The Nutritional Wisdom of the Body

Would you believe me if I told you I know the true expert on what you should eat?

In a world full of diet fads and contradictory advice, I find it hard to listen to anyone prescribing a certain way of eating. That’s why I read Nourishment by Fred Provenza, about why livestock select certain foods in their environment. It also reveals the way all animals (including humans) feed themselves to get the specific nutrition they need as unique individuals.

So who’s the expert on what you should eat? Your body.

The book provides many examples of how animals select for what their bodies need. But here’s an example on our own farm.

We supplement our cattle with minerals, like all cattle producers do. Only instead of feeding a bulk mineral that contains a mix of salt, zinc, calcium, iron, we have a “cafeteria style” mineral feeder which offers 20 separate minerals so that the cattle can select for each one on its own instead of eating a mouthful that’s all mixed up.

What we observe is that they select for different minerals depending on the pasture where they’re grazing. In certain fields, they hammer the potassium versus others where they select for the selenium.

What’s even more remarkable is that the minerals they eat the most mirror the minerals that show up as deficient in our soil tests. Our soils are lacking in phosphorous, but high in magnesium. And what do you know, phosphorous is the mineral we have to refill the most often. They haven’t touched the magnesium since day one. What they’re not getting from our forages, they crave at the mineral feeder.

From a producer’s standpoint, it’s also great knowing that they only utilize 50% of the minerals they consume, meaning the rest come out their back end…right into the soils which need those very minerals. In this way, the cattle become our diagnosis and our solution for soil deficiencies.

Is that not the coolest!? People are usually blown away by this, saying “how can they know?” I often respond, “your body knows what it needs too.” And often, the example that comes to mind is a sister or a wife who was pregnant and suddenly craved pickles (a sign of iron deficiency) or dairy (a sign of calcium deficiency) or something else.

One of the most compelling studies that Provenza references was conducted by a pediatrician named Clara Davis in the 1930s. In a six-year study, Davis became the “mother” of fifteen infants who had been put in orphanages and who had not eaten adult foods nor been influenced by beliefs of older people. She offered them 34 animal and plant foods which jointly provided requisite fats, carbohydrates, amino acids, minerals and vitamins. Then she observed which foods they selected, ensuring that no adult could influence their choices or portion amounts.

What did she find? The children consistently selected nutritious diets, even though they could have become deficient in certain vitamins by selecting the wrong combination of foods. The children typically ate several foods and a beverage at any one meal, including brains, raw beef, bone jelly and bone marrow — foods that are repulsive to many adults.

The kicker? No two children ever selected the same foods and no child selected the same mix of foods from day to day. As Provenza concludes, “Nevertheless, their fervent individuality fashioned fifteen uniformly well-nourished, healthy children, as attested to by attending pediatricians.”

Yet we are told that humans don’t have nutritional wisdom. And for a high price, we can hire a personalized nutritionist to determine food choices for us.

What does your body tell you about which foods feel nourishing? Compare a meal you have eaten that satiated you with one that left you wanting more despite a feeling of “fullness.” What do your cravings say about your nutritional needs?