From the Paleolithic diet to the raw food diet, many health-conscious Americans want to eat the way our ancient ancestors ate because it's more "natural." Granted either way of eating is a vast improvement over the Standard American Diet (SAD) high in sugar, chemicals, processed foods and unhealthy fats.
But some of these back-to-our-roots dietary prescriptions make little sense for modern humans, according to a book on the evolution of the use of food and eating habits among prehistoric people.
While we can learn a lot from what our ancestors ate, many of our more modern foods and diets were developed for very good reasons, according to Kristen Gremillion, associate professor of anthropology at Ohio State University.
Gremillion is the author of "Ancestral Appetites: Food in Prehistory" which explores how humans have adjusted their food and the way they prepare it in response to new knowledge and new environments.
Noting that humans are omnivores with the ability to eat a wide range of things, Gremillion suggests that, rather than trying to base a healthy diet on what we think people used to eat thousands of years ago, it would probably make more sense to look at our nutritional requirements today and find the best way to meet them.
Gremillion has an issue with many of the new diet fads that claim they are more "natural" because they focus on a time before modern culture spoiled our eating habits. But she says, that time never existed.
Diet must be evaluated in the context of culture. According to Gremillion:
Human dietary behavior can't be reduced just to our biology. Culture has always played a part in what we eat and how we eat it. And people have always been innovating, finding new foods to eat and new ways to prepare them. There's no way to say that there's only one way we are supposed to eat.
Is the Paleo Diet a more natural way to eat?
One very popular diet today is the so-called "Paleo" or "Paleolithic" diet, sometimes also called the caveman diet and popularized in the book "The Paleo Diet" by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. Based on what people ate before the introduction of agriculture, Paleo dieters emphasize eating lean meats and fruits and vegetables, and avoiding processed foods and grains of all kinds.
While Gremillion believes the Paleo diet is scientifically based and a healthy way to eat, she doesn't believe it is somehow more natural than other diets.
For instance, she does not believe it's unnatural for humans to eat cereals and grains, despite some very persuasive arguments to avoid grains for health reasons. From a cultural point of view, she notes that humans started agriculture because it was difficult to get enough food through hunting and gathering. Cereal grains provided a stable source of calories as humans evolved. She finds a middle position on the question of grains, stating that cereal grains can't be the sole basis of a diet, but can be part of healthy meals.
Is a raw food diet healthy?
Raw food diets are another example of striving for a "natural" way of eating but Grimillion questions whether they make any scientific sense.
The raw food diet emphasizes getting most calories from uncooked, unprocessed foods. It was popularized by David Wolfe, author of "Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future."
Gremillion notes that humans have been cooking food for hundreds of thousands of years and believes there is not really anything to be gained by eating only raw foods. While cooking does remove some nutrients from foods, she admits, it also breaks down some compounds to make other nutrients easier for our bodies to extract. In addition, she says, it's "much easier on our teeth and jaws than tearing and crushing hard and fibrous foods." As she says:
Cooking caught on for a reason, and there is no real reason to give it up.
The concern for returning to a more natural state is understandable and makes sense especially when it draws us away from frankenfoods and the unhealthy, artificial and chemically-laden processed foods that stock our modern grocery store shelves. But says Gremillion, there is not some one natural way to eat that we all have to get back to.
What do you think? Should we be eating like our caveperson ancestors?
Comments
Sign in or create a free account to join the conversation.
Sign in to commentPaleo Man was on a see-food diet, he saw it and et it...and he would recognize few of our grain/soy creations...In order to see food he had to hike, gather, run and kill...lotsa exercise. When hunting was good he was a carnivore, otherwise it was leaves, fruits, nuts and bugs....BUT there were no 3 squares/day...no refrigerators.
The most significant Paleo habit may well be irregular eating which is the same as intermittent fasting. This factor shifts gene expression from growth mode to repair/healing mode...Techno Man eats too much, too often and avoids the extreme exercise of hunting and dragging home food..which was followed by feasting, and then fasting until the next nutrient score. All markers of inflammation and oxidative stress drop with alternate day, 5/2, limited period eating or less frequent 2-3 day fasts. They ate nutrient dense foods, not modern "happy" hollow meals.
I believe the principles of paleo are sort of unassailable. The principle is that we should eat according to our genetic and epigenetic makeup. But my genes are different from your genes; and the damage I have done by eating too much carbs over the decades is going to result in a different epigene "structure" from your epigene "structure".
There is also the issue of kale. Ah, the kale issue. Kale did not exist 10,000 years ago. But it evolved by the tender mercies of farmers who made it even richer nutritionally than it's predecessor. Farmers 10,000 year ago didn't know diddly about lectins, phytic acid, etc., so wheat did not evolve via farmers to be something that was without these nutritional problems. But I guarantee you that farmers are currently scurrying to develop wheat that is more gluten free; who wants to bet me $10?
This evolution by farmers was done blindly, most likely. They got it right with kale. They did not get it right with wheat. Hopefully, without sick genetic engineering, but rather the old fashioned kind, wheat and other grains in a few hundred years will be more genetically suited to human beings. In the meantime, I won't be eating much wheat; it does not fit my genetic structure; it is not paleo for me.
There is hardly anything that one can eat today that is actually and literally paleo. But the principles of paleo are most enlightening and valuable.
Is the book well researched or educated opinion? Knowing more about the evolution of eating habits and food preparation is important. Take the Weston Price research. It was fairly conclusive that our most modern diet (last 100+ years perhaps) was quite detrimental to more primitive populations that adopted the "white man's" food let alone to most who eat the "standard American diet" (SAD). We lost the traditional knowledge of preparing foods, including grains, to maximize their nutritional value. We went for convenience and our nutritional intake suffered.
The statement that "we should look at our nutritional requirements" to determine individual dietary needs is right on. Grains may fit into some individuals diet but not others. As an example, check your hemoglobin A1c and see how your body is handling carbohydrates. The test is informing you to the extent of glycation in your body. If the results are above 5.2 (some say 5.0) you are eating too many carbohydrates. There are many tests that can point to your biochemically unique nutritional needs.
Criticizing the modern diet is a good thing. Basing dietary decisions using an evolutionary perspective can be informative. We are now finding that sitting for long periods has negative health consequences even if the individual has a viable exercise program. Conclusion: we are genetically "hunter-gatherers" we need to be on the move most of the time and some times (strength training) we are hunting or fighting.
I don't understand why "creationists" get upset when evolution enters the discussion. If I want to use the word "God" my statement will look like this: this is how God in his/her wisdom created our universe and life on earth. He let organisms evolve to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Humans are discovering to some extent how evolution works. Since God gave the human mind the ability to gain insight into the nature of reality, it belittles God to to dismiss that insight. Why cling to a simplified version of reality? I prefer the scientific approach: this is the best answer we have at the present time and I'm open to changing my position when new evidence warrants it. Philosophy that stagnates limits our creativity.
Kniefhoff made this statement in his comment:
"I don't understand why "creationists" get upset when evolution enters the discussion. "
Discussing evolutionary theories does not upset me. Having been a biology major in college, I received years of evolutionary teaching and still find such theories interesting. I like to compare research based on the creation model versus the evolutionary one in regard to how they each may differ in treatment or solutions to health.
We all choose to believe what we wish to believe based on what we have heard, read or seen and none of us have complete truth on any topic.
Hi, I realized after I submitted my post that you were level headed and not upset. I agree that our understanding of any topic is limited by the extent of our present knowledge. I suggest that we try to be as "evidence based" as possible, keep an open mind and have the courage to change our positions/opinions/illusions.
Gremillion's position on nutrition is so absurd it is hardly worth the effort to write a response. The same is true for the comment from "greengrannie." Although I respect all spiritual/religious views, this is not about spirituality or religion, it is about legitimate history and rational scientific knowledge.
There is a massive amount of valid science that supports the paleo view. The evidence shows that not only has the cultivation & consumption of grain produced chronic ill health due to malnutrition in humans, it has brought such diseases as the black plague during the middle ages, and has resulted in the death of more animal species on earth than any other disaster due to the almost total destruction of grasslands & forests on every continent for the planting of grain. Grain is inappropriate food for ALL mammals except rodents. Feeding grain to our meat animals makes them sick. It results in their being raised in confined feedlot operations where they have to be pumped full of antibiotics & other toxic chemicals just to keep them alive. Grain is appropriate food for rats, birds and insects only.
At present there is strong evidence that a diet high in starch (mostly from grain), grain & seed oils, and sugar is a primary cause of Type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal diseases, Alzheimer's type dementia, bone demineralization, high blood pressure, liver & pancreatic disorders, weakened immune system, and premature aging.
Walt Goodpastor, ND
The caveman diet will eventually be replaced with some new and more exciting diet discovery no doubt. Having watched food fads for over 50 years which produce "exciting new data" about the healthiest foods to eat, they last for awhile and then fade away until the next grand discovery comes along.
Amusing to me is the caveman diet which seems so popular right now. It is based on the model/theory that man evolved from a one-celled creature and finally when he was recognizably a "man" he supposedly started out just eating raw plants and animals that he could acquire. What is so special about this period of time in his evolution? People who believe in the evolutionary theory of life need to develop a theory of patterns of evolution of not only human evolution but the evolution of plants and animals that we eat and what is relevant for today. Such a complicated matter to try to figure out.
As for me, I believe in the creation model. God created all things ex nihilo (and not by some random process in which he had to continually test out creatures for billions of years). He has given us the earth to live on. Diet concerns? Eat a variety of the many foods God has given for our nourishment; eat them as unprocessed as possible. Eat raw and cooked as well. And above all, being caretakers of the earth that we have been given, we should try to be good stewards of all the precious gifts of air, water and land which would in turn allow us to produce healthy foods.
Of course, the criticism was intended to Kristen Gremillion and not to Margie King who was simply reporting on the book publication.
What a bunch of crock!
Just take that phrase: "Cooking caught on for a reason, and there is no real reason to give it up." You can try to justify anything with a phrase like that. Simply change "cooking" for any word you think of: Capitalism, junk food, religion, sickness, violence, stupidity, etc.
Just looking into Greenmedinfo pages provides a ton of reasons to rebut this whole article.
Visibly, Margie King does not make the difference between cultural and genetic adaptation.
Pathetic!
Over two years ago i went from eating fast food 2-3 times a day and was over weight by almost 140lbs. I had a plethora of health issues to many to list on a forum like this. I had read a book David Wolf on super foods and raw plant based foods aka raw vegan. After reading this I took a step of faith and began my journey as raw vegan almost year and half ago. Not only did I lose 120lbs , all my health issues have disappeared with out any medicines just consuming raw plant based foods and many super foods such as spirulina , chlorella , and chia seeds. Doing a juice fast once or twice a week will not hurt and will break your dependence on eating all of the sugars and "Sad" foods. People until we take responsibility of our lives and our health no doctor in the world can or ever will be able to heal us of all "SAD" problems. If one must eat meats on the paleo then eat grass feed meats or wild meats only and in moderation. I urge all of you reading to at least be open minded and consider the raw vegan diet it will change your life!!