If we step back in time just 10,000 years ago, the last Ice Age was just ending and modern man was just emerging. Ref. 8 Scientists are divided on the exact period of time that our ancestors had existed prior to this time. The commonly accepted time span ranges from 100,000 to a million years. Even though the scientists don’t agree on the exact length of this time, the one thing they do agree on is the basic diet of the people who lived during that time period. It is called the Paleolithic Diet, also known as the Hunter-Gatherer diet.
For this very long time our immediate ancestors existed mostly on the high protein and fat containing foods of insects, fish, shellfish, birds, eggs and animals. The reason for this was quite simple, they were easier to get and the energy derived from them lasted a much longer time. The large feline animals such as lions and tigers, and the canines such as wolves and coyotes need to eat only once every 3 days because the nutrient rich proteins and fats of the animals which make up their diet is very sustaining. As our early ancestors moved around in search of animals to eat, they also learned to gather and eat edible herbs, seeds, fruits, nuts and berries when they were available. These were basically carbohydrate foods and while they tasted good, they were only available as food when they were mature, and that generally meant only once per year. In addition, the energy provided by these plant foods did not last as well as that of the animal foods. We see that illustrated today by the herbivorous animals such as cattle and elephants who must eat constantly all day long in order to get enough life sustaining energy from plant food only. So the diet of early humans for 100,000 years or more, was mostly protein, and fat rich animal foods. The protein content of their diet was between 35 and 40%, which is about 3 times what the average person eats today. The fat content in their diet was about was between 25 and 30%. Which is not much different than that of today, except that today, we get most of our fat from vegetable oils that are rich in Omega 6 fatty acids, which we now know an excess of, can lead to major health problems. Our ancient ancestors got most of their fat from animals and plants which were better balanced by supplying some Omega 3 fatty acids as well as the Omega 6.
The animal meats were supplemented with whole plant foods as the opportunity presented itself. Plants that were loaded with fiber, as a result they ate 100 grams of fiber a day. This is 5 times more than we get today. A great many studies have shown that people with a daily intake of 40 grams or more of diverse plant fiber never develop the health problems of our modern societies.Unlike our refined plant foods (they had no flour or sugar) their plant food was also loaded with micro-nutrients, and high quality fats and proteins. In fact studies have shown they ate over 200 different species of plants, so they had an enormous diversity of micro and phyto (plant) nutrients available to them. For this reason, the biological machinery of the human body is very well adapted to this kind of diet. Humans were, and still are, omnivores, which means they can and did eat virtually every edible thing within their reach. This is one of the reasons why humans managed to survive the ice age while thousands of other species died out because their specialized diet limited their ability to survive and thrive. The really important lesson to be learned from this information is that this is the exact same dietary demands and biological machinery you have in your body today.
Tags: history&development