Q. How Can I Be as Healthy as a Hunter-Gatherer?

A. Eat More (Kinds of) Food.

I’ve long been a proponent of adventurous eating. In The Devil’s Picnic, I sought out homemade absinthe in its birthplace, Switzerland’s Val-de-Travers (more on my quest here), as well as tea made from coca leaves in the Bolivian highlands. In Bottomfeeder, I noshed on drunken shrimp in Shanghai (watch out, they bite back!), and slathered on the oolichan grease in Ilahee Chuk (a place known to many settlers as British Columbia).

That said, I’m nowhere near as adventurous as some of the more out-there gastronauts. When I asked British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Café what the most extreme food he’d ever eaten was, he replied: human placenta. With that, any attempt at one-upmanship I may have been contemplating ended abruptly.