Do you wish choosing the right foods was a whole lot simpler?
The best method on eating right didn’t come from a PhD, a brand new scientific study, or a hyped-up diet “guru”.
The method is so powerful and simple that I wish I could take the person who started it out to dinner. Unfortunately, the last person to eat this way died thousands of years ago.
I often get asked by people: “how should I eat?” or its even harder to answer cousin: “what should I eat?”. Until recently, all the countless of hours of lectures I’ve attended and piles of research studies I’ve read would bounce around in my brain until I would fumble and try to say something enlightening. What would end up coming out of my mouth would be something along the lines of: “its a bit too complicated to answer a question like that, it really takes many sessions with a dietitian to figure all that out”.
Turns out I was wrong.
I’ve since realized that our bodies are designed for a very particular environment-the wilderness. Over millions of years, the human body has adapted perfectly for that environment. The environment we all now live in couldn’t be more different. This is why we have such alarming rates of chronic disease.
Were like polar bears in the desert.
This paradigm, that we should eat like cavemen and cavewomen, makes eating so, so much easier.
When deciding between two foods, think: WWCE? What would a caveman eat?
To put this into practice, this is what our ancestor’s diet consisted of :
1. Fruits
2. Vegetables
3. Nuts
4. Whole Grains
5. Meat (very seldom)
6. Eggs
7. Seafood
8. Insects (yes, it’s true)
Anthropology by it’s very nature is not a perfect science. However, the evidence is fairly clear that the foods on the list above were the cornerstone of the hunter-gatherer diet.
The latest scientific research supports the fact that eating more foods from the list above improves health and longevity.
Now of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Agriculture did propel us into our modern age of health and prosperity. Unfortunately, we have deviated too far from how our bodies our designed.
So if you are every overwhelmed by the dizzying array of food options, picture yourself in a loincloth in the middle of the forest and think: “What Would a Caveman Eat?”
It’s so simple, a caveman could do it.
Brian Dean MS, RD is a registered dietitian and researcher. After years of research, Brian has set his sights on helping those with lower back pain. He serves on the Medical Nutrition Committee for The American Society for Nutrition and is a professional member of numerous research organizations including the International Association for The Study of Pain, American Chronic Pain Society, and The American Dietetic Association. He recently created a research-based lower back pain treatment program called The Back Pain Diet which is available from his website Stop Lower Back Pain.
The article is just true. Way back when I was a small girl, we used to eat those in your list with meat very seldom because we can’t afford to buy meat often because it is very expensive. We used to gather vegetables growing in our backyard including some grasses and we simply boil them and slice some tomatoes on it sprinkle some salt or put a fish sauce and this makes us very healthy and during the month of May and June (this is in the Philipines) we used to catch some kind of small beetle that comes out of the fields only on twilight and then we roast them and then eat them. They are so delicious I would say. I also remember that during my childhood I almost don’t eat my lunch or dinner because I have eaten already a lot of fruits.
HI Mariam,
Thanks for sharing your story-so glad to see someone who lives the lifestyle!
Brian Dean MS, RD
http://www.backpaindiet.com
The hunter-gatherer diet was healthy like listed above except that they most likely had to eat a lot, more than the usual because they would go days without eating which is why some of us are so fat.