The Paleolithic Diet

Since 2001 I have been reading about the paleolithic diet also known as cave man diet or whole food diet by some authors.
 
What is All About?

The concept is not old and it is well known by scientist that study the past of humanity. What they have found is that our biology (or should I say biochemistry) has not changed that much.
The "human" that walked this planet between 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago obviously had a different diet but what was this diet all about?
First we have to bare in mind our ancestors were nomads and they gathered and hunted their food. By nomad I mean they would be constantly moving to where food supply abounded (take under consideration the seasons like winter). They collected the fruits of trees, shrubs and any plant whose fruit were edible. They ate meat but this one was limited to availability: if they were lucky enough to hunt an animal which makes us assume that their diet was high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, probably roots with some meat...it is assumed that grains were not part of their diet. When they hunted an animal they would eat everything from it: internal organs such as gall bladder, kidneys, liver even brain. We can see prove of this meat eating habit when we notice how in ancient China animal parts such as gall bladder, testicles and other parts were used for medicinal purposes.

Dr Collins in his book The China Study compares Chinese farmers' diet versus modern diet and in his study he found that only .8% of their diet came from animal products or derivatives...most of their diet relied heavily on fruits, vegetables, some roots and grains.

What the Cave Men Diet Lacked

The cave man diet lacked of animals fed of grains, farmed and confined into small, dirty areas. Those animals were free and ate grass making their meat extremely lean and rich on omega 3, vitamins and minerals... It is well known that our modern ways of agriculture and farming have increased disproportionately the ratio of omega 6 vs omega 3, it is well known that our soils are deprived of some minerals or are running low on mineral content making our vegetables and fruits poor in nutrients compare with 50 years ago...if our food supply has deteriorated so much in just 50 years just imagine how rich in nutrients it was thousands or millions of years ago. The cave man diet lacked of vegetable oils, salt, dairy products, refined and processed food.

What The Cave Men Diet Included

Our ancestors' diet  included foods rich in fiber, minerals, vitamins, proteins and enzymes...the oils and fat they consumed was the ones inherent in the food supply: oil and fats from nuts, fruits and vegetables and not the bottled oils we find in the supermarket. The proteins came mainly from plant based diet.

The China Study and The Cave Man Diet

The China Study shows that modern day diseases named by the author as diseases from abundance were absent in the 25 provinces that were researched and when modern diseases or abundance diseases (diabetes, cardio-vascular, and cancer among others) were present the people had a rich animal based diet and less or no fruits and vegetables at all.



The Bushmen Diet

The bushmen from Africa is one of the oldest tribes with at least 20,000 years of existence, this tribe is a hunter-gatherer like our paleolithic ancestors therefore we can expect similarities with the cave man diet:  mainly of fruits, vegetables, roots and small portion of meat (remember that hunter-gatherers 'tribes' were small and did not have refrigerators).  


What Can We Learn From These Cave Men?

In summary we could say a diet high in fruits, vegetables, roots, nuts (and highly probable seeds) and relatively low in meat was the diet of the cave men...this diet have proved to be healthier than our modern diet rich in processed foods, salt, sugar and low in fiber.
You probably have clicked on the links I have provided and have read the information, but now you might be noticing that the cave men diet was low on meat but high on fat...therefore the question you might be asking is: is saturated fat good or bad? and how much saturated fat is good for our health? These questions and many more will be purposely left unanswered so you, the reader, can embark in a turbulent, interesting and yet conflicting-confrontational adventure.
Please remember these words from Jesus recorded by Thomas in his secret gospel: "let the one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled; when he becomes troubled, he will be astonished and will rule over all things".


Other References

1. The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book 2nd edition. 1997. Shari Lieberman, PhD and Nancy Bruning.
2. The Way We Were. Psychology Today May/June 2010 Vol 43 No 3 pp 51,52 by Leyla Muedin.
3. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health. 2006. T Colin Campbell PhD and Thomas M Campbell II.