Introduction

Welcome to the third and final part of The Great European Poisoning Series.

The truth about Europe's health crisis is now clear: We've been poisoned by progress.

In Part I, we traced the data no one talks about — how Europe is following America’s collapse in slow motion, trailing by just 10–15 years.

In Part II, we identified the culprits: industrial seed oils flooding our cells with inflammation, synthetic additives disrupting our chemistry, and perhaps most dangerously, the illusion of tradition that keeps us complacently consuming what harms us.

But knowing what's poisoning us is only half the battle. The crucial next step is identifying the antidote.

The solution isn't another wellness app or health tech gadget. Rather, it's a return to fundamental principles we once understood instinctively. The way forward might actually mean reconnecting with food that decomposes naturally, moving in ways our bodies evolved to move, and living according to rhythms we long ago forgot.

In other words, the way forward isn't forward at all. It's back.

Personal Accountability

Nobody is coming to save you. Health authorities, diet gurus, and influencers frequently promise miraculous outcomes with minimal effort. But the reality, often unspoken, is that the current system thrives on your confusion and dependence. The truth is simpler, though not necessarily easier: the best expert on your health is you.

You don’t need a PhD in nutrition to know that eating cucumbers feels better than chugging soda. You don’t need an expert to tell you that a walk in the sun lifts your mood. Your body’s been giving you signals forever—what makes you feel alive, what drags you down. The problem? We’ve been taught to ignore those signals, to outsource our health to experts and labels. Enough of that. Taking charge starts with one simple step: Own it. You’re the expert on you. Start paying attention to what your body’s saying. Swap one processed snack for an apple. Notice how you feel after a night of sleep with the WIFI off. Ask questions, dig for answers, and don’t wait for permission.

Reclaiming health starts with embracing personal responsibility and actively seeking knowledge, rather than passively waiting for solutions to appear.

Phase I: Food

“The future of food isn’t innovation—it’s restoration.”

Picture this: A farmer 200 years ago sits down to dinner. On his plate? Grass-fed beef, eggs from his chickens, butter he churned himself, and maybe some carrots from the garden. No ingredient labels, no seed oils, no “low-fat” nonsense. That guy wasn’t counting calories—he was just eating what made sense — and he was probably healthier than most of us.

That’s the goal: Eat like a human again. Not like a lab rat fed processed junk. Real food—the kind that spoils if you leave it out, the kind your great-grandma would nod at approvingly. Here’s how to get started.

The Golden Rules

Follow these, and you’re already halfway to feeling like a new person:

• If it won’t rot, don’t eat it. Food should age, just like you do. That shelf-stable cereal is a science experiment, not breakfast.
• If you can’t picture how it’s made, skip it. Nobody’s pressing canola oil in their backyard. Stick to what makes sense.
• If your great-grandma wouldn’t recognize it, ditch it. Protein bars and “heart-healthy” margarine? Hard pass.

Core Foods

For 2.5 million years, humans thrived on animal foods, like:

Ruminant meat. Ever notice how a steak satisfies you in a way no amount of pasta ever will? The fat and protein of grass-fed animals contains the exact anti-inflammatory compounds our modern, inflamed bodies are starving for.

Organ meats. A single serving of liver contains more bioavailable nutrition than a shopping cart of supplements. These foods weren't "extras" to your ancestors, as they are for us. They were the most valuable parts. The ones they fought over.

Wild-caught fish. The iodine and selenium in wild-caught fish nourish a thyroid system hammered by modern toxins. They also deliver omega-3s that your brain recognizes as building blocks, not foreign substances to be processed and eliminated.

Pastured eggs. All the nutrients needed to build an entire living creature, packaged in a perfect delivery system. The yolk isn't something to fear and discard—it's the whole point.

Raw dairy. Bioavailable calcium, vitamin K2, and fat-soluble vitamins often absent in modern diets. The living enzymes in unpasteurized dairy support the microbiome that industrialized food has devastated.

Bone broth. This is how humans extracted every last nutrient from food when wasting anything meant risking survival.

The Fats That Built Us

Your brain is 60% fat. Your hormones are made from cholesterol. Your cell membranes require saturated fat to function.

Yet we've spent 50 years demonizing the very substances we're made of.

Does that make any sense at all?

The modern vilification of traditional fats represents the most destructive nutritional experiment in human history. The results are in: skyrocketing metabolic disease, plummeting fertility, collapsing mental health.

How's that low-fat experiment working out for us?

Return instead to the fats that built civilization:

Butter from grass-fed cows

Tallow from beef

Lard from properly raised pigs

Duck and goose fat

Fish oils

Egg yolks

These fats:

• Stay stable when heated, unlike industrial oils that degrade into compounds that weren't even in our environment until the 20th century
• Deliver fat-soluble vitamins your body can't absorb without them
• Signal true satiety so you stop eating when you're actually full
• Build cell membranes that communicate properly instead of misfiring

Plants: Supporting Players

The modern obsession with all things plant-based represents a fundamental misunderstanding of human nutritional history and biology. Plants have always been part of our diet—but as complementary elements, not the main event.

Would you build a house starting with the paint and wallpaper? Of course not. You'd start with the foundation and frame—the meat, eggs, and animal fats that provide complete nutrition. Then you'd add the finishing touches—the plants that add color, flavor, and specific medicinal compounds. In the same way, when traditional societies used grain, they treated it with respect—soaked it, soured it, or combined it with animal fat to make it digestible. Not shelf-stable filler, but real food with real preparation. Approach plants with respect for their dual nature:

Local vegetables in season

Wild herbs and greens

Root vegetables

Fermented vegetables

Fresh fruits in season

When's the last time you tasted a tomato still warm from the sun? Herbs with their aromatic oils still intact? Berries that stain your fingers because they're actually ripe?

That's not just flavor you're missing—it's medicine.

Phase II: Movement

“Don’t exercise — move.”

Think about it : exercise is what captive animals do—scheduled, compartmentalized, often ridiculous when viewed through the lens of actual human needs. Movement is what free beings do—walking, lifting, carrying, climbing, throwing, sprinting when necessary, resting when possible.

Your ancestors never "worked out." The concept would have seemed insane to them. They moved because movement was life. They developed the exact capabilities their environment demanded—nothing more, nothing less.

Ask yourself: Does spending an hour on an elliptical machine while watching Netflix make any ancestral sense at all?

The Movement Hierarchy

Reclaiming natural human movement follows clear priorities:

Walk daily, and walk far. Walking is the baseline human movement pattern, one we've performed for millions of years. Your body expects those 8,000-10,000 steps. When you don't deliver them, systems start to break down. Walking outside calibrates circadian rhythm, stabilizes glucose, stimulates lymphatic drainage, and promotes neurogenesis. It's not optional—it's the minimum fee for having a human body.

When's the last time you walked until you lost track of time? Until your mind quieted and your senses sharpened?

Carry heavy things regularly. Your ancestors carried water, firewood, children, and food because survival depended on it. This load-bearing sent signals of robustness throughout their bodies. Twice weekly, carry something awkward and heavy for distance.

Sprint occasionally. Your body maintains the machinery for explosive movement because it once meant survival. Modern humans rarely ask their bodies for everything they've got—and it shows. Once weekly, find a hill or open field and run like something is chasing you.

Climb regularly. Human hands and shoulders evolved for pulling our bodies upward. Climbing trees, rocks, or modern equivalents maintains upper body strength and the neural pathways connecting brain to extremities.

Play instead of train. Your ancestors didn't need motivation to move—they played. They wrestled. They danced. They competed. Playful movement bypasses the frontal lobe's resistance to "exercise" while delivering equal or superior physical benefits.

Ask yourself: When's the last time you moved for pure joy rather than obligation?

Phase III: Sleep

“Restoring sleep is about reclaiming our lost alignment with nature.”

Modern sleep disruption may be the single most underappreciated factor in our collective health collapse. Your ancestors didn't "try to get enough sleep"—they lived in alignment with natural light cycles that regulated their sleep automatically. When the sun went down, darkness enveloped them. No screens. No LEDs. No street lights leaking through blinds.

Just darkness. Pure, complete darkness.

Their bodies knew exactly what to do with it.

Reclaim Sleep

The path back to restorative sleep follows the rhythm of nature:

Honor the sunset. As darkness falls, your body prepares for sleep through melatonin release—the hormone of darkness. Artificial light—especially blue light from screens—hijacks this ancient signaling system. Two hours before bedtime, dim lights, switch to amber bulbs or candles, and wear blue-blocking glasses if necessary.

Have you ever noticed how a campfire makes you naturally sleepy as night falls? That's your body responding to the right light at the right time.

Embrace true darkness. The modern world has eliminated darkness, yet our biology requires it. Make your bedroom completely dark—no LEDs, digital clocks, or street light seepage. Even minimal light exposure during sleep disrupts melatonin production and impairs deep sleep stages.

Synchronize with temperature drops. Your body expects temperature to fall with sunset. This drop triggers sleep onset and deepens sleep quality. Keep bedrooms cool (65-68°F/18-20°C) and consider opening windows when weather permits. Your body doesn't craves natural fluctuation.

Respect sleep consistency. Your circadian rhythm thrives on predictability. Going to bed and waking at consistent times reinforces your internal clock, allowing hormonal systems to optimize around expected patterns. This consistency improves sleep quality and daytime energy more than trying to "catch up" on weekends.

Fast before bed. When's the last time you saw a lion hunting right before taking a nap? Traditional cultures rarely ate late into the evening. Finishing your last meal 3-4 hours before bedtime allows digestion to complete before sleep begins, enhancing growth hormone release and preventing the disrupted sleep patterns caused by active digestion.

Phase IV: Light & Sun

“Stop hiding from your greatest ally.”

Modern humans have become afraid of the very force that enabled life on Earth! We've been taught to fear the sun, hide from it, block it—as if our relationship with sunlight wasn't forged over millions of years of evolution.

Sunlight is the primary environmental input that synchronizes every system in your body. Embrace it.

Reclaim Your Relationship with Light

The foundation of metabolic health begins with proper light exposure:

Seek morning sunlight within an hour of waking. This exposure sets your circadian clock, triggering hormonal signals that will culminate in melatonin release 14 hours later. Morning sun exposure also stimulates metabolism, improves mood, and enhances focus. Your ancestors didn't need coffee to wake up—they had the sun.

Get midday sun exposure on bare skin. The UVB radiation available during midday hours enables vitamin D production. Expose as much skin as practical and culturally appropriate, based on your skin tone and adaptation level.

Sunburn isn't healthy. But neither is sunphobia or sunscreen. Your body knows how to adapt to sun exposure — if you do it incrementally.

View sunsets whenever possible. The specific wavelength composition of sunset light signals transitional hormonal changes, preparing your body for rest.

Minimize artificial light after sunset. Blue-enriched light at night is an evolutionary anomaly—it confuses your body into thinking it's still daytime. Replace standard bulbs with incandescent options, use candles and firelight when possible, and employ blue-blocking technology for necessary screen use.

Practice seasonal adaptation. Traditional cultures adjusted their light exposure seasonally. In winter, they rose later and retired earlier, honoring the expanded darkness. In summer, they utilized the extended daylight for increased activity. This seasonal flexibility prevents the metabolic confusion caused by maintaining identical schedules year-round.

Phase VI: Toxins

Your skin is your largest organ and a critical absorption surface. Everything you put on it enters your bloodstream, bypassing the protective filters of your digestive system.

Would you eat your lotion? Drink your shampoo? Chew on your deodorant?

If not, why are you putting it on your skin?

The Transdermal Toxin Problem

The modern beauty industry has convinced us to apply hundreds of synthetic compounds to our skin daily, many disrupting hormonal function and taxing detoxification pathways:

Synthetic fragrances contain phthalates and other endocrine disruptors that mimic hormones and confuse cellular signaling. These compounds accumulate in fat tissue and can persist for years.

Is that "clean" scent clean below the surface?

Petrochemical preservatives like parabens demonstrate estrogenic activity in human tissue, contributing to hormonal imbalances that manifest as everything from acne to fertility issues.

Do they extend product shelf life while potentially shortening yours?

Sulfates and harsh detergents strip protective oils, damage skin barrier function, and create dependency cycles where more products become necessary to address problems caused by previous products.

Is the squeaky-clean feeling an indicator of damage?

Sunscreens contain compounds that absorb into bloodstream at levels far exceeding safety thresholds, with some demonstrating hormonal activity thousands of times more potent than human hormones.

Has the cure become worse than the “problem”?

If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t apply it. That’s the filter.

Conclusion

I want to tell you about my favorite person on Earth: my grandmother.

Her hands were strong hands - scarred from working soil, using hot pans, and making real food from real ingredients.

Today, I look at my own hands, smooth from typing, pristine from disposable gloves and antibacterial soaps. They tell a completely different story - one of disconnect, of separation from the physical world that shaped us.

This journey through Europe's health crisis has revealed many things, but perhaps none more important than this: We've lost touch. With our food. With our bodies. With the wisdom that kept humans vital for countless generations before us.

And our bodies noticed.

They notice every time we feed them something they can't recognize.

Every time we block the sun they evolved to need.

Every time we replace human connection with digital distraction.

This is exactly why we started Leonessa - our mission is to become a bridge between ancient wisdom and modern life.

Leonessa Piadina is a return to what flatbread was always meant to be. Clean organic flour. Animal fats that your cells recognize. No seed oils, no preservatives, no compromises.

This is the template for everything we do: Take what modern life has corrupted, strip away the poison, and rebuild it with ingredients your grandmother would recognize. Not because it's trendy, but because it works. Because your body knows the difference.

In other words, we didn’t evolve for chemicals, constant stimulation, and chronic stress.

We evolved for cold water, clean air, dirt under our nails, and food that dies.

The way back isn’t backward. It’s forward—through the fire, and into the truth.