Is Our Normal Unnatural?

How modernity impacts our health and longevity

As I was vacuuming last Saturday, I glanced at the window, and a string of black dirt culminating in a mound at each corner of the sill caught my eye. Ugh. Somehow, I had missed these windows after the fierce windstorm at the beginning of January. Although these were the same high winds that fueled the horrific wildfire that devastated the community a few miles north of us, it wasn’t fire ash and soot in the window crevice; instead, it was a greater quantity of the outside filth we are typically mired in.

Filth from what, you might ask. It’s a question Andrea and I discuss ad nauseam. I often reflect on my childhood chores, which included cleaning the living room, den, dining, and kitchen areas. We had many collectibles from my parents' travels in Japan and Europe, so much of my cleaning time was spent painstakingly dusting with a soft cloth. (That, and combing the fringe of the oriental rugs. Dad was military.)

Mind you, I grew up in Tucson, Arizona. A dry, arid desert where you could expect a lot of dirt and dust swirling about in the air and seeping inside the house. And yet, I don’t ever remember wiping up the copious amounts of fine soot I find in our home now. In my humble opinion, the volume is mainly due to the ubiquitous leaf blowers that permeate the neighborhood with clouds of toxic dust, settling on our home and vehicles, infiltrating window jams, and covering our furniture. Andrea and I are perplexed that people are oblivious to this perilous practice, and although we banned it long ago at our house, we still get plenty of dirt from our surrounding neighbors.

Black dirt. That’s the real kicker. Why is it black? The dirt in the ground is predominantly shades of brown. That's when my mind starts spinning. Black is particles from roof tiles decomposing; asphalt, brake, and engine grease soot from the road; the litany of chemical fertilizers in the grass and flower beds; and little specs of material I can’t begin to fathom. The bottom line is that this black dust in our home is unnatural; we shouldn’t touch or inhale it, and its presence makes Andrea and me crazy.

Normalizing the unnatural
My fine black yuk is but one tiny example of the unnatural that has become normalized in our lives. I’m admittedly obsessed with analyzing the impact that modern-day conveniences (such as blowers) have on our health and longevity, so I was delighted to come across a highly credentialed expert who asks many of the same questions I do.

Daniel Lieberman is an anthropologist, Professor of Biological Science, and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and three books, including his most recent, Exercise: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding. His extensive research with hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa has been primarily focused on why the human body is the way it is, with emphasis on the evolution of physical activities such as walking and running and their relevance to health and disease.

In a wide-ranging interview on Dr. Rangan Chattrejee’s Feel Better, Live More podcast, Daniel explained how evolution dictates much of what our body needs, which is often quite the opposite of what we do. At a bird’s-eye level, our bodies are a result of gradual evolution over millions of years with some rapid periods of change. He believes that many of our modern-day ailments are essentially self-inflicted wounds: the needs of our bodies are not being met, and we insist on putting our bodies in a very unnatural state with tragic results. (Yes! My sentiments exactly!)

Through his decades-long fieldwork, Daniel has been studying the Hadza people in Tanzania, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes in the world, in a quest to better understand health, wellness, and longevity. His research has shown that the Hazdas are far less likely than their modern counterparts to fall ill from diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Although much of what was discussed confirmed some of my theories, I gleaned several super interesting pieces of information that underscore the importance of how our bodies are built to respond to life.

Take, for instance, his “active grandparent” theory, which explains why—even in old age—our bodies respond positively to exercise. Daniel observed that it is the grandmothers in the tribe who are the foragers in the group because the mothers typically take care of the children. Evolutionarily, being active in our old age is in our DNA to survive.

In other words, it’s not at all “normal” to slow down as we age. However, since our existence no longer depends on hunting and gathering, the replacement movement of picking up DoorDash from outside the front door doesn’t fulfill our bodies' movement needs, and a vicious sedentary cycle sets in. But in reality, our bodies need the movement inherent in our makeup.

Exercise isn’t necessarily normal
Daniel also had a fascinating insight into why many exercise plans fail. Again, looking at the evolutionary big picture, we see that the movement in our ancestors' lives had a purpose, and our brains are still wired that way Even today, many Blue Zone centenarians have daily purposeful movement: herding sheep, tending farms and vegetable gardens, making bread, walking to town, etc.

While some people (like myself) enjoy exercise, many don’t, and it very well could be because repetitive movement that doesn’t accomplish a task hasn’t been a natural activity in our daily lives over the last couple of thousand years. If you are one of those people who can’t seem to stick to an exercise plan, perhaps choosing activities that have a purpose is a solution.

The comfort conundrum
He touched on a couple of other topics that impact health: sitting and shoes. Dr. Chaterjee mentioned the mantra that “sitting is the new smoking,” but Daniel noted that hunter-gatherers also spend quite a bit of time sitting. The difference is how they sit. Often, they sit on the ground or something low, sit cross-legged, get up frequently to tend to the fire, or chase after children—they are active sitters.

Active is the key. Expensive ergonomic chairs seem comfortable at first blush, but all this back support isn’t natural and allows us to be lazy, passive sitters. Although I, too, have one of those wahooey chairs from years back, I regularly sit on the edge or with my legs folded under me so that my body is constantly micro-adjusting. (I’ve got my eye on some wobble stools; stay tuned.) I also get up hourly to walk around, look outside, and keep the circulation going.

On the topic of shoes, Daniel champions something that I’ve likewise been promoting: minimalist (or barefoot) footwear. He points not only to the topline benefit of creating strong feet by going barefoot but also to a couple of ailments that he contends are a direct result of inflexible, unstable shoes: fallen arches and plantar fasciitis. Both men concurred that fallen arches can be remedied by challenging the feet with strengthening movements provided by barefoot walking and minimalist shoes.

He also cites footwear as the root cause of the very painful plantar fasciitis condition that primarily plagues runners. Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the band of tissue that runs along the bottom of the foot. Conventional thought is that runners are prone to this condition due to the continual pounding of the feet, but Daniel believes it is due to stiff shoes, which hold the feet in an unnatural position and don’t allow for a full range of motion. Thus, the fascia doesn’t flex and stay pliable but stiffens and becomes immobile.

An interesting anecdote supports that theory: people who have studied the Tarahumara barefoot long-distance runners who live in Mexico have found that they experience very few significant foot problems compared to most runners who wear those high-tech, cushy running shoes.

Modernity is unnatural
The bottom line is that our marvelous modern life, with all its conveniences, pollutants, and ultra-processed foods, is—in many cases—unnatural. In our quest for easy comfort, we’ve created a situation foreign to our evolution, with the unintended and far-reaching consequence of poor health.

Daniel made the salient point that while hunter-gatherers' lifespans are very similar to our own, the difference is that they live into their golden years relatively free of disease. In contrast, the majority of people in Western civilizations live with managed chronic illnesses from their mid-sixties forward.

Unfortunately, the notion of “natural” has become a widely caricatured cliche that turns many people off. But fear not! You don’t have to stop shaving, eat tofu, and wear ugly Birkenstocks to adopt natural habits that could enhance your health and well-being. Each month, pick an unnatural habit to change, and before you know it, your normal can become natural.

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Below are a handful of practices you can try implementing to live well, age great:
Retire your devices early in the evening
Forego wearables
Get morning sunlight in your eyes
Opt for only organic and glyphosate-free ingredients
Wear cotton, wool, bamboo, and other natural fibers
Use non-toxic, natural personal care and cleaning products
Go barefoot in the house
Sit on the floor for 30 minutes a day
Park a couple of blocks away from errand locations
Ask your gardener to rake and not use the blower

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