Natural born heroes
"Author of the phenomenal national best seller, Born to Run, Christopher McDougall now travels to the Mediterranean where he discovers that the secrets of ancient Greek heroes are still alive and well on the island of Crete and in the muscles and minds of fitness enthusiasts everywhere. While researching Born to Run, Chris McDougall encountered the story of Pheidippides, the legendary ancient Greek 'all-day runner.' Later, when McDougall met a dedicated amateur historian, he saw a connection to one of the most fascinating mysteries of World War II: How did a small band of Resistance fighters surrounded by German troops kidnap a top German general? What he discovered is that ancestral techniques for extraordinary endurance, natural movement, and nutrition allowed ancient Greek soldiers and Cretan shepherds to race across mountains on all-night missions. Inspired by their heroic acts, McDougall sets off to discover the lost art of the hero, both throughout history and across the world.
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What Hacker News says
- If you like Born to Run you should check out Natural Born Heroes if you have not already read it. It's sort of the WW2 variant of Born to Run.
- Not sure about "significantly affected how I think", but here are a couple of the standouts from 2015 that come to mind:
The First World War: A Complete History
Predictable Revenue
Superforecasting
The Master Algorithm
Natural Born Heroes
- > In 1800, the average person consumed approximately 22.4 grams of sugar each day (10.2 kg per year). In 1900, the average person consumed approximately 112 grams of sugar each day (40.8 kg per year). In 2009, 50 per cent of Americans consumed approximately 227 grams of sugar each day - equating to 81.6 kg per year.
The seminal event for increasing per-capita sugar intake was the introduction of Coca Cola/soda.
http://www.divineeatingout.com/food-1/sugar-consumption-now-...
If you aren't familiar with the tragedy of sugar on traditional Native Americans, introduction of processed American foods has created an epidemic on reservation.
"Type II Diabetes, the Modern Epidemic of American Indians"
https://anthropology.ua.edu/bindon/ant570/Papers/King/king.h...
Christopher McDougall's book "Natural Born Heroes" is about the heroes of Crete during WW2 who were able to fight off the Germans by putting up extraordinary resistance by doing, among other things, hiking for miles and miles over treacherous territory for 20 hours straight. It makes an argument that a paleo-based diet is the reason why they were able to do it. With this diet, they were able to run and evade for long distances without fatigue. Meats and other proteins provide a sustainable, longer-lasting source of energy in contrast to the spike of sugar.
https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Born-Heroes-Mastering-Enduran...
