The Death of the Diet - Journey Of The Genome  During the Paleolithic era, our ancestors ate a diet of mainly meat, fish, fruits and vegetables.  Grains and dairy were not part of the human diet, as agriculture did not yet exist and the domestication of animals didn’t occur until about 10,000 years ago.  There has been virtually no change to our genetic makeup since Paleolithic times.  So, the best natural human diet is one based on our ancestral eating patterns. 

If it’s a fad diet it’s a 2.6 millions year fad! (The Alpha Male challenge Team, 2009)

 You want evidence to back up why it’s considered the ideal diet? How’s 2.6 million years for evidence? 

It’s The Diet That Made Us Men – Literally – “Humans evolved during the Paleolithic period” – We might not have changed genetically in the last 10,000 years, but our diet sure has. It’s not for the better either - We’ve got more disease, and staggering levels of unhealthy people. Why?

Because most of us are eating a diet that our bodies were not designed to eat. Think about the analogy of your body being like a diesel engine vehicle. If you filled the tank with high octane fuel instead of the type of fuel it was designed for, it would run poorly and eventually break down. 

This isn’t some dieting gimmick or get-thin-quick scheme that was conjured up to gain a lion’s share of the diet craze. The diet that we are about to introduce to you was designed by you – Not by way of you personally or by a few lab chemists either – It was designed by your genome – No, it’s not the cousin of the garden gnome – A genome is defined as, “The complete set of genetic information of an organism including DNA and RNA” and It hasn’t changed in nearly 10,000 years! Before 10,000 years ago we didn’t have agriculture and since it came about, things haven’t been going so well. Loren Cordain, PhD, a health and exercise expert from Colorado State University, say’s, “There is growing awareness that the profound changes in the environment (e.g. in diet and other lifestyle conditions) that began with the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry 10,000 years ago occurred too recently on an evolutionary timescale for the human genome to adjust.”  

This version of the Paleolithic diet may slightly vary in comparison to other Paleolithic diets, but there is a very good reason for this. Our sole purpose was to design a diet that would provide specific outcomes for our readers, such as; to help naturally raise testosterone and fat burning levels, while decreasing  estrogen production and risk of cardiovascular disease.

We must be clear however in the reasons why we suggest eating like our male ancestors though. Paleolithic men ate the way they did because it was the food that was available to them at the time. They weren’t necessarily using their intelligence to figure out what foods to have, they used instinct and survival to do so. Paleolithic men eventually became use to these specific types of foods and their body’s too adapted to them physiologically.

So when we talk about foods Paleolithic men ate, we suggest the same types of foods to you, because your body’s chemistry hasn’t really changed since then and you are therefore still meant to eat these same foods to reach greater health levels. 

“We are people of the 21st century, but genetically we remain citizens of the Paleolithic era” (Mayo Clin Proc. 2004;79:101-108)

 There is evidence that suggests that the Paleolithic (Ancestral) diet made men healthy, kept men fit and largely free of the degenerative cardiovascular diseases common in modern societies (The Mayo Clinic Proc. 2004;79:101-1080) Archaeologists have discovered that as men began to move away from eating wild plants, lean meat, berries and nuts and started eating more agricultural sources of foods, such as grain based diets, is when men’s general health began to deteriorate. Archeological evidence proves that there was a sharp decline in men’s stature and health that occurred as the agricultural revolution began. 

The Paleolithic diet is the only diet which we are evolutionarily adapted. It’s the original diet designed for our survival and our evolution.

According to S. Boyd Eaton, M.D. and an “evolutionary nutrition” expert from Emory University: “We are the heirs of inherited characteristics accrued over millions of years; the vast majority of our biochemistry and physiology are tuned to life conditions that existed prior to the advent of agriculture some 10, 000 years ago. Genetically our bodies are virtually the same as they were at the end of the Paleolithic some 20,000 years ago.”

A Matter of Time – So, why did people all of a sudden begin moving away from the hunter-gatherer type diet and on to agriculture and mass cereal grain consumption? According to archaeologists, between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, there was a wide scale extinction of the larger mammals throughout the world. This greatly affected mans ability to secure food through traditional hunting means. People from all over the world were forced to find new methods for securing food. Man began utilizing new and more advanced tools. Smaller and more sophisticated tools were now being used to hunt the remaining small mammals. Boats and canoes were now being used for fishing and fossil records indicate that with these evolutionary changes, birds and waterfowl grew in numbers. Archaeological records show that grindstones and crude mortars were being used about 15,000 years ago, revealing tell tale signs that the agriculture revolution was well on its way.

The world is a big place and it should be obvious that certain parts of the world would differ in food variety compared to others. For example, the Eskimo diet would have had very few vegetable available and would have had to rely primarily on meat protein and fat.

As agriculture became more prevalent, there still existed many hunter-gatherer communities. Even people who began adopting the agricultural based diet, early on, they only relied on a few staple cereal foods, 3-5 domesticated meats and between 20 and 50 other plant foods. In some parts of the world however, one single staple cereal food would make up to 80% of a man’s total diet, with no calories coming from animal sources.

Survival Of The Fittest! 

Paleolithic man was much more physically active than the average men are today.

Survival of course was much different then, as surviving often meant running from large predators or the life and death reality relying on securing food sources.

Running for your life was meant in the literal sense. Today we are frequently still in survival mode, but they’re not under the same conditions, thank heavens. Today we are under attack and must survive very different predators; such as stress, illness, lack of sleep, etc. We fortunately have much more control and responsibility for our outcomes.

When we think of the term, “survival of the fittest”, we think of competition. You probably think of it in more of the physical sense. What we mean by “survival of the fittest” includes, to a degree, physical competitiveness, but it also relates to our minds and spirits. Today a man’s ability to survive means to be the best he can be. We have the very empowering abilities to improve upon most areas of our lives.

It may be that our desire is to do better in business, have better relationships, have greater control over our emotions, be a leader of the pack, etc. No matter what it is, it is all under a man’s control and there are few if any, as powerful as fitness, that allows a man’s greatest chances for creating his most fulfilling life possible.

The Paleolithic hunter-gatherer was an active man. His nutrition supported his ability to secure food and be fiercely competitive amongst his fellow man. Archaeologists have studied the bones and teeth of our ancestors of that era and discovered that he whose nutrition was based on Paleolithic means was taller and lived longer than those who changed to a grain-based diet.

How Now Corn-Fed Cow – Hope You’re Hungry!

The basis for the Paleolithic Diet isn’t about eating exactly what Paleolithic men ate - that wouldn’t be impossible and would probably be rather un-appetizing. Just to secure a supply of wild game today (lean cuts of wild meat) is very difficult and the taste of wild game alone is hard to swallow; it might very well push you right back to eating cereal.

In more modern times, our domesticated meat sources have been on an obscured diet of their own. Domesticated animals are fed grains and corn-feed, which make up for 20%-25% fat by weight, much of which is saturated fat. Wild game on the other hand feed primarily on grass and plant foods and have 2% to 4% of fat by weight, much of which is monounsaturated fats (good fats).

Little Cow on the Prairie - The meat industry would like you to believe that they care about your health, and it would be fair to say that their intention isn’t to purposely make you fatter. What they are most concerned with, is making their wallets fatter. Cattle herders feed their stock primarily grain feed, such as corn and sorghum. Even lean cuts of meat that are derived from cattle that were fed grains, still contain relatively large amounts of fat. Wild game on the other hand and this includes (perhaps to a slightly lesser degree) cattle raised on pastures, has much less total fat.

 If you’re worried that your new diet (Paleolithic) will have you eating like a cave man, you shouldn’t worry. Although it is impractical and really impossible for contemporary men to follow the precise diet of Paleolithic man, science dictates that it is easy to replicate the essential characteristics of the traditional diet with common foods found in your local grocery store. Many of the food choices that we provide were not available on the ancestral menu, (Dark Chocolate, Avocados, Olive Oil, etc.) but they are still a part of the beneficial food chain that adheres to the Paleolithic nutrition model.     Wait until my next post where I'll discuss, in great detail, what foods you should be eating and a new hybrid approach to eating that will get you excited about eating healthy.