Diet From the Stone Age
floyd28 | 06/28/2009
It’s pretty crazy to think that the healthiest diet for humans may have been the one we followed before the development of agriculture. But there’s a growing number of people who believe in this type of diet and feel their very best when eating a diet free of grains and dairy. During the Paleolithic Era, all people were hunter-gatherers, animals were hunted and plant foods were gathered and up until about 10,000 years ago, no society existed that farmed animals or grew crops. Also, no one ate milk products or drank milk after they were weaned off mother’s milk back then. Today, many nutritionists think that the Paleolithic people ate a diet that was higher in protein compared to the typical, present-day, Western diet, up to twice as high as that of the average person in the West today. Interesting when you consider the fact that the base of our food pyramid today is grains. But you should know that the animals hunted back then were 'game' animals, and likely low in fat, making the protein much healthier. The Stone-agers probably ate a lot of fish and other seafood like oysters and mussels, crustacea such as prawns, caught by people who lived near the sea, rivers or lakes, also low in saturated fat.
Also, Paleolithic people ate much larger quantities of fruits and vegetables and mostly root vegetables. Naturally, if you try to follow such a diet today, it would be wise to avoid the obvious sugar, dairy products (although some suggest that low-fat dairy products are needed forcalcium ), and grains, as well as potatoes, beans, soy beans and lentils. The resulting diet would be high-protein, medium-fat, low/medium-carbohydrate, high-fiber, rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. A diet for everyone? Certainly not, as it would be quite a financial expense for most to start buying and cooking game meat instead of the cheaper cow beef. Though perhaps healthier, such a diet unfortunately could not sustain our world filled today with billions. But it may be an answer to the chronic diseases of the wealthy Westerners.
