The average Western foot is deformed by shoes. If you ditch them, will your feet bounce back or are you simply asking for trouble?
MY RUNNING shoes have a thick sole and cushioned heel. I bought them five years ago, before the "barefoot" craze for minimalist shoes that would allow people to better emulate how our ancestors ran. Soon after that, reports began appearing of injuries sustained by runners who had adopted these shoes, and lawsuits were filed against some manufacturers. Now the maximally cushioned or "fat" shoe is back in vogue, and suddenly my old shoes look high-tech again.
Is all this simply a matter of fashion, I wonder, or is it telling us something more profound? Surprisingly, we are only beginning to discover what a normal human foot looks like, how it should move, and the role that shoes play. Recent research, sparked ...
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