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The Species-Appropriate Diet: Food Safety, Traditional Populations, and the Preventability of Western Disease
A. C. Applebee, L. N. Combe · March 2026
Abstract
The modern food supply operates under an inverted burden of proof: substances are permitted in food until demonstrated harmful, rather than excluded until demonstrated safe. This thesis argues that this inversion is ethically indefensible, scientifically unjustifiable, and causally linked to the epidemic-scale chronic disease burden of industrialised populations. Drawing on cross-cultural epidemiological evidence from traditional populations -- including the Kitava study (n=1,200; zero acne, near-zero cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer), the Tsimane (n=705; 85% zero coronary artery calcium, lowest atherosclerosis ever recorded), Okinawan longevity data, Inuit disease profiles, the Ache (n=115; zero acne over 843 days), and the Pima natural experiment (same genome, 38% vs 6.9% diabetes depending on diet) -- we demonstrate that Homo sapiens consuming species-appropriate diets do not develop the diseases currently treated as inevitable features of human ageing. These populations are not genetically privileged. When they adopt Western diets, Western disease rates emerge within a single generation.
Cite
Applebee, A. C., & Combe, L. N. (2026). The Species-Appropriate Diet: Food Safety, Traditional Populations, and the Preventability of Western Disease [Preprint]. Omxus Press. https://neotheque.com/papers/species-appropriate-diet/