A Really Healthy Diet for Humans
by Doctor Laurence H. Miller on 09/12/14
Not many years ago, people were advised to eat foods with a lot of starch, as many as 12 servings daily. The problem with this strategy is that our ancient ancestors did not eat this way. There was VERY LITTLE STARCH in their diet because until about 10,000 years ago, there was NO AGRICULTURE. That means no wheat, rice or potatoes. If you believe in evolution and natural selection, that means our ancestors had to grow and thrive for HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of years on a diet LOW in STARCH. Since the genetic make-up of animals changes very slowly, that means WE are genetically engineered to eat a diet low in starch. On the contrary, most Americans LIVE on STARCHY foods: bread, pasta, potato, rice, corn, and sugary sweets make up a huge part of what we eat.
The Paleolithic (or Old Stone Age) Diet is becoming popular today, as people attempt to use our ancient ancestors as role models for making healthy nutritional choices. This Diet avoids the starches, and also DAIRY products. Because humans only domesticated animals and began drinking cow milk and eating cheese or yogurt about 10,000 years ago.
What DID the "cavemen" eat? They were "hunters and gatherers". They picked fruit and nuts off the trees. (And those fruits WERE NOT NEARLY as sweet as ours are today!) Ate lots of meat as animals were plentiful. Took eggs from bird nests. Caught fish. May have dug up some WILD root vegetables. Eating these foods kept our species alive for hundreds of thousands of years. Without fruit juices or soda.
And everybody had THE SAME JOB: Looking for food. From rising at dawn, until lying down at dusk, we were usually hungry and searching for food to survive. (Just like the birds and squirrels do today.) AND we moved around. A lot. It's believed that when early humans searched for food, they didn't walk or stroll. They jogged or ran as much as five miles a day. Covering more ground in a day gave them a better chance to be successful in their hunt.
What did humans NOT HAVE before ten thousand years ago? NO ONE suffered from Celiac disease (also known as gluten sensitivity enteropathy). Because there was NO GLUTEN TO EAT. No bread. No pasta. Today there are communities with up to ONE PER CENT of the population with this dangerous disease.
Cow milk protein allergy affects up to 3% of my newborn patients. If the baby isn't changed to a "hypoallergenic" formula, they become seriously ill with violent vomiting and diarrhea, often becoming bloody. Simply changing the formula cures them almost without fail. It's wonderful that 97% of babies can tolerate cow milk. But it's not surprising that 3% become ill when exposed to a foreign protein, "intended" to be only consumed by calves.
So if you believe the old saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" has merit, consider changing your daily menu closer to the one that successfully kept us around for a very long time in the wilderness.
