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Terrain Theory
Terrain Theory is hosted by childhood friends Ben Hardy and Mike Merenda, two seekers on a mission to dismantle the fear-based germ-theory paradigm and illuminate how the body’s terrain—its environment, balance, and intelligence—shapes true wellness. Through insightful conversations with pioneering guests, we reveal how nature’s intelligence, ancient wisdom, and modern science converge in the art of true health and healing. Every episode invites you to reclaim your agency, recognize that you are your primary healthcare provider, and transform your own terrain into a sanctuary of resilience and vitality.
Terrain Theory
Before Diet Wars: Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the Primal Diet, and Eating For Your Lineage with Phoenix Be
For months on Terrain Theory, we’ve been exploring nutrition through the lens of terrain – questioning fasting, fruit-heavy paradigms, Natural Hygiene, and the idea that healing happens not through intervention, but through removal of interference. In this episode, we step before the diet wars entirely and ask a deeper question: what is the human body actually built from, and who are we eating for?
Our guest is Phoenix Be, a Primal Diet coach who was personally mentored by Aajonus Vonderplanitz and has lived the Primal Diet for over two decades. Rather than framing nutrition as belief or ideology, Phoenix approaches food as biological construction material – something that shapes not just individual health, but generational vitality.
We explore Aajonus’ core principles, the logic behind raw animal foods, and why true regeneration may unfold over decades, not weeks. Phoenix shares powerful firsthand stories of recovery, detoxification, and what happens when people abandon short-term protocols in favor of long-term terrain repair. We also examine where Natural Hygiene and fasting paradigms may fall short, how detoxification is often misinterpreted as disease, and why community support is essential when walking outside mainstream nutritional narratives.
This conversation challenges modern health culture’s obsession with optimization and immediacy, offering instead a lineage-based view of healing – one where nutrition is about restoring biological intelligence, rebuilding terrain over time, and creating healthier futures for generations we’ll never meet.
If you’ve been following our recent conversations around species-appropriate diets, healing crises, and Terrain Theory, this episode doesn’t choose sides...it widens the frame.
Learn more about Phoenix and his work at http://www.primalplanitz.com/ and follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/therealprimaldiet/ and on X at https://x.com/realprimaldiet
Support Terrain Theory on Patreon! Our recently-launched member platform gives you access to a ton of free & exclusive content. Check it out: https://www.patreon.com/TerrainTheory
Terrain Theory episodes are not to be taken as medical advice. You are your own primary healthcare provider.
If you have a Terrain Transformation story you would like to share, email us at ben@terraintheory.net.
Learn more at www.terraintheory.net
Follow Terrain Theory:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terrain_theory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Terrain-Theory
X: https://twitter.com/terraintheory1
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@terraintheory
Music by Chris Merenda
