Food

Imagine! No cities, no roads, no houses and, especially, no supermarkets or other sources to buy food. No markets or stores of any kind. No prepackaged or prepared foods. Just primitive jungles and primordial forests. That is the way it once was a very long time ago.

Humans, or at least those who were to survive as our most ancient ancestors, found sparse amounts of food in any way they could.

They foraged for fruits and nuts. They learned how to find protein-rich leaves.

As hunters, they occasionally acquired sparse amounts of wild game meat. Overall, their diets were rich in fiber or “roughage.” Obviously, they had no preserved or processed food products.

These “ancient” diets are now referred to as a natural diet, an ancestral diet, a native diet, or sometimes as a Paleolithic diet. The term “ancestral diet” is the one that seems to be catching on the most and it is receiving more and more attention.

As we have become “civilized” and developed a large agricultural base to deliver a stable and overly-abundant supply of food, our dietary intake has changed dramatically from our distant ancestral past. It is believed that the genes we now have were acquired only by those who were so genetically equipped to survive with that sparse ancient diet.

Survivors are believed to have had “thrifty genes,” an inheritable code that permitted the effective storage of limited food by its ready conversion to fat.

Those who study modern diseases and diet have concluded that the majority – probably as much as 80 percent or more – of our chronic illnesses in westernized societies are specifically due to lifestyle behaviors, the most significant of which is the way we eat.

A major part of the revival of intense interest in the ancestral diet has been generated by a “Return to Your Roots” movement in Native American populations.

Prior to 1936, there were no known cases of diabetes mellitus in American Indians. Today, one out of every five Native Americans has diabetes, compared to one out of every 20 in the total non-Indian adult population in this country.

Experts believe that Native Americans have developed diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, kidney disease, alcoholism and other chronic medical disorders at high rates because of what they eat. Beginning in the 1930s, government commodity programs and other factors led to very poor eating habits by Native Americans. Bad diseases, like diabetes and hypertension, quickly followed, almost like an epidemic shadow.

Experts also believe that these diseases are not inevitable in Native Americans, if only they could go back to their ancestral diet.

This would mean eating leaner game meats, green vegetables and nuts instead of sugary breakfasts, convenience food products, fast foods, soft drinks and alcohol.

Could the rest of us benefit from the same consideration? Absolutely yes!

Unfortunately, out of habits and lifestyle, most Americans have become what are called “channel eaters,” consuming a very limited number of foods over and over each day, with little or no diversity.

For instance, how many of you eat just about the same breakfast every day? Or, the same type of food for lunch? We all know better, but we make poor choices.

For example, only about nine percent or less of us eats the minimal amount of recommended fruits and vegetables. Indeed, on any one day, at least a quarter of the American population consumes no vegetables at all. On any given day, about 70 percent of Americans eat no food high in vitamin C and 80 percent eat no vegetables that contain cancer-fighting antioxidant carotenoid fruits or vegetables.

So, if you want to take a step toward your ancestral diet, what can you do? First, shop around the edges of your supermarket.

That is where you will find fruits, vegetables, fish and, with some discretion, lean meats. The highly processed foods, with which our genes struggle, are found in the middle aisles.

The more foods that you can eat raw (even though you might cook them), the better. It is very hard to do, but try to incorporate some foods that have been foraged from the wild (or at least appear as if they could have been).

Eat fish now and then. New studies from Harvard University indicate that eating fish even as infrequently as just once a month can reduce the risk of stroke by as much as 40 percent and reduce heart attacks, as well.

Try to choose fish that are not commercially pond raised. For example, salmon from the ocean have over three times the content of cardiovascular healthy omega-3-fatty acids as fish raised in feeding pens.

The latter are fed products, such as soy mash, that are not as beneficial as their naturally-occurring food sources.

Except for hunters, it is fairly difficult to obtain lean game meats, which contain certain fats that are highly beneficial.

But, you can make good choices and most supermarkets offer many selections.

The more you diversify the better. Get out of the rut of “channel eating” the same type foods over and over.

Choosing a variety of different foods for your daily fare is much healthier and more interesting. Some reports indicate that only about one in every 20,000 Americans consume each and every day the minimal recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) of micronutrient vitamins, minerals and other trace products.

When you have a lot of variety in your diet, you chances of needing supplemental vitamins and other nutraceutical products are much less.

Almost no one does it, but somehow getting fruits and vegetables into your diet is extremely beneficial.

Today, the average American diet is about as far away as we can get from our ancestral foods.

We are paying a terrible price in unwanted illness, disability and obesity. It makes some sense to at least give a little thought to our ancestral heritage.

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