I was at the gym this morning, and while winding down on the treadmill one of the screens was running a National Geographic special on shark attacks on surfers. It made me wonder how common shark attacks are, so I asked Gemini, the Google AI. My question:
Near the shore humans are an easy target for sharks. Why don’t sharks feed on humans more often?
The answer:
The available information provides a comprehensive understanding of shark feeding behaviors, the rarity of shark attacks on humans, and the reasons why sharks generally do not view humans as prey.
Here is a synthesis of the findings:
1. Shark Feeding Behavior and Preferences:
Sharks are opportunistic predators with diverse diets.
2. Frequency of Shark Attacks on Humans:
Shark attacks are extremely rare.
OK, that is not the complete answer, but I think we can stop at far more likely to be killed by a falling coconut :)
The point is this sort of thing can help us understand mythology a bit better, because mythology typically arises from the unconscious fear of death.
Of the most likely causes of premature death in the US, medical error and iatrogenic death are the third leading cause, behind heart disease and cancer. Iatrogenic death refers to a death caused by medical treatment or medical professionals. This includes errors in diagnosis, treatment, medication, or surgical procedures.
We don't come across this information casually because it tramples on one of our most cherished mythologies. So let's put it this way, we are far more likely to be killed by the medical and pharmacology industries than a coconut falling on our head, but we are far more afraid of being eaten by a shark.
So are we being preyed upon by these industries? Interesting question. Surely not, the medical / pharmacological industry is altruistic, right? Humm.
On the other hand it does profit from our diseases. In fact these industries are more profitable by orders of magnitude than the other major industries combined.
Surely however, we are not "preyed upon" by these industries. On the other hand the US, the wealthiest nation in the world, is also the sickest developed nation in the world. Why are we so sick?
Well (no pun intended), these industries can't help themselves, they operate (no pun intended) by the profit motive. Whether they intentionally make us sick is a debatable question. One thing can be sure, as long as they operate by a profit motive they are incentivized to disseminate completely incorrect information as to the cause of health, just as they are incentivized to disseminate completely incorrect information as to the cause of disease.
Many if not most doctors start off with altruistic intentions. It's a reasonably safe bet the ones who stick it out do not end up that way.
And it's more than a sad state of affairs, it's tragic.
In fact, it's a title waiting for a book...
Nutrition: An American Tragedy
But what he is saying is so foreign to our post modern diet and lifestyle choices we literally can't comprehend the truth of it. Meanwhile the average way of eating these days is making us sicker and sicker, and the so-called health care system is making itself richer and richer.
Is what I just said an oversimplification?
There are also ever increasing levels of environmental toxicities, and it would be difficult to design and mount studies to determine whether the primary cause of increasing post modern diseases are due primarily to toxins we handle and inhale or to toxins we chew and swallow.
Or even, as it has becomes increasingly apparent, to the drugs pushed on us by big pharma.
With all sources of toxicity in the mix it's difficult to find a definitive answer as to which of these three sources of toxicity is the primarily culprit, but it's interesting to note that one of them, environmental toxicities, we do not choose to ingest into our bodies, as they are in our environment, but highly-palatable toxic substances we do choose to ingest.
So that one source of toxicity is completely under our control. So how do we implement these changes? As Dr. Doug says, eat more fruits and vegetables, in particular the ones that can be eaten raw.
Fruit till dinner, and salads at dinner, it's not complicated, but to get enough calories you will be eating a higher volume of food than you are used to. Why is that? Plants are high in fiber and low in fat, and fats are very calorie dense. It's basically impossible to get fat or stay fat on a high fiber low fat diet, but the processed food industry doesn't want to tell us the truth about that, and big pharma is happy to tell us Ozempic is the answer to obesity.
It's a lie. But a very profitable lie.
Pharma drugs? We can usually stop ingesting these also, as we make healthier choices as to what we chew and swallow.
If something is highly palatable maybe let's stop falling into that pleasure trap, and choose whole fruits instead. When hyper-palatability is eliminated as a choice the palatability of fruits as our healthy choice comes to the fore.
But won't we become weak eating only plants, especially raw plants? You may find it interesting that Dr. Doug Graham has won the British Masters National Powerlifting competition recently, making it two years in a row.
Dr. Doug Graham's journey into dietary logic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoOtT_slJ-U&t=303s
