The word \u201cnatural\u201d\nis use in many different contexts, but in most cases it is meaningless. In many\ncases this issue can be solved by asking yourself what \u201cnatural\u201d or nature\nreally means in your perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It mostly\ndepend on your definition of \u201cnatural\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are human\nbeings \u201cnatural\u201d and are the products derived from their behavior thus \u201cnatural\u201d\nas well. Is you tablet \u201cnatural\u201d because you are a human being and thus part of\nnature, just like a bird\u2019s nest as its product is \u201cnatural\u201d as well? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cnatural\u201d\nis often used to associate with positive\nemotional load, \u201chealthy\u201d, \u201cclean\u201d, \u201cunspoilt\u201d, untouched\u201d, \u201cas it is meant to\nbe\u201d, \u201cgood\u201d as the opposite of \u201cunnatural\u201d, being often more negatively\nassociated: \u201csynthetic\u201d, \u201cdirty\u201d, \u201cnot good\u201d, \u201cnot healthy\u201d, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though\nwe are undeniable a product of nature on this planet, we, as a species, spend a\nlot of time, energy and money to change, improve, modify, manipulate, dominate\nor destroy nature, intentionally or not, consciously or unconsciously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my context the words nature and natural are often used in the context of sport and nutrition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wearing\nclothing? Not natural! Using means of transport other than your own legs, wings\nor fins? Not natural!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using\ntools, apart from some rare exceptions like birds or monkey using sticks, twigs\nor stones, tool use is not natural. See where you are if you could only use a\nstone or a stick for everything that you want to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take your\neyes off the screen and look around, and listen, anything that you see or hear\nthat would still be there if humans being were not around? Very little, is my guess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In sport,\nthe word \u201cnatural\u201d is often associated with getting there with your \u201cnatural\u201d\ntalent, in other words, as you came to life. A great concept, too bad is\nmeaningless in this context. Right from\nthe start when you were born, in some cases, the doctor needed a Caesarian for\nthe bay to be born alive. Something that does not happen in nature outside of\nhuman beings. In elite sport the same: in nature animals don\u2019t train for their tasks, they play when they are young,\njust to practice and learn skills, but\nas soon they are able e.g. to walk, to run, to fly or to catch a prey, they\ndon\u2019t train anymore to improve that skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A \u201cnatural\u201d athlete does not exist unless her\/she would not train, and gather his\/her own food from the wild, instead of going to the supermarket, and eat that food raw. Ever seen an animal cook, fry or bake it\u2019s food and eat it? Natural food does not exist, it is marketing only. \u00a0The natural athlete should also train and compete naked, without shoes or tools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In nutrition the relationship between natural and healthy is often emphasized. Of course, even natural food is not natural, but grown, harvested , processed, transported and prepared by humans. We should not forget that nature provides us with the most toxic substances on the planet, from Corona virus to Clostridium bacteria, ricin, snake poison, all very natural and all very lethal. Natural does not equal healthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The word \u201cnatural\u201d\nis often used in the context of doping, some people consider the use of doping\nunnatural, but how to think about any medication in general? Natural or not? In some religions, people stay\naway from blood transfusion or vaccination for the reason that this is against\nwhat God intended. And animals don\u2019t go the pharmacy when they are sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a consequence\nof this way of thinking, a supposedly natural athlete should not use any\nmedication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It even gets more complicated when one talks about genetic modification of humans in general and in athletes specifically. Some people might say that it is like \u201cplaying God\u201d, but we have already been playing God for the longest time. Any genetic improvement like breeding of animals or cultivation of flowers and plants is like playing God also. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once again this all depends on your world view: to what extent are you anthropocentric<\/strong>, which means that you think the human being is exceptional, beyond and above everything else on this planet, and is the center of existence. Human beings are seen as being at the top of the pyramid of life, and the top of the food chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Or do you\nthink that we are just part of a cycle, not at the top of the food chain, but\nlikely just a highly developed link in this chain. Not being at the end of the\nchain, but also the beginning again, \ne.g. as a host for bacteria and viruses, (think Corona at this moment).\nWe could also be just a temporarily dominating part of the ecosystem on this\nplanet and with the same power and creativity which we use to change and dominate\nthis planet, destroying this and ourselves as a species?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only time\nwill tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The word \u201cnatural\u201d is use in many different contexts, but in most cases it is meaningless. In many cases this issue can be solved by asking yourself what \u201cnatural\u201d or nature really means in your …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1889,"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helpingthebesttogetbetter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}