The folk wisdom of “eat a bit of everything” seems to go well with humans being omnivores and with not overdosing on any particular harmful ingredient. That was before pollution and allergies were rampant, of course.
This would seem to require that most of the ‘wisdom’ being embedded in the ‘everything’ in question.
Good point, foods that have been historically clearly identified as toxic would have already moved into the non-food category. So this advice is effectively saying, “look only at your priors and don’t consider or collect new data.”
If our ancestors took this advice literally they’d have kept eating things that can obviously kill you, like digitalis.
In reality, I think the spirit of the advice is a warning not to under-estimate the importance of your priors: don’t consider new data in isolation.
This would seem to require that most of the ‘wisdom’ being embedded in the ‘everything’ in question.
Good point, foods that have been historically clearly identified as toxic would have already moved into the non-food category. So this advice is effectively saying, “look only at your priors and don’t consider or collect new data.”
If our ancestors took this advice literally they’d have kept eating things that can obviously kill you, like digitalis.
In reality, I think the spirit of the advice is a warning not to under-estimate the importance of your priors: don’t consider new data in isolation.
You have managed to extract a rather useful generalizable point from the subject!
As well as this we can assume that the advice also covers the idea of not putting all your eggs (be they epistemic or dietary) in one basket.