee or avocado oil...or whatever they will be trying to sell you in 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 1000 years.

All you need is the knowledge of the history I've laid out here, and the strength to know that sometimes, there is no certainty.

I really hope this thread helps people understand the perspective I take on food and health.

I think it's important, and I believe that if we were able to recognize the truths that emerge from an honest look at this history, we could work together more effectively towards a healthier future, without have to put on a show of beating college athletes, or mailing bullshit to each other. /end