Based on the simple premise that food should be nutritious, safe and bioavailable, Eat Like a Human: Nourishing Foods and Ancient Ways of Cooking to Revolutionize Your Health by archeologist and chef Bill Schindler guides readers to consider not just what people should eat, but how people should eat to achieve optimal health. Each chapter addresses different food groups, including plants, grains, maize, animals and bugs, dairy and sugar. Schindler also includes recipes and illustrated diagrams for making nutrient-rich foods such as fermented ketchup, acorn flour, traditional sourdough bread, pancakes and pasta, cricket granola, honey ice cream and charcoal mayonnaise.
Co-star of the National Geographic television series The Great Human Race, Schindler is an animated storyteller and persuasive advocate for resurrecting ancient technologies for harvesting and preparing food. He answers the question of how people should eat by promoting nutrient-enhancing techniques our ancestors developed intuitively, such as bacterial fermentation, the use of ash, charcoal and clay as detoxifiers, cooking with nutrient-dense soil and adopting a "nose-to-tail" approach to eating animals. Foraging for wild plants or visiting farmers markets instead of buying domesticated produce out of season is an effective way to improve diets.
A realist who appreciates the social value of modern traditions, such as eating cake at birthday parties, Schindler urges readers not to forgo the food rituals that make for a culturally rich life, but instead to adapt the strategies presented in Eat Like a Human to individual circumstances and make incremental, manageable advancements toward improved biological health. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer