Ancestral Diet and does it matter

#21

Wild berries are often pretty useless too… Not all, there are some super sweet ones (rosehip, for example, it’s everywhere in all winter) but the blackberries :smiley: They are just sour here, no sweetness whatsoever :smiley: Fun but that’s it.

I wouldn’t like to live on wild animals either, way too lean. But they can be very nice, sure. I do eat deer sometimes (as it’s cheaper than the cheapest beef, at least it is when I buy some)…

Foraging was always something that baffled me. When people wrote it helps so much to survive… I could forage almost zero calories, I would use up more while searching for food… And most greens are like grass to me. It’s true for almost all green leaves from anywhere, I was a vegetarian who loved vegs but avoided almost all green leaves… No wonder my keto was so carby but I could afford it. It wasn’t ideal but I got fat adaptation and that is nice.

(Philip H Kern) #22

I think this thread asks a helpful question. People construct a narrative around how people used to live and then suggest that we should behave similarly. My response, (1) the narratives are assumptions based on reconstructing evidence, not fact; (2) arguing from a narrative can’t be better, can it, than a scientific evaluation of what something does in our bodies, (3) causing me to conclude that it has more to do with marketing (if that’s the right term) than reality.

I’m sure if we could overcome some of my objections, we’d be better positioned to understand why some things are better for us than others, but for now the primary issue is what to do with regard to diet, not why it works. The issue of why is very important but not primary–the fact that we are here suggests a curiosity that goes beyond merely knowing what to do. But my hierarchy is first, what should I do, second, what does science say in support of said action, and only then, how does it fit into a supposed narrative of ancient life.

(KM) #23

My thoughts:

  1. We may be able to get a reasonably clear baseline by evaluating remains. We also have anthropological record of what didn’t work out as well, switching to an agricultural, grain based diet.

  2. The foods that our early / evolutionary ancestors ate are, as people have mentioned, really no longer available to us, regardless. All we have is clear and obvious knowledge that early humans didn’t eat packaged foods or commercial additives.

  3. It is possible that we can tweak / improve on the baseline diets. But since we can’t replicate them anyway, and areas evolved different genetics in response to the existing conditions and available food base, I think we should consider the varying baselines, and then experiment with what substitutions and amendments are either necessary or beneficial.

(Ava Carter) #24

Yes, the ancestral diet can matter — it’s based on natural, unprocessed food. It can improve health, but it’s important to adapt it to modern life and your own needs