Health Basics for a Mismatched World: 10 Principles to Take Control of Your Health

Your body was designed for a world that no longer exists.

Human biology evolved in a world of whole foods, constant movement, natural light and darkness, strong social connections, and intimate contact with the natural environment. Modern life has changed dramatically. Our biology has not.

The result is a profound mismatch-and it may help explain why obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, and other chronic conditions have become so common despite extraordinary advances in medicine.

In Health Basics for a Mismatched World: 10 Principles to Take Control of Your Health, ecologist, policy expert, and One Health advocate David Bunn, PhD, examines human health through the lenses of evolution and ecology. He challenges a healthcare system too often focused on managing disease after it develops and asks a more fundamental question:

What does the human body actually need to stay healthy?

Bunn reframes the body as a living ecosystem and identifies ten foundational principles for restoring the conditions in which that ecosystem can thrive. Drawing on scientific research, he explores the interconnected roles of food, movement, sleep, stress, social connection, the microbiome, and our physical environment-and explains how factors such as insulin resistance and chronic inflammation can undermine health long before disease is diagnosed.

This is not another quick-fix diet or wellness program. It is a practical framework for understanding your body, addressing the underlying drivers of chronic disease, and making sustainable changes that can improve health and vitality.

Understand the mismatch. Restore the basics. Take control of your health.

David Bunn, PhD, is an ecologist, policy expert, international consultant, and One Health advocate who has spent decades working at the intersection of human health, animals, food systems, the environment, science, and public policy. His career has taken him from fieldwork in Africa to leadership positions in California government and international development. Drawing on this unusually broad perspective, Bunn examines human health as an ecological system shaped by evolution and increasingly disrupted by modern life. In Health Basics for a Mismatched World, he translates that perspective into a practical framework for understanding the roots of chronic disease and taking greater control of lifelong health.