Nutrition

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." -Michael Pollan

The Diet Industrial Complex

You can tell metaculture isn't here for that grift money because this page would be an ideal spot to sell you a fad diet or some fractal-branded supplements.

In-Group Dietary Restrictions

Nor will metaculture promote any restrictive diets that keep you from the foods you love to reinforce an in-group. [1]

The in-group for metaculture is everyone. You can tell us apart at a restaurant because we order anything on the menu without substitutions.

Ethics of Food Enjoyment

Since the enjoyment of food is one of the primary sources of happiness that the human brain has evolved, restricting that enjoyment is a crime against utilitarianism.

Anything that can be eaten, should be eaten, as long as it is sustainable and minimizes animal cruelty. Obviously the animal cruelty can never reach zero if you eventually kill and eat them, but we should try to give them a nice life up to that point. That's the deal we made with the animals when they were domesticated, and we need to hold up our end.

Doing this universally will obviously require a good deal of changes to the factory farming system, which we should strive to implement. It will also require a significant reduction in meat consumption, along with the population, in order to afford everyone the ability to enjoy cruelty-free delicious meats from time to time in a sustainable future. This has the advantage of being a vision of the future that most people will be willing to buy into, unlike the veganism that so many environmental activists promote.

Cow Farts Will Kill Us All

To address the environmental concerns regarding meat consumption, moderation is preferred over abstinence. Addressing overpopulation combined with a reduction in the average frequency of meat-eating will have a much bigger environmental impact than if everyone went vegan and overpopulation is not addressed. And it has the added benefit of feasibility, since the backlash against veganism is palpable to anyone who has ever brought it up in an online forum. Why the backlash? Because restrictive diets are a crime against utilitarianism (see above).

Food for Thought

Simple food rules are the best way to achieve a healthy diet with minimal mental effort.

This video gives a good overview of the effects of nutrition on the brain.

Intentionally seeking out and trying new foods improves neuroplasticity by providing new sensations and cultural experiences that expand the mind as well as the waistline. This video is a celebration of that.