Chapter 4 – Operating System
The Organic Connection – Your Living Body
You are what you throw into that big mouth of yours
Thus far we have covered many topics on maximizing your biological potential by the use of techniques, and devices. In a sense, we have been augmenting our biology through a cybernetic connection with semi-artificial help. In this section, I want to draw our attention back to the human body, for it is the foundation and, indeed, very essence of the cybernetic existence.
Because a full dicussion on the topic of health is such an immense undertaking, I can only give you general principles and methods to help you achieve a more efficient and healthier lifestyle. I strongly recommend you go to Appendix B and read the books listed there which concern health and nutrition, for a full coverage of this very important subject.
Let’s look at some remarkable concepts about health.
The Body Machine
Increasing Organic Power from the Ground Up
The key item we have to pay close attention to is energy. Without energy, our body cannot function. The very mentioning of “energy,” especially when talking about bodily health, almost always makes people think about physical energy in terms of sports, or muscular energy. In fact, when I refer to “energy” in the context of this book, I am referring not only to the above types of energy expenditure, but also the energies required for mental functioning, immune system activation, biological waste disposal, and stress tolerence. It may strike some people particularly unexpectedly – especially when it is so obviously that it is easily overlooked – when they realise that our brains require energy to run. They are organs, and like any other organ in the body, demand us to “exercise” it, and keep it in shape by providing the correct “fuels” for its operations. The efficacy of our immune system also depends on sufficient levels of energy. In fact, it does not take a great leap of faith to acknowledge that everything about your body is related to your energy level.
The most basic key to your body’s energy level is nutrition.
It is a fallacy of thinking to believe that even if you eat the wrong things, some parts of your body (for example, your brain maybe) will still function “ok.” People gulp down all kinds of junk, thinking that they can “work it off” later on. Students may binge on pizza and coke, while cramming for an exam in the middle of the night. (In desperation, they may even eat cold pizza!) Actually, everything that these students eat affects the way their brains work, and the way their bodies respond to the added stress of cramming.
Although we all have probably been told, ad nauseum, that we shouldn’t eat junk food because it’s bad for us, most of us still do. That’s OK. Sort of. We all have to “take a breather” and just “mellow out” once in a while. Life wasn’t meant to be lived by sticking to all kinds of rules and trying to be the “perfect” person. If you want to eat something that’s “bad” for you, there is no reason why you shouldn’t unless it affects the quality of your life in the long run. It’s fine to enjoy nasty things such as candy bars, alcohol or fast food, once in a while. But if you ingest these things to the extent that they become synonymous with your name, then you’re going to suffer the consequences of lowered body performance (in all functions) and there is no way around that fact. The critical decision that you should make now is that you will do yourself a favour, and keep in mind that anything unnatural is most likely bad for you. That’s the simplest rule I can think of, concerning proper nutrition.
When I say “unnatural” I don’t mean just the obvious candidates of artificial flavourings and chemical preservatives (if you can’t pronounce or spell it, you probably shouldn’t eat it). I also refer to the “unnatural” aspect of rationale about food. A good example is milk. Cow’s milk, that is, not human milk. There’s a lot of controversy about this food. Some nutritionists say that milk is good for you because it gives you calcium, and protein, and all those nice vitamins and minerals your body needs. The milk companies tell you the same thing. On the other hand, other nutritionists and doctors have decided that milk aggravates allergies and can contribute to a whole slew problems for your body. The bottom line is, cow’s milk was designed for baby cows. Human milk was designed for human babies. You don’t usually see a dog sucking on a cow’s teat for milk now, do you? Or a gorilla mother nursing a lamb. Cow’s milk provides different hormones and nutrients which help the young calf grow up quickly. Drinking cow’s milk, or eating any product made from that milk (including cheese and butter) is sort of like putting the wrong kind of fuel in your car. Evolution had designed the human body to be very adaptable to whatever its environment can provide. That’s one of the reasons why there are so many of us on this planet right now. But just because we can adapt to our foods, doesn’t mean we should eat anything and everything in sight. We must choose our foods carefully. We are what we eat, no ifs, ands or buts…
Along the same lines, we’re not naturally omnivorous. That is, we don’t naturally eat both meat and veggies. We’re frugivores – fruit eaters. Our thumbs were designed to grasp fruit and manipulate it to eat (in addition to making and using tools). Our jaws were designed for biting into and chewing fruit. Our teeth can in no way compare to those of carnivores when it comes to tearing flesh out from a dead animal. Our wimpy fingernails and canines are a poor excuse to go hunting. In fact, we are not even psychologically suited for hunting down and feasting on prey. Tigers, lions, and even dogs and cats will pounce on poor, unsuspecting rabbits or other fare, at any age. Human children would rather play with their Super Nintendo than snack on little furry creatures. (If babies were born with the instinct to hunt down the kitchen mouse for food, that would assuredly bring a whole new meaning to the term “catch-of-the-day!”)
In the final analysis, we were taught to eat whatever we eat now, by other people. They may have been our parents, our teachers, or even our local foodstuffs company. They probably had the best of intentions (with the possible exception of the food companies which have a significant financial interest in our purchase of their products!), but that doesn’t make the logic any sounder. When in doubt, always go with nature. She’s been there for you for more than five million years, and will be in the future. Trust nature, and eat the foods your body was designed to eat. That way, your body will function the way it was designed to, without need to compensate by adapting to less-than-perfect food sources. Did you know that even if you eat meat for “protein content,” your body still has to break down the meat into the component amino acids, and then reassemble them into the configurations that your body requires? There is no “direct conversion” of cow meat into your body. In fact, you can easily get the same amino acids, just by munching on a banana. Saves a hell of a lot of burden on your system. Besides, you don’t really need to eat meat to get protein. Mr. Cow didn’t eat another cow to become so big. He ate grass, of all things! We could eat grass too, if only we had the proper digestive system for it. But since we don’t (cattle have a developed stomach to digest the tough cellophane in plants – our measly appendix is less than useless in that regard) we should stick to our natural fare: Fruits.
But then again, eating only fruits sounds, oh, so boring. Not exactly what you had in mind when you signed up to become a cyborg eh? Well, the cybernetic diet is not that boring. In addition to healthy foods, there are some very interesting things you can pop into your mouth. These will be discussed in Chapter Nine. But for now, just understand that you should “go natural.” Fruits provide the proper energy sources for your brain to work effectively, and encourages your body to clean itself of toxins and other junk. The body itself produces toxic byproducts every day, just from daily operations. No reason why you should add to the garbage pile through eating.
I could go on, and on about this topic, but there is really no need for me to do so. First of all, you can get more extensive information from a book such as Fit For Life, as listed in Appendix B. A discussion that exhausts the information will exhaust the reader as well and is beyond the scope of this chapter. Suffice that your curiously is piqued, and you are motivated to investigate this very important subject on your own. Secondly, there may really be no need for me to say more. You already know the key principles towards good health: Eat what’s naturally wholesome, and do what’s naturally logical. So if your mother tells you that chocolate is bad for you, it probably is. On the other hand, if she insists you eat a large steak, you might want to reconsider your options. (To shift your paradigm, maybe you can think about the poor cow that died and got a piece of its body on the plate in front of you. That’s no fantasy. It’s true. Wouldn’t you rather have a strawberry and pineapple fruit salad instead?) Before you make a drastic change in diet, make sure you consult your doctor, and read up on the topic. Some people experience nausea and loose stools when they switch to a natural diet. Actually, that’s just your body trying to make the best of time, and getting rid of all the accumulated toxins in your body while it has the chance (before you change your mind, and go back to eating junk!). But it’s best to be safe, and have the guidance of doc, coupled with the proper information.
The very first result you get from a better diet is increased energy. You will not feel so sluggish and laggard. You won’t, in a sense, be “lazy” anymore. You might even want to find things to do, just to keep yourself occupied. Also, your brain will work better, and you’ll be able to think clearly, and concentrate more. Your raw memory will also increase, and should function at superior levels when coupled with memory skills. You will also be better protected against diseases and other disorders. Your need for sleep will decrease, and sleep itself will become more effective and more refreshing. A lot of people suddenly find that their allergies are gone, or that they naturally lose the weight they’ve been trying to “work off,” or diet off. Your skin, fingernails and hair will all look and feel much healthier. There isn’t a part of your body that isn’t affected by a change in diet.
One other “positive side-effect” about all of this is that by eating a natural diet you will have simplified a lot of things. You hardly have to cook, and you hardly have to wash up (dishes are so easily cleaned by rinsing with hot water, when you don’t use them to eat greasy foods). A natural diet is such a time and effort saver, it’s a great way to maximize your daily time, especially if you need it to study for exams, or meet a company deadline. When I am under pressure, I go shopping and stock up my “reservoir” of fruits and veggies, sothat I don’t even have to leave the house for the entire week. In the morning, I drink fruit juice, so breakfast takes only ten minutes. I can even munch on bananas while working, and sip fruit juice all day. (The only hard parts are cutting open pineapples and melons, but hey, what’s a guy to do eh?) If you are really trying to save time and effort, you might opt to buy the “premium” orange juices that they now sell in the supermarkets, and those aren’t made from concentrates, so you get much more out of them (concentrating fruit juices destroys a lot of beneficial nutrients, and you don’t get the same natural “water” that the original fruit provided). Premium juices aren’t as good as their fresh-squeezed counterparts, but they’re a superior alternative to other “juices” which either contain 10% real juice (and 90% artificial muck) or have had the good stuff destroyed in the processing procedure.
To conclude our discussion about natural foods, I don’t want you to put a label on this topic and think of it as some kind of “miracle” cure-all method I’ve just presented. It’s just a healthier, and more intelligent, way of eating and living. It’s so simple, it’s almost too obvious. Maybe that’s one reason why a lot of people have overlooked it. So if you really do become a healthier person by eating properly, no need to thank me. Instead, thank the men and women (such as Harvey and Marilyn Diamond who wrote Fit For Life) who brought this subject into the public awareness so that all of us can enjoy the benefits of a supercharged body.
