Maximum metabolic energy flow

Introduction

As a follow-up to Personality and Biometabolism, considering the structural problem of metabolic energy acquisition for humans is worthwhile. While much attention is paid to the critical energy infrastructure such as oil, nuclear, coal, I think we societally worldwide underweight the effect of biometabolism on human capital, invention, and the positive effects of an energetic, intelligent, and productive society.

Based on current mass production methods of foodstuffs, it seems processed wheat and polyunsaturated vegetable oils are the metabolic clock of society; we may literally in some sense run on the timetable of canola oil futures. Since polyunsaturated fats are known to be depressing to the metabolism and cognition, any society that has PUFAs as their societal metabolic clock is doing a great disservice to themselves. Economic considerations of course do matter, so the answer may be saturated fats derived from hydrogenation as opposed to tallow or butter.

Numeric data

Given that fats are 9 calories per gram and carbs/protein are 4 calories per gram, the highest density foods are at around 900cal/100g.

Based on my present awareness there are a variety of different high calorie food sources. Since nuts/whole grains are high in PUFAs and hard to digest, I have excluded them, incl. alcohol, from the following list.

caramelized starches, such as sweet potatoes cooked for a long duration at a low temperature
fats, such as tallow, butter, and heavy cream or fatty meat, dairy concentrates such as cheese/condensed milk
fruit juice, such as from a masticating juicer to reduce pulp or concentrated sugars such as honey or dried fruit
some ferments, such as fermented coconut cream

Vitamins

In short:

Avoid Vitamin A. See The Retinol Problem.
Avoid processed wheat, enriched iron.
B vitamins are probably fine, but unnecessary and don’t have risk of excess due to being water soluble (originally called ‘water-soluble B’ and ‘fat-soluble A’) and excreted out
If missing B12, supplement non-cyanocobalamin sources
Use activated lanolin for Vitamin D
Eat natto for Vitamin K

Logistics

If a society is to lead on the innovative edge of science and technology, it must free up time used for daily expenditures. No longer do people hunt for their own food, go to outhouses, or carry water from wells. Given the presence of time-saving appliances such as pressure cookers, rice cookers, air fryers, and toaster ovens, cooking is indeed much easier than it has been in generations past. But despite these advancements, too many subsist on food delivery at onerous prices, spend hours cooking and shopping, or they may subsist solely on prepackaged foods of processed wheat and vegetable oils.

Various powder/liquid food attempts have been made—Soylent or Huel (which I think are suboptimal and unnatural), but the form goes back earlier to deliveries of milk or cream. Open a bottle to drink and done—suited to the instant delivery similar of water pipes or electricity. Contrarily one may say: use a rice cooker, air fry some fish filets. Scrub dishes, we have dishwashers. Certainly these appliances were optimal for the 1950s, but are they the most logistically optimal today?

What if food was a grid, like the electricity grid or water grid? Might it be possible to bring back the milk man, but somehow at mass scale and low prices using food delivery apps, drone deliveries, and industrial-grade production? Could industrial-grade production actually be inefficient, and a consortium of small producers aggregated using algorithms and modern information technologies be more productive?

Some of course will decry this optimization of what seems like normal pleasantries. Yet when considering the social and biological changes as needed for a technological and industrial society as mentioned in the article, TODO, one major forward step needed appears to be the optimization of our food systems. Whether these changes will occur in the near future or distant future is unknown: certainly we may be able to quickly align society in a certain way and pursue the Dyson sphere, yet I think most would be happier taking a slower and more natural path toward technological singularity. Barring any threat such as alien invasion (which may have its own benefits, such as an end to intra-human society conflict), no impetus for such a wholescale transformation of society exists. Nevertheless, we may not be able to support such technical complexity if improvement to the biometabolic health of populations is not undertaken, as written in TODO.

In the meanwhile as society may or may not debate to pursue some variant of the above health optimizations (and it can start at any level, from the individual to the family or the community choosing to pursue further education¹), one may pursue the following design optimizations for daily living: pull-carts for groceries from the car, van-like openings which are easy to move supplies around with, ramps going up to the door, a direct path from the entrance to the fridge. Pursuing this sort of ‘maximum flow’ wrt. groceries may save considerable time per day.

Input sources

We eat or drink food. Though some speculate on absorptive methods such as breathing in food as in utero or absorbing it through skin, these are mostly undetermined. However, intestinal absorption may be impaired by biofilms, by which a sort of biofilm wash can be done to physically remove such things. On a chemical level eating fermented foods or spicy foods may provide some beneficial effect. A potential experimental way to remove biofilms may include a hydrogen peroxide or mild bleach solution delivered through endoscope or tube, similar to remarks by this nasal rinse. Given that biofilms and bad breath can often be spread by kissing, this means that such relations between individuals involving potential ingestion of microbes into the ailmentary canal is highly unrecommended.

That individuals have the ability at all to greater improvements is something I am uncertain about. This linear view of continual invention and progress contrasts with those who may live in circular views, which persist in habits and norms oscillating around a rough homeostatic level. For example, they may exist in a persistent state of disorganization. They plan little for the future and are only able to repeat common phrases they read online to you, despite education and discussion. Contrary to the view of man as inherently good and capable, I am unsure if all individuals are capable of this continual progress. My argument is an improvement in societal biometabolic health on the scale of decades will innately lead to a more capable and prosperous population. ↩