We live a more modern life than ever before. We have food that can last for months, drinks in every conceivable color, food delivered to our doors, and workdays where we can sit in front of a screen for eight hours without really needing to move.

But our bodies haven't changed at the same pace.

I recently listened to neuroscientist Katarina Gospic on the radio, and one thought particularly stuck with me: "Think about what Grandma or Grandpa did."

It's a very simple thought. But perhaps also one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves about our health.

We live in 2026 – but the body is much older

Humans are biologically adapted to a life that, for most of our history, looked completely different from today.

We walked. We carried. We picked. We cooked from raw ingredients. We spent time outdoors and followed daylight much more than we do today.

And even just a few generations ago, everyday life was full of things that today have almost become leisure activities.

Grandma went out and picked blueberries. Grandpa worked in the garden. People walked to the store, cooked from scratch, dried mushrooms and herbs, and perhaps sat in the evenings knitting or working with their hands.

Today, we barely need to get up from our chairs.

This doesn't mean everything was better before. It definitely wasn't. Modern medicine, hygiene, food safety, and technology have vastly improved our lives.

The problem arises when our modern lifestyle clashes with our ancient biology.

The body expects movement

We are not created to sit still for eight hours, drive home, and then sit in front of another screen.

The body expects to be used.

And that doesn't have to mean an hour of strenuous gym training.

Walk. Work in the garden. Pick blueberries. Hike in the forest. Cycle. Carry groceries. Take the stairs.

The interesting thing is that much of the movement we now try to incorporate as "exercise" used to simply be everyday life.

The same principle can be applied to the brain. Knitting, carpentry, cooking, gardening, or picking berries means we use our hands, concentration, and senses in a completely different way than when we passively scroll through a screen.

And the same goes for what we put into ourselves

Look at the ingredient list on some modern foods.

Dyes. Flavorings. Emulsifiers. Sweeteners. Modified starch. Flavor enhancers.

Then compare that to a blueberry.

Ingredients: blueberry.

Or a dried herb.

Ingredients: herb.

It's quite a striking contrast.

Our food naturally needs processing sometimes. Grinding, boiling, fermenting, and drying are also forms of processing that humans have used for a long time.

It is therefore important to distinguish between processed food and ultra-processed food. The problem is not that humans do something with the raw material. The question is rather how far from the original raw material we have come.

Dried herbs are actually not a modern invention

Long before there were capsules, powders, and dietary supplements, people used plants.

They collected them when they grew best, dried them to use throughout the rest of the year, and made infusions and decoctions.

It's actually a very simple technique:

Plant → drying → hot water → extraction.

The water extracts some of the naturally occurring substances from the plant. For some herbs, the volatile essential oils are also important, which is why herbal tea traditionally often steeps under a lid.

Furthermore, an herb is not an isolated substance. It can contain a large number of naturally occurring substances – for example, polyphenols, flavonoids, organic acids, and essential oils – in the same plant material.

This doesn't mean that "natural" is automatically better or safer. Poisonous plants are also natural. But there is an important point in rediscovering the foods and plants with which humans have had a long relationship, rather than automatically assuming that more processed is always better.

We don't need to choose between science and tradition

This is perhaps the most important point.

Returning to certain older habits does not mean going back in time or saying no to modern science.

On the contrary.

We can use today's science to understand why some of the old habits were actually wise – and at the same time reject what has proven to be ineffective or harmful.

We don't need to choose between modern medicine and herbs.

We don't need to choose between the gym and a walk in the woods.

We don't need to throw away our computers.

But perhaps we need to ask ourselves a little more often:

What is the human body actually built for?

Keep it simple – think like Grandma and Grandpa

The next time you face two alternatives, the question can be surprisingly useful.

Water or a neon-colored drink?

A walk or another hour in front of the screen?

Blueberries or blueberry flavor?

Food cooked from raw ingredients or something with 25 ingredients?

A cup of dried herbs or yet another product where the original plant is barely recognizable?

The answer doesn't always have to be the "old" alternative.

But perhaps it should be a little more often.

Because our bodies live in 2026.

But the biology they are based on is much older than that.

See all our bestsellers here!