Choose compounds over isolates

When my son started eating solid food, I spent several frenzied months researching nutrition. My biggest takeaway from that exercise was that salt isn’t always salt, and calories aren’t always calories, because the way they are consumed changes how our bodies interact with them. We get different results from the same substance when taken in its pure form (as an isolate) or as part of a food matrix (as a compound).

The jitters of pure caffeine can be “smoothed out” by the amino acid L-Theanine, something very obvious when comparing similar dosages of caffeine taken in pill form (isolate) or as part of green tea (compound). Fruit juice (isolate) can cause insulinogenic spikes in ways that fruit, eaten whole (compound), does not, by virtue of the fibre consumed alongside.

Taking more of the good stuff, the active ingredient, the main driver, usually seems like a good idea, but there are often second order effects, evolved over millions of years, that we fail to account for: benefits of the compound that we overlooked, or risks of the isolate that are yet to manifest.

Isolates are increasingly common throughout life. Supplements isolate minute portions of the complex food matrix in which they developed. Exercise isolates specific movements from the broader context of natural labour. Remote work isolates productivity from the social matrix that once housed it.

The isolates in our lives offer obvious benefits—otherwise we wouldn’t reach for them—but the presence of benefits doesn’t preclude the quiet accumulation of drawbacks. Many isolates are new and haven’t passed through time’s filter. Their downsides may manifest on a longer time horizon.

And even as we underweight the downsides of isolates, we overweight their benefits. It’s easier than ever to receive dopamine without effort, calories without exertion, social recognition without social risk, knowledge without thought. We can doomscroll an ocean of endless amusement, acquire infinite calories with the merest touch of fingers upon screen, build huge tribes of followers without setting foot in the real world, generate sophisticated answers to any question.

It feels good to avoid hardships like fatigue or hunger or embarrassment or mental effort—but what if these hardships form a necessary part of the compound required to safely mediate the effects of the isolate? Do we benefit from the isolate as much as we think?