Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary

Eat Like A Caveman

23 Comments

The latest advice on going paleo.

I’ve been doing this for about a year, though I haven’t gone whole hog (so to speak) on it. I still occasionally have a slice of bread, or potato, or legumes (though I’ve quit eating peanuts). And it’s tough to give up cheese.

The biggest problem with it is that most people in the world can’t afford it. Civilization happened because when agriculture happened, food became cheap, but not good for our health. If everyone started eating this way, prices of produce and meat would skyrocket — it’s just too inefficient, in terms of the acreage it takes to produce it, for everyone to be able to eat wild or range-fed meat and leaves. The ultimate solution may be genetic engineering that can produce healthy and good tasting foods in vats on a similar industrial scale to that of present-day refined grains. Of course, for many, the instant gratification of stuff that tastes good (sugar, bread, pasta), particularly when it’s cheap, will always overwhelm the long-term benefits of a better diet. But I think that the science is speaking very clearly on this issue now, and it’s time to end the war on fat and the nonsense of the FDA pyramid.

23 thoughts on “Eat Like A Caveman”

  1. Hmm.

    The dropping of legumes/nuts seems odd to me. I can see why from a ‘current understanding of our body’ standpoint, but not from a ‘what we actually probably ate’ standpoint.

    The grains are a pain unless you’re parked and harvesting a lot of them. But many of the nuts are basically in the same situation as fruit. Decent energy per hour of harvesting, and they’re prepackaged in a spoilage-inhibiting shell.

    Given that monkeys eat nuts in the wild, even using rocks if needed, I don’t see why we wouldn’t have.

    1. They don’t drop nuts, which are fine. Just legumes, which are almost impossible to eat without the technology of boiling. Peanuts aren’t nuts — they’re legumes. Tree nuts are a part of the diet (unfortunately, I’m allergic to most of them).

    2. Nuts are fine for the most part. Legumes are discouraged due to a relatively high carb count and difficulty the body has in digesting them (Bean-o???). A proper soaking process can aid in digesting legumes.

  2. I’m basically doing the same diet, greens and protein. good fats.
    no processed carbs…. I’ve lost 52lbs since Aug and feel awesome.
    “Why we get fat” by Gary Taubes goes into the biological details of why this works. I also like the most recent version of the A new new Atkins.

  3. Honest question: How many sets of actual caveman bones (not interpolated plaster casts) do we actually have? How many caveman teeth? Do we really have a statistically significant sample of the population by which to conclude at what rate they had cavities, etc.? Besides that, how long did the average caveman live? Did they even live long enough to incur some of the disease we see today?

    Perhaps we are simply seeing more systemic illness because we’re living longer and thus accumulating more stress to our anatomy? Maybe we really can’t live forever and there’s a natural limit to the longevity of human physiology?

    1. These are all good questions. That’s also one of the reasons why, as I’ve commented here before, I’ve been more interested in the advice of the book Nourishing Traditions, which focuses on traditional (i.e. pre-industrial) ways of preparing all kinds of foods. The basis of the Nourishing Traditions approach can be found in the work of the pioneering American dentist Weston Price who studied the health of different rural and indigenous populations around the world. One of his theses is that dental health is a good proxy for overall health, especially in regions with little or no dental care.

      The Nourishing Traditions approach doesn’t dispense with grains or legumes, but insists they be properly prepared in ways that make them both easier to digest and more nutritious. Grains, for instance, should be soaked in a slightly acidic medium or they should be fermented (soured) or sprouted (which changes the enzymes they contain).

      The NT approach has many overlaps with the Paleo approach–avoidance of sugar and refined carbohydrates, including more animal products and good fats in the diet, for instance–but it’s not quite as drastic a shift. It’s easier to eliminate certain kinds of foods in the diet when you can substitute healthier versions. For instance, I haven’t given up all bread, but most of the bread I eat these days is my own, homemade whole-grain sourdough bread.

  4. Its good to see that Vilhjalmur Stefansson nutritional ideas are being taken seriously. It only took they 80 years to catch up to him 🙂

  5. The ultimate solution may be genetic engineering that can produce healthy and good tasting foods in vats on a similar industrial scale to that of present-day refined grains.

    Insects are an interesting possibility too. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy. The same problems with space and energy also apply to food produced in space, for which insects (and small crustaceans like shrimp) are also an interesting possibility.

    1. Most bugs/crustaceans are all protein. Unless we can get bugs with some significant body fat, this won’t help, you’ll end up with “rabbit starvation” by another name. “Cricket starvation”?

    3. Wouldn’t it be simpler to genetically engineer humans so they are tuned to live off Cheetos, cheeseburgers, French fries, and vanilla shakes?

      2. We don’t need to genetically engineer ourselves, just our symbiotes.

        In fact, although we’ve only had 1000 generations to evolve our abilities to eat, for example, grain, our symbiotes have had at least a gazillion times as many.

  6. “The ultimate solution may be genetic engineering that can produce healthy and good tasting foods in vats on a similar industrial scale to that of present-day refined grains. ”

    Soylent,……..it’s what’s for dinner! 😉

  7. If I follow the Zone diet, which is a reasonable balance between protein and veggies – and no potatoes, spaghetti, bread etc.- then I lose weight at a rate of about 3 pounds a week. I think the Zone diet is a reasonable facsimile of paleo – not identical.

    2. He eats ZuPreem Primate food for a week and it gets him an interview on G4TV? I think I’ll head down to Incredipet and pick up a bag.

  9. I’m largely on this diet (low carb, which works for me to keep my diabetes in check). The high carb approach of the diabetes association is deadly and foolhardy. (how hard is it to understand that diabetics have trouble with sugar, ant thus should not eat it? Starch is, after all, sugar molecules linked end to end, and turns into sugar within a few minutes of ingestion.)

    I do like some cheese from time to time, and my general rule is if something is low carb even though not that good for me (cheese for example), I can eat it in moderation.

    Due to my job, I have to eat out about once a month. When I do, I just watch the carbs and otherwise have what I want.

    Travel is harder; I spent about a month a year traveling, and the best I can manage is to stay mainly low carb. Paleo is just not an option, in most cases, while on the road. (nor is doing my own cooking while traveling in many cases, though I sometimes am able to do so) If anyone has a workaround for the travel issue, please let me know.

    Basically, what I’m doing works great for me. Normal blood sugars, great cholesterol and ratio levels (no meds for it, either) no more excess weight, and I feel great. (without all the meds I’d need to take if I was following the “normal” diabetes diet). I do sometimes have moderately carby foods, but only rarely and in very small doses. Homemade dried cranberries are one example (I love them, and I don’t use sweetner on ’em)

    BTW, I’ve long been a fan of olive oil. I use it in lieu of butter, especially in cooking. One word of advice; get extra-virgin, it tastes a lot better.

  10. txhsdad – We do in fact have some evidence about the general health of (if not cavemen) people living as hunter-gatherers today, of whom there are still a few. An example is Kalahari bushmen still living as they did all those years ago. Also Amazonian natives.

    It turns out that they just don’t get the diseases of civilisation such as caries, diabetes, hypertension and so on. Obviously, they are far more likely to die early of various infectious diseases or injury, but the few who do live to a ripe old age are healthy for most of their lives.

    It ought to be possible to get the benefits of civilisation and the hunter-gatherer diet and lifestyle, both.

  11. While it is true that a lot of people in the world would have difficulty affording a paleo diet, it doesn’t have to be that bad for the average American. I’ve completely ignored the organic and grass-fed meat aspects of the Primal Blueprint. Take advantage of frozen and canned produce, and buy regular meat from your grocery store. It works! Since going low-carb in August, and full paleo in January, I’m down 30lbs, with minimal effort.

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