Page 10 - Jan Feb 2015

A Deeper Look
Into Nutrition
by Stacey Leigh Mohr
What is the healthiest diet? Vegetarian? Vegan? Atkins? Zone? Paleo? Macrobiotic? One would think that, with all the new information, studies, and diet advice at our fingertips today, it would be easy to figure out what to eat. But many people find much of this infor- mation and advice conflicting and confusing.
Every creature on earth has adapted, over millions of years, to its environment, and the foods available in that environment. Humans are no exception, having adapted, over 4.5 million years, to foods they could hunt and gather from their environment. Archaeological evidence shows that, on this diet, humans experienced relatively little disease.
However, hunter/gatherer life was tough. Nearly as much energy was spent getting enough food to survive as was derived from that food. This did not leave much time for im- proving one’s lot in life, and it kept groups of humans in small tribes that were easily main- tained on what they could forage, often moving to follow herds of migrating animals and find new vegetation after exhausting what grew naturally around them.
The development of agriculture changed all of that, allowing for the growth of tribes into cities, and time apart from struggling for survival for humans to pursue art, architecture, medicine, and many other developments from which we benefit today.
But it also changed the food humans ate. Diets became largely grain and dairy-based, and are still so today. Humans have only been on this diet for around 5,000 years – not enough time to adapt adequately to it. Our bodies can’t process these new foods as well as the foods to which they have had 4.5 million years to adapt. Consequently, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, kidney and liver failure have all increased since the introduction of agriculture. These diseases have risen dramatically in the last 50 years due to the addition to our diets of more processed foods that contain few nutrients and many chemicals.
The foods to which humans are most readily adapted are foods that could be hunted or gathered by our tribal ancestors: animal protein, (including eggs), vegeta-
bles, nuts and fruits, (small berries). Most of the nuts, vegetables and fruits
were eaten raw. On this diet, combined with moderate exercise, humans
stay healthy, and attain and maintain a healthy weight.
10 The Wave www.thewaveholisticjournal.com