The Way We Eat Now: Strategies for Eating in a World of Change

by Bee Wilson

The average eater gets the bulk of his or her daily calories (1,576) from just six sources. These are: animal foods wheat rice sugar maize soybeans

Compared to the average affluent Westerner, a hunter-gatherer from the Hadza tribe in north-central Tanzania – subsisting on an ever-changing diversity of roots and berries and wild meats – has 40 per cent more microbiome diversity (the microbiome being the host of micro-organisms in the human gut). Having a less diverse gut microbiome has been linked with both obesity and type 2 diabetes.

If we only ever eat one type of apple, we may not get the full health benefits of eating the fruit.39

But to choose cooking out of all the other demands on our time and attention is a much more positive act. It is a gesture of everyday determination and of love, whether you are cooking for yourself or others.