To Paleo or not to Paleo, Is there a question?

By Todd A. Ferguson

It is known that Palaeolithic man were hunter gatherers sometimes the hunter sometimes the hunted, most of the time though it was our ancestors who were at the top of the food chain. Nature provided an immeasurable bounty of plant and animal life as food. If we as modern humans were to be confronted with this 'smorgasbord' of food the vast majority would most certainly die of starvation.

I know that's a bold statement to throw out there, but let's think about it for a moment. The closest way we may ever get to hunting is making the decision about whether to go to the butcher or the supermarket. Let's face it, the pre-packaged leg of lamb does not run very far or fast - the best it will ever do is slip onto the floor and present itself as a treat to Fido. As for the fruit and vegetables, most of it is pre-packaged anyway and heaven help us if they break out of the irradiated, gas filled, flow-wrap packaging.

We have for the most part forgotten how to forage and hunt and our food world no longer comprises of seasons. We get bananas, strawberries and broccoli year round and in winter we get eggs - yes eggs are also seasonal.  Most of us could not tell what the difference is between a beef skirt and brisket. We prefer our meat extra lean - not on the bone - and if it's not bright red, plump and dripping with injected water, we don't want it.

With a trip to the supermarket a shopper will be confronted on average by 47 000 products. Half of these would be food related - 90% of which would not be recognised as food by our ancestors going back two generations. If the food was recognised, the ingredients would undoubtedly not be. In their lifetime, our Palaeolithic ancestors would be lucky if they were confronted by a quarter of these choices, and worryingly we would not regard almost 90% of it as food.

The difference is, our ancestors thrived even with a 'limited' food choice. Us being here is proof of that survival.

As modern humans we seem to be hell-bent on undoing all that survival.  We may live longer but this is partly due to better medicines available and medical advances. Most of the ailments that plague us now are modern diseases which are brought about by intensive farming methods, dietary misconduct, and pollution from those farming practices.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to go back to the good old Palaeolithic days - frankly I don't think they were that good. We died relatively young - generally between the ages of 35 and 40 - and if you were injured and you survived the healing process but it left you crippled, you were often a burden to your tribe. Extra mouths to feed around the camp that did not help contribute toward the tribe's survival were often left behind when the tribe moved on. In our perception, life was not fair - it was downright tough.

It was not the survival of the fittest - although we know they were just that from Palaeontologist and Archaeological studies of bone and muscle attachments.  They had up to 65% better muscle structure than us because due to our sedentary lifestyles, ours has changed.  Survival was down to those that adapted to change.

The specialist in nature is also set for extinction. Whether it's food or exercise, we must not allow ourselves to become specialists. That's why this year's Crossfit Games 2009 were so amazing to see. No one could specialise - it was truly a constantly varied workout across broad time and model domains.

So let's get down to basics. Forget about the leg of lamb - the pesky dog just won't be fed tonight.

How do we survive nutritionally in the Silicon/Information Age with bodies adapted to the Stone Age?

 We have the best of both worlds at our feet - an abundance of food and good medicine -yet we don't live much past the threescore and ten as promised. More and more we are relying on the medical innovations to keep us alive. This is a conundrum that we all face.

We are bombarded every other week with a new 'Super Food' and a new proven way of eating - or not eating depending on the way journalists are leaning that week. We are even getting fat because of a virus according to Jo Willey who is a Health Correspondent of The Daily Express (Jan26th 2009). That could be my problem. Who cares about Swine Flu? It's the 'Lard Virus' we should all be petrified of.

Our governments are now involved - as if they ever weren't. Here in the UK we have a Health Tsar to head the combat of obesity. Not because the government is concerned for your wellbeing, but because it has calculated that obesity related diseases will outstrip smoking related diseases by 2015, and by 2020 will all but cripple the National Health Service.

Of late there has been a flurry of interest in the Palaeolithic or 'Caveman' Diet. They are considered by some as a 'fad diets' (3) along with all the others - Atkins at one end and 'The Zone' at the other.

Firstly it is a very tough ask to say what exactly our ancestors ate. In fact we know from some excavations that food varied from area to area with the 'locals' eating what was readily available - something we are just relearning now. Some groups or tribes ate grains as long as 17 000 years ago. It is believed this group later discovered beer about 10 000 years ago and that they lived in the Near East (4) Mesopotamia.

Some tribes live almost exclusively on fat and meat. The Eskimo diet - comprised largely of fish, fish roe and marine animals, including seal oil and blubber - allowed Eskimo mothers to produce one sturdy baby after another without suffering any health problems or tooth decay.(5)

The low fat school claims that the cave man ate lean meat supplemented by copious amounts of plant foods in the form of sprouts, roots, fruits, berries and leaves. Other investigators disagreed and believe that the cave man sought and revered animal fat first and foremost, along with the meat to which it was attached, and ate very little in the way of foods from the vegetable kingdom.

Interestingly, both schools of thought are in agreement that the cave man diet was Spartan - lacking foodstuffs that were either salty or sweet.(6)

For the amount of physical activity that took place from day to day, it is estimated that a 70kg person needed around 3 500kcals per day. This intake continued until the late 19^th Century. Compare that to modern humans - it's an extra 1 500kcals per day.

I was once told many years back; "If you can't hunt it and kill it, or if you can't pick it and eat it, don't eat it!" That statement has some premise to it and is essentially Palaeolithic in its makeup. Incidentally, I was also told at the same time not to go swimming as I might be mistaken for a whale and harpooned.

 Compared to ancient tribal lifestyles, the lives we lead today are positively sedentary. Yet the type and quantity of that food we consume is just over the top. We don't need to eat as much as we think - in fact we thrive better on a calorie restrictive diet.

So what exactly are we meant to eat?

Truthfully, we are capable of eating and processing just about anything - even perfecting methods of eating poisonous plants of which Soya is one of. We are even able to digest the 'Twinkie' which has, believe it or not, no less that 35 ingredients. Little wonder we developed allergies and intolerances to certain foods along the way.

What we should be eating is meat, vegetables, some fruit, nuts and seeds, a little starch and no sugar.

Anyone heard that statement somewhere? It's something that is quoted frequently on the Crossfit web site and affiliates across the planet.

Your body is a very greedy biological creation. Its two main biological functions are to procreate and to keep you alive long enough to bring those offspring to an age where they can fend for themselves. At present, that involves everything until your children ask for the keys to your car and you tell them to get a job and buy a car or take the bus.

I am going to throw something else into the mix. We need to eat seasonally. Try eating food that is available locally and not flown half-way around the planet. If you can afford it, eat organic foods. If budget is limited - which at this time we do need to take into account - above all else, try to ensure that the meat and dairy products you eat are organic. Why?  There are just too many hormones injected and fed to farm animals. These hormones enter the food chain and then we wonder why our children are maturing younger and younger and why we are developing more cancers than ever before.

Fruit and vegetables are a slightly different matter. If they are not organic, make sure you wash them well before eating. This should remove most of the external pesticides on the fruit and vegetables. There is no process that I know of that can remove the hormones from animal products and that's why organic is better, if not for you then for your children.

This leads us to a whole new and even more complex subject; 'The preparation of food' and 'How often did our ancestors eat?' (More importantly how often should we eat?)  We will cover this with detail in a future article.

For those of you who are not inclined to follow the Palaeolithic eating format, I believe Michael Pollan said it best in his book 'In Defence of Food'.  "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants"

(1)    http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/81810

(2)    http://www.nhs.uk/news/2008/05May/Pages/Cavemanfaddiet.aspx

(3)    Ballinger, Clint 'Beer production in the Ancient Near East unpublished

(4)    http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/ancient_dietary_wisdom.html