Paleolithic Health Could we, as a society be healthier? There are many components that make up a healthy lifestyle and everyone has there own opinion. Looking back to Paleolithic times can help put “health” into perspective. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, Paleolithic is defined as, “Of or relating to the cultural period of ht Stone Age beginning with the earliest chipped stone tools, about 750,000 years ago, until the beginning of the Mesolithic Period, about 15,000 years ago.” Getting back to the roots of what man needs to survive can help pinpoint what the components of a healthy lifestyle are. We, as a society, aren’t as healthy as we could be because of poor food choices, lack of functional exercise and lack of adequate sleep. Examining Paleolithic man’s daily life could lend simple and effective guidelines that today’s man could greatly benefit from. Growing up in today’s culture offers more convenience than ever before. This fast-paced lifestyle unfortunately leaves little time for most to shop, prepare and enjoy healthy food. Many people find it easier to buy packaged, pre-made or fast food in place of more sustaining foods. In Paleolithic times humans were required to hunt meat, gather and forage vegetables, roots, seeds and nuts to live. These skills served up fare that was full of nutrition and sustenance. Today’s processed and sugar-laden foods offer convenience but at the cost of some health problems. A February 2009 study done by the Department of Medicine in the University of California, San Francisco, shows a remarkable improvement in metabolic and physiological functions when nine participants consumed a Paleolithic diet for ten days. “Even sh... ... middle of paper ... ...e the eyes and brain and can create even more difficulty sleeping efficiently. These lifestyle choices are vastly different from those in Paleolithic times. Turning in when the sun goes down may not be appealing but limiting stressors of all kinds may contribute to a better nights sleep and ultimately better health. We, as a society could be healthier if we changed a few aspects of our lives. Looking back into Paleolithic times may help sharpen our awareness of what a healthy lifestyle means. Good food choices, functional exercise and a good sleep pattern are all required for long term survival. To early man it meant life or death. Today’s technology is vast and everyone has an opinion of what “healthy” means, but closely examining the lifestyle of those long ago may provide our society with the simple and effective guidelines to live as healthy as possible.
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
Klonoff, D. C. (2009, November). The Beneficial Effects of a Paleolithic Diet on Type 2 Diabetes
According to Gibbons and her research if the modern man were to start eating as their ancestors had they would see a reduction in certain diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure. She also notes that certain aspects of a Paleolithic diet can be to harsh for a modern human such as a red-meat heavy diet like that of the Inuit tribes of Greenland. Another problem Gibbons points out is that the bodies of modern humans would not be able to breakdown some foods because our digestive systems have evolved to a point where we have problems breaking down such
In an agricultural society people started to farm and there were less to no hunting which changed their diets dramatically. When people were hunting and gathering they were getting a healthy and a well-balanced diet. Before agriculture people ate many various wild plants and animals therefore, they had better nutrition. For example, the Kalahari Bushmen’s daily intake was “2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein” (Diamond 2). Also when Diamond is comparing the two societies, he talks about the balance of nutrients and diet, also he states that the “Kalahari Bushmen eat a variety of 75 or so different wild plants” and receive more calories than needed. As the people switched over to agriculture, the amount of food they had become more plentiful and predictable but unhealthy. Nowadays, more people are overweight especially in the western area of the world. This proves that people before agriculture were healthy and had a decent
The Paleolithic Diet, also referred to as the Paleo Diet, is consuming foods similar to what hunter-gatherers had during the Stone Age. The purpose of this research is to see whether this particular diet is the best lifestyle to follow and if it is the most beneficial diet for humans. Today, more people are focused on losing weight and finding a way to keep weight off for long periods of time. By reverting back to what our ancestors did during the ancient times by surviving off of natural foods from the earth, will we see the most beneficial changes? This paper looks at multiple research conducted on people who changed their lifestyle to match that of the hunter-gatherers, and what changes were made in their body by doing this. Overall,
This essay explores the advantages of following a Paleolithic type diet. That is, to eat the foods our bodies have been ingesting and evolving on over the last 10 million years. Today’s highly refined grain, sugar, and carbohydrate based diet has been introduced into our lives only in the last .4% of the time we have walked upright on this planet. This drastic shift in our nutritional intake is the basis of many new age diseases of modern man.
For some, it might be hard to imagine how the Paleolithic diet was able to thrive millions of years ago in comparison to our diet of processed foods today. Our modern diet was created in response to changes in the biological trends over time as well as the innovations in culture. We can examine these changes by studying the human evolution through a biological perspective, while observing the changes in culture through an archaeological perspective.
The diet of humans today is unbelievably diverse. We have access to an almost endless selection of foods from around the world, ranging from exotic species of plants to animals from well beyond our own geographic region. Earlier Hominids, however, did not have access to such niceties and had to rely solely on their own means to acquire the food they consumed. Yet the types of food that were consumed by early hominids is a question that is still quite a mystery for many paleoanthropologists. Unlike physical characteristics of Neanderthals (such as bone structure) determining the diet of a Neanderthal that has been dead for over 40,000 years is challenging.
Paleo diet eating menu is containing all kinds of useful and healthy nutrients such as fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, vitamins, minerals, lean proteins, healthy fatty acids and useful carbs only. It's also prevents eating the low quality food like processed or junk food, sugars, and unhealthy fats and carbohydrates. As a result for this, paleo diet is named the "healthy diet" and it has too many benefits. Firstly, it decreases chances of heart, arteries, brain and immunity diseases. Secondly, it improves a healthy eating life style and healthy eating habits. It also plays an important role in improving mental health and enhances the brain to function well. In addition, its results also include strengthens skin, hair and nails. However, opponents may have another point of view, as they think paleo diet is dangerous because it cause side effects to the body. They also object about its results, they believe that paleo diet don’t enhance weight loss process. Moreover, they say paleo diet is not inclusive and may deprive us from some useful nutrients. And by discussing and explaining all benefits of paleo diet as mentioned before, we can convince opponents of its
Thanks to many researchers, such as Loran Cordain, mankind has successfully developed the Paleo diet, a dietary plan modeled after the paleolithic age that consists of lean natural meats, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Unlike,the diets previously mentioned the Paleo diet has all the essential nutrients such as protein, Vitamin D and B-12, that make humans develop lean muscle, have more energy, lose weight, and be able to live a healthy lifestyle. For these reasons, the Paleo way should be the diet of choice in order to make America healthy again.
The first time I heard of the Paleo Diet was while having coffee with my Mom and one of her friends. She mentioned being on a diet that I had never heard of before. When I asked about it, she told me about the Paleo Diet and all of issues that it could help with. From that point on the Paleo Diet peaked my interest. I wanted to know what issues the diet could help with and what going on the diet meant. I considered going on the Paleo Diet multiple times, but I could never find a good enough incentive. This project was the perfect opportunity to try it out.
The topic will be explored mainly through Archaeology and Human Ecology. Through archaeology, study of bones, tools and fossils will be used to study what people ate. On the other hand, human ecology will also be useful in ensuring that evolution of human diet as well as their variations are understood (Takacs, & Cline, 2015).
Ungar, Peter S., and Mark Franklyn Teaford. Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2002. Print.
The Paleolithic (Paleo) diet also known as (Caveman Diet) is one modeled after the perceived food consumption of early human ancestors of the Paleolithic Era, consisting of mainly meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, eggs, and nuts. The Paleo diet primarily consists of the types of foods available to hunter-gatherer people during this time in history. This would include food like fish, and other lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. What this diet doesn't include is bread, grains, starches, legumes, and refined sugars. Due to eating foods that exist outside of our evolutionary metabolic environment, people now deal with chronic “diseases of civilization” like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
So what exactly did cavemen eat, and why should you eat like them? Modern man has advanced significantly in food production, we have discovered ways to make food in all shapes and flavors. We have so many options on what to eat, and so many opinions on what’s good for us and what I not good for us. From the consumer view, nutrition is chaotic at best. One day something is good for you, the next it can cause disease. Eggs increase cholesterol, Eggs do not increase your cholesterol. Pizza is a healthy food, Pizza is junk-food. With so many different methods and practices it can get rather confusing. Take the USDA food pyramid for example, his poster can be found in school cafeterias and hospitals across the country. However an article from Scientific American magazine that was written by scientists from the Harvard school of public health was actually condemning the dietary recommendations of the food pyramid. (Cordain & Friel, 2005) At one point and time there were 30 million Americans following the Atkins diet by eating more fat and losing more weight. However in utter contrast Dean Ornish says that fat and meat cause cancer, heart disease and obesity, and that we would all be better off by converting to vegetarianism. (Cordain & Friel, 2005) In other more well-developed scientific disciplines, universal paradigms help guide researchers to informative end points while they design their respective experiments and theories. For example in Geology the continental drift model established that all current continents were at one time joined as one large continuous landmass that eventually drifted apart to form our current continents. These concepts are not theories but undisputed facts that serve as an orientation for other inquiries r...