And, recent archeological studies have found evidence that humans living during the Paleolithic era did in fact eat grains. Diets of early humans varied drastically depending on where they lived. As with any fad diet, the Paleo diet might also be hard to sustain and by eliminating entire food groups and types of foods, increases risk for disordered eating. We live in a society where it is not possible to eat exactly as our ancestors ate.
For example, wild game is not readily available as most of the meat we consume has been domesticated and is produced on mass scale. Food has become an important part of our culture including celebratory meals and social gatherings. Before beginning any diet plan, work with a registered dietitian nutritionist who will assess your food and medical history and develop a personalized nutrition plan to suit your lifestyle and preferences.
Need serious help making a plan? See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Balanced eaters That contradiction led O'Connell to wonder if the offset was wrong because it relied on animal estimates, not humans. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Support science journalism.
Knowledge awaits. See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Create Account See Subscription Options. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. Subscribe Now You may cancel at any time. But are we building the right types of town? Although there are major benefits in city life, there are also major costs. They developed symbiotic relationships with nature, breathed fresh air, drank fresh water and ate fresh foods.
Culturally, however, society changed at a remarkable speed. And skeletal studies of ancient cemeteries graphically show how the transformation from ancestral practices to farming and urbanisation damaged our collective wellbeing. And towns are killing us. A possible solution is suggested by research developed at University College London. For starters, can we, in the 21st century, eat like hunter-gatherers? Archaeologists and anthropologists have already collected hard data on the best evolutionary-concordant diets.
We know what really worked for us during our long evolution, and thus what our unchanged metabolism and digestion still need today.
Humans were and are adaptable creatures, living in contrasting environments and latitudes in the Arctic, Australia, Africa and the Amazon. Studies show that some tribes depended more on fish than plants or meat; others more on plants than meat or fish; some more on meat than fish or plants.
But none consumed the prodigious quantities of sugar-based or industrialised products we enjoy today. For modern lives, there are problems with staples like breads, and not just for those with a gluten intolerance.
Eating too much simply displaces other foodstuffs from your table, limiting the range of macro and micro nutrients you really do need to be consuming.
Ancestral diets included a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, roots, seeds, fish, shellfish, grubs, insects, eggs and meat, innards as well as muscle. The only basic rule is to collect a wide variety of fresh foods, in season, daily. The human race is genetically adapted for a life of regular activity rather than long sedentary periods: walking, lifting, bending, climbing and carrying, be it wood, water, food or children.
A typical distance covered might be up to 10 miles per day. The necessary daily activities would require an average energy expenditure of between 3, and 5, kJ, perhaps five times greater than many modern sedentary adults. Consequently, hunter-gatherers were usually lean and rarely obese, which reduced trauma to joints and minimised diet-induced inflammation.
In addition, these vigorous activities were conducted primarily in the open air, thus maintaining vitamin D levels. This vitamin is another evolutionary determinant of our health, since it enhances our ability to absorb calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphate and zinc. Unfortunately, few foods contain vitamin D, and thus direct exposure to sunlight is the normal way to obtain this crucial benefit.
Today, we need to simulate such energy-consuming regimes if we are to avoid becoming overweight or worse. A physiology designed for an active life needs to undertake such tasks regularly, or conditions such as osteoporosis might ensue. Active commuting ie walking or cycling at least part of the route to work would make a good start as do sports, dancing and gardening, to name but a few activities that we need to indulge in regularly for the sake of our physical and our mental health.
Active days still need sleep to allow the body to repair and rebuild itself, while the brain needs downtime to process the information absorbed during the day. Sleep is clearly important to our ancient bodies, as sleep deprivation studies prove.
Its loss leads to incipient depression as well as the craving of dense carbohydrates, and thus weight gain.
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