WHAT TO EAT

Given the Babel of information and misinformation, the question emerges: Is there a rational method to decide what to eat? To seek an answer, we must go back to a two-hundred-year-old idea that is usually referred to as "La Place's Principle of Insufficient Reason" and states that events are to be assigned equal probabilities if there is no reason to think otherwise. E. T. Jaynes has recently extended the principle to state use that "in making inferences on the basis of partial information, we must use that probability distribution that has the maximum (informational) entropy . . . maximally noncommital with regard to missing information subject to what is known." Without going into a detailed computer program, we can infer that the most rational aliment will be obtained by fulfilling known nutrient requirements, minimizing intake of proven toxic substances, and randomizing everything else. In other words, the most variable diet that fulfills known constraints is the diet of choice. The clue is variation: use different foods, change brands frequently, and never use the same recipe twice. Bring on the escargot, candied grasshoppers, roast guinea pig, alfalfa sprouts, macadamia nuts, falafel, turnip greens, squid, mare's milk, and seaweed salad. Minimize the intake of packaged foods, since they contain additives of unknown toxicity, and where they are unavoidable, keep varying the suppliers according to additives.