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These two contradictory characteristics entail equally contradictory consequences; hence the
omnivore's paradox. On the one hand, needing variety, the omnivore is inclined towards
diversification, innovation, exploration and change, which can be vital to its survival; but on the
other hand, it has to be careful, mistrustful, "conservative" in its eating: any new, unknown food
is a potential danger. The omnivore's paradox lies in the tension, the oscillation between the two
poles of neophobia (prudence, fear of the unknown, resistance to change) and neophilia (the
tendency to explore, the need for change, novelty, variety). Every omnivore, and man in
particular, is subject to a kind of Batesonian double bind between the familiar and the unknown,
monotony and change, security and variety. There is perhaps a fundamental anxiety in man's
relationship to his foods, resulting not only from the need to distrust new or unknown foods, but
also and more importantly from the tension between the two contradictory and equally
constraining imperatives of the omnivore's double bind.
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