Ancestral Diet and does it matter

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #1

This seems important, but is it? at some stage we obviously ate plants, we obviously ate meat, but should that influence what we shouild eat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IfjqwJCxoM

(Bean) #2

I donā€™t know, but I did just have an allergic reaction to handling raw squash. On my hands. It guess itā€™s a thing with butternut squash, but this was chayote. It was very strange.

Anyhow, squash likely was not a staple in my Norse ancestorā€™s diet, lol.

#3

I donā€™t know either but it doesnā€™t matter for the individual me. I just figured out what works for me and try to follow that. People are highly different regarding what is an optimal diet for them.
Some part of anchestral diet works for me (meat, any dairyā€¦ we were Europeans since who knows when), others (carby plants) not so much. And itā€™s quite sure most of my anchestors ate high carb. It doesnā€™t make it any better for me. I can live on HCHF in a pinch but itā€™s FAR from ideal. So no matter who would say what, I just listen to my body and eat in a way I enjoy, when eating and afterwards as well. Isnā€™t that we should do (with a smaller emphasis on short term joy for some)?

(Bob M) #4

I do think genetics matters. For instance, Iā€™m 99.8% European and 7X% Eastern European (they keep changing the ā€œXā€), and I think thatā€™s one reason I can eat dairy with no issues that I know of.

And likely why I donā€™t do well with a lot of vegetables, but can eat some of them.

(Chuck) #5

I have gone back to eating like I was raised to eat, and I take care of my health the way my Native American ancestors taught me to do. I donā€™t take prescription drugs, but I do take supplements that I have researched for my needs and for quality. I eat only foods from mother earth, no factory processed or created food, no fast food, no caffeine, and no soft drinks. I do eat fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy, meat.

(Bob M) #6

I was going to bring this up as an example. Listened to a book about the Comanches, and a lot of them basically ate meat. Thatā€™s it, for some of them. You go from that to high carb, and I canā€™t see that being good.

Listened to a podcast with a guy from the Sami people, who live far north and eat mainly reindeer. They do eat some fruits and the like in the summer. His grandfather die when he was around 90+ and had just cross-country skied to visit his friends. Yet his parents, who where taught to eat higher carb and not eat as much meat, died much earlier. He was trying to go back to his peopleā€™s original diet.

Now, how long does it take for a group of people to adapt to a diet? I donā€™t know. Can people of Asian heritage really eat rice and not want to eat bowls and bowls of it (as I do)? Maybe. If so, how long did it take them to get that way? Hundreds of years? Thousands of years?

(Chuck) #7

For my family it was a combination of all. Yes we eat lots of meat, but also lots of fruits and vegetables. We grew our own. We had a root cellar that we keep what we grew in. My grandfather smoked meat and salt preserved meat. My grandmother and mom canned fruits, vegetables and even some meats.

#8

I can do that too (why would I want much rice, itā€™s boring. still fun and special occasionally but only in tiny amounts) but I definitely need a lot of other food as wellā€¦ :slight_smile:

ā€“

I need WAY more meat (or some other protein, I can do vegetarianism but itā€™s just simpler and nicer with meat) than the amount my anchestors (just a few generations, I donā€™t know about the previous times) ate. They ate tons of carbs (sugar pastries too), I donā€™t want those. I do love fruit. My anchestors were peasants and ate everything.

#9

Nope, because very simply, theyā€™re not us and weā€™re not them. Most of the ā€œhumansā€ back then werenā€™t even the same species as us, in the middle and end of the paleolithic period when Homo Sapiens started, they still werenā€™t completely us, they still looked more like the apes that we are than the way we look now, given how long it takes for a species to physically change, think about how different they had to be.

People should make decisions based on what THEY tolerate, and our labs says our bodies like (within reason). Not what some distant ancestor did that was very literally from a different world did.

By that logic the people with lactose issues should still consume dairy because other humans of their same species in the same time period do without issue. People need to not worry about others.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #10

I like this perspective. And it backs up what weā€™re all doing here, looking for our own fix.
Our eraā€™s issues are made even more complicated by systems that arenā€™t helping us. At least in other distant times our choices were less confusing.

(Bean) #11

Native Americans, thanks to the Pima, have really good data about the benefits of eating their heritage diet.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #12

Anyone watch the ā€˜Desert Drifterā€™ videos? very sad what happened, anyhow there were corn husks everywhere, but Iā€™m thinking these were modern (500-1000years) Native Americans.

(Chuck) #13

Donā€™t believe the media representation of my ancestors. That was a BS. My ancestry is Apache.

(Bean) #14

I shouldnā€™t believe that people whose ancestors are from North America are healthier eating foods that are not over-processed?

(That was my take away from the data, any how.)

I tend to ignore things clearly biased by dieticians with an agenda.

(Chuck) #15

I was required to go to an nutritionist when I first started using the VA, Veterans Administration, because I did have blood pressure issues at the time. The nutritionist told me I had to change my diet. The diet was all highly processed grains and skim milk and literally no meat protein. I didnā€™t say anything because it would not do any good. Of course I didnā€™t follow the diet. I got serious about my diet, what I knew works. Anytime that I vary from what I know works for me I get in trouble with my health. Also if I force my weight down to what the BMI charts say I get very unhealthy. My body has its golden weight and I can only vary it 15 pounds or my blood pressure and digestive system goes nuts. The older I get the more strictly I have to obay my bodyā€™s needs and requirements.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #16

Wow Chuck I had no idea. To me thatā€™s amazing! Do you have much knowledge of you ancestry? Iā€™m fascinated but all I have is old films and Wiki ā€¦ thatā€™s why I liked the Desert Drifter. He was very respectful I thought.

(Chuck) #17

What i know is what my great grandmother and grandmother taught me. A lot about how the nutrition that mother earth provides is healing to the body, and spirit. I have journaled since I was old enough to read and write. I have journals going back 70 years, I am now 77. So much information on different roots, berries, mushrooms, and vegetables and fruits. Those are my journals and I have my grandmotherā€™s journals too. So much of the information is regional. My ancestors broke off from the main tribe over 150 years ago, left Arizona and ended up in deep East Texas. In effect my ancestors fell out of the history books. My great grandmother married my great grandfather, a German immigrant. My grandmother married my grandfather, again half German and Apache. My momā€™s side is Scottish, Irish and what is known as black Duch. My grandmother was from the Artic Circle of the Netherlands. My grandfather was, the Scottish, Irish. Then my first wife was Hobie and Spanard.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #18

Aww these are precious Chuck ā€¦ Itā€™s a unique story you have. Thereā€™s a wonderful Film / Documentary somewhere in there.

(B Creighton) #19

The Paleo Diet and the Ancestral diet are really misnomers IMHO. Plants do have some issues with being eaten, and the original Paleo diet presented issues. Letā€™s face it. No one is going to the store and getting what was on the diet of the hunter gathererā€¦ thankfully. Over the millennia man has vastly improved the plants he has most chosen to eat. Modern cruciferous vegetables are vastly superior to the original wild broccoli. I have some wild prickly lettuce in my yard every yearā€¦ no thanksā€¦ never tried a bite of that rubbery sapped stuff. Although I try to get a good bit of my animal foods closer to the wild side, such as wild salmon and wild shrimp, venison, etc, I donā€™t plan to go back to much wild plant lifeā€¦ no thanks!!

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #20

Great point. Wild Pig, Fish etc etc would be even better right ā€¦ but ever seen a wild banana? itā€™s inedible