Eat Like a Human to Survive - Eat Like a Wolf to Thrive

Humans and canines are survivalists. Throughout history, both species have demonstrated amazing resilience, adapting to, and thriving in harsh, volatile climates, surviving through times of severe adversity, and more recently, adapting to survive on a sub-optimal diet. There are numerous factors that play a role in the adaptability and resilience of these two species. For humans, it is a combination of acute knowledge and skill from a brain that has evolved into a problem-solving machine. Opposing thumbs and a bipedal stature gives humans a major advantage in terms of mobility, crafting tools, and ultimately building things that solve the problems they face. As a species we have leaned to communicate and work together to achieve mutual goals, developing a system that has led to a fully-functioning society capable of overcoming any obstacle, sling-shotting us to the top of the food chain.

For wolves, the story is a bit different. Wolves are masters of adapting to their environment and evolving to be one of the most efficient predators on the planet, having no known enemies aside from humans. Forward-facing eyes and a sense of hearing and sight 20 times sharper than a human’s, a sense of smell that is 100 times stronger, night vision, incredible stamina, and a top speed of around 40 miles per hour, wolves are elite apex predators that can easily track and kill large prey, with a single wolf consuming as much as 22 pounds of meat from each kill. Like humans, wolves also have a very complex social and communication structure and are considered one of the most social carnivores. These traits make them masterful hunters and allows them to effectively support and protect their pack, ensuring its survival.

Adaptations and evolution are typically the result of adversity or change, the need to adapt for survival or evolve to our ever-changing environment. This adversity and change can manifest itself in many ways, ranging from environment to famine. Yet somehow, with humans and canines in an era of abundance, we have recently adapted to survive on a sub-optimal diet. Canines, being direct descendants of wolves and one of the most successful carnivorous apex predators on the planet, are designed to thrive on an all-meat carnivore diet. Humans, the most successful apex predator on the planet, evolved during a period where hunting large, fatty animals was one of the most sacred and celebrated accomplishments of our ancestors. During this period, humans thrived on a primarily meat-based carnivore diet. Now, with more resources than ever and a seemingly unlimited food supply, humans have deviated from the foods that have nourished our bodies for thousands of years and have adapted to survive on a diet heavy on vegetables, grains, and highly processed and refined manufactured foods.

Just as domesticated dogs have shared our diet throughout history, and we theirs, the same continues to be true today. With the domestication of dogs shifting away from strategic purpose and necessity and more towards companionship and commodity, most dogs are no longer used for hunting, but instead remain couped up inside homes, restricting their access to the wild prey they would have had access to thousands of years ago. In the modern era, dogs do not have a choice, they share our dietary preferences because that is what we choose for them, but just because they share our dietary preferences does not mean that those dietary preferences are optimal.

The gradual rise in obesity, chronic disease, auto-immune conditions, and metabolic dysfunction in both humans and dogs is staggering, a clear indication that something with our current diet and lifestyle is broken. This correlation between humans and dogs cannot be ignored and if we follow the breadcrumbs, the common denominator always leads back to the food we consume. During a time when humans and dogs worked in unison to hunt and consume large mammals, both species thrived. Many of the most common modern illnesses and diseases that are present today simply did not exist in the past. Looking solely at dogs and the common illnesses domesticated dogs suffer from, whether it be obesity, cancer, diabetes, or chronic skin conditions, these are virtually non-existent in the wild canine population. Canines simply would not have survived otherwise. Looking at humans and the continual rise in these same chronic diseases, we also see that these are less prevalent or nearly non-existent in native tribes that continue to thrive on meat-based, whole food diets.

There are several reasons for this shift in dietary preference from animals to plants, but the driving factors are profitability, greed, and control. Industrialized and processed foods have incredible profit margins and the people that make them, promote them, and back them, stand to make unimaginable amounts of money. These large corporations have risen to control the markets, making competition fierce, often driving out smaller businesses that provide healthier food options. Large corporations, medical institutions, and government entities have teamed up to sell a narrative that demonizes saturated fat, cholesterol, and red meat and instead promote fruits, vegetables, grains, and toxic seed oils. This narrative has led to the destruction and near-total breakdown of our society and the degradation of the health and wellness of millions of people and dogs, all in the name of profit and greed.

There is a way back, a way that we can reclaim our place in the world as the thriving apex tribes and packs that we evolved from, and it starts with us. Just as a lone wolf is unlikely to effectively hunt or protect its pack, a lone person is unlikely to create waves large enough to effectively drive change in a massive industry poised to win. However, when that lone wolf reveals itself at the top of the bluff, cocks his head to the sky, howls, and 15 more appear, the tables begin to turn ever-so drastically. There is strength in numbers, and we cannot ignore the correlation. It is time to reunite the tribes, reunite the packs, and fight to eat like a wolf to thrive.