Before Food, There's Light

How light sets the stage for hormones, metabolism, and every bite you eat

If we zoom out and use first-principles thinking, I truly believe so many of our health problems would be solved.

But most of us were born into a system where our health advice comes from committees, companies, agencies, and doctors who, through no real fault of their own, are not set up to have our best interests at the center.

Most doctors today don’t get to use full independent judgment with their patients. They’re bound by guidelines and protocols, and if they go against those, they risk their license, career, and livelihood. I once heard someone say that “first, do no harm” has quietly shifted into “first, do no harm to my career, license, registration, mortgage, family security…” and honestly, it stuck with me.

So I don’t think it’s about not caring. I have nothing bad to say about doctors. I have many in my friends group and family, and I think most health providers have big hearts and entered their industry because they genuinely want to help others.

But, the truth is: the incentives are backwards.

Pharma influences research articles, textbooks (the ones our doctors train on), and even the recommendations doctors give. Even tiny things like branded notepads and pens have been shown to sway prescription decisions (Robert Cialdini talks about this in Influence…it’s fascinating and worth the read).

A lot of what’s happening in modern health care operates on a few levels at once:

• Subconsciously

• Disguised as “this is normal; everyone is doing it”

• Propped up by manipulated or incomplete information that conveniently supports some of the biggest industries on earth

This doesn’t mean everything in the health world is fraudulent. I’m not a conspiracy theorist.

I am a critical thinker. And I don’t say any of this lightly.

I believe we have to be our own best advocates—using all the information we have access to and being willing to land on conclusions that sometimes go against the grain.

Why the basics are ignored

I also believe this is why the most foundational and free things we can do for our health are rarely discussed.

If you look at how our systems are set up, it makes sense: there is no financial incentive to promote tools that can’t be patented. Nature doesn’t have a lobbyist. You can’t put a trademark on sunlight, darkness, clean water, or the earth’s magnetic field.

That’s also why research money and grants are far less likely to go to PhD programs or labs that want to investigate how nature shapes our health.

(I know plenty of PhDs who have had to start their own labs so they’re not spending all of their time with paperwork or purely searching for the results the grants are tied to finding…which are typically about how a pharmaceutical can “treat” a disease.)

We’ve also lived through decades of very strategic health messaging (what I’d honestly call propaganda) around things like “the sun is your enemy,” “low-fat everything,” and “a pill for every symptom.”

Nature doesn’t make shareholders richer.

So yes, this is a bit of a heavier post. But it matters. And I want it front and center before we move into the next topic that’s often spun as “woo”:

Light.

For a long time, I thought light stuff was just “biohacking for sleep” and optional at best. Then I started digging into the science…and it’s honestly undeniable.

That doesn’t mean you have to take my word for it. It means this is one of those areas where you get to look at the information and decide what makes sense.

What I never want to do is tell others how to think or what’s “right” and “wrong.” We have plenty of that already. But the hill I will die on is this: we all deserve informed consent.

And if you look at our recent history (especially the last 5–10 years), most of us are not getting that. Anytime we’re told what we have to do for our health? That’s a red flag.

How I learned to trust first principles

One of the things that pulled me back into grad school was the sheer confusion and contradiction in the wellness world. Diets, supplements, protocols…it’s enough to exhaust you before you even get started. And then, even if you want to check the science…where do you begin?

I’ve learned how to read and evaluate research, but my biggest takeaway from all of it is simple:

When in doubt, go back to physiology and first principles.
Does what’s being said make sense at the level of the body?

When I started using that lens, a lot of mainstream recommendations fell apart.

Health could be so much cheaper and simpler if we remembered that we evolved under a set of signals that are the real messengers in our body: light, dark, water, and magnetism. These are baked into the planet.

They’re not wellness trends; they’re environmental instructions.

They tell our biology how to operate.

What we didn’t evolve with were:

• Factories making food with manmade ingredients

• Isolated supplements stripped from real food

• Artificial lighting flooding our days and nights

All of those things send signals too, but often ones that confuse the body or push it into survival mode.

Light 101: what it actually is

Here’s what we know, stripped down:

• Light is both visible and non-visible.
  Visible light is what we can see with our eyes—the classic rainbow diagram: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

• Non-visible light is still “felt” by the body.
  Infrared is a good example. We don’t see it, but we feel it as warmth. This is a big reason the sun feels so good on your skin.
  

• Most of the light in nature comes from the sun.
  It was our only light source for almost all of human history (until the electrical grid rolled out in the 1800s). Our biology is still wired for that original light/dark pattern.
  

• The solar spectrum is rich and varied.
  Sunlight carries UVB, UVA, violet through red, near-infrared, and far-infrared wavelengths. Over half of sunlight is infrared. The UV portion, especially, is one of the body’s most powerful stimuli for metabolic and energetic adaptation.
  

In other words: the human body is built to receive and respond to different spectrums of light.

We have light-sensitive receptors all over the exterior and interior of the body. Even at the cellular level.

So…how does light fit with food?

Short answer: light comes first. It’s the signal; food is the material.

Certain wavelengths of light (especially from natural sunlight, and in a different way, red and infrared light) can directly support ATP production in your mitochondria and help decide how well your “engines” run in the first place. Light is also one of the main signals telling your mitochondria and hormones when to make energy, how much to make, and what to prioritize.

Morning and daytime light help set the sensitivity and timing of hormones like insulin, leptin, cortisol, and thyroid hormone…the ones that decide whether food gets burned, stored, or shuttled into repair work.

Food is still essential. We absolutely need amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and all the building blocks. Light just sits upstream. It tells your biology how to use the food you eat.

If your light environment is completely off, even the most “perfect” diet has to work twice as hard.

Light isn’t background noise

My main point here: light isn’t background scenery. It’s not just something that helps us see.

Getting sunlight has been called “nature’s greatest medicine” for a reason. Chronic avoidance of the sun, combined with constant exposure to manmade light at the wrong times, can push us in the opposite direction of health.

When we bathe our bodies in signals that don’t match the environment we evolved with, we shouldn’t be surprised when our hormones, metabolism, and mood start to glitch.

For now, I’ll leave you with this:

Light is what maintains the engine.
Food, biohacks, and supplements are the fuel.

If the engine is misfiring, it doesn’t matter how “premium” the fuel is.

My hope with this series is not that you accept everything I say, but that you stay curious and keep asking:

Does this make sense?

When I first started in the wellness world, this is quite honestly the last thing that I thought I would find myself caring so much about.

But…here we are.

I believe the world deserves to take another look at light, and to start thinking about it a little more seriously. Because it might just be one of the most valuable “nutrients” we have. Not instead of food, but right alongside it, a step earlier in the chain.

xx,

Dinah