You against your body
Hey bro, you should try this paleo vegan keto diet. You'll get shredded in 10 weeks and you can still eat bacon.
Just like how the universe is a complex system, our body is a complex system. These systems are not man-made which makes them hard to reason about. We can no longer “just read the code”. This is why we need to rely on experiments and mathematical modelling to understand these systems’ inner workings and to rationalize their behaviours.
Newton and Einstien built theoretical models to rationalize physical objects and systems. Many engineered systems today wouldn’t be possible without their models. They are crucial to human progress.
In the same way, human physiologists work diligently to devise theoretical models to make sense of our bodies. They will then rely on these models to give us “professional health advice”. We now know eating too many calories will make us fat. Refined and processed food is bad for us and whole grains are good for us.
However, since scientists typically conduct different experiments and collect potentially biased data points, they will arrive at distinct conclusions. As a result, different scientists might come up with different models. This explains the proliferation of diet plans and health tips on the Internet—some of them even contradict each other. For example, the whole food plant-based diet is the polar opposite of the keto diet, despite both have legions of enthusiastic followers.
I am not a health professional. If I want to lose weight, gain muscle, or even live longer, I need a mental model of my body. This is why I turned to health professionals. But given this proliferation of different models of our bodies, which one should I adopt? Should I try all of them to see which one works best for me? What is the performance metric? Popularity? Testimonials?
How do I even think for myself?