mrdevious
11-07-2006, 08:32 PM
Source: http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html
I came across a most interesting article on the human diet and I was wondering what you guys thought about this. So you don't have to read this rather long article yourself (unless you want to of course, that would be great), I'll sum things up.
Basically this page is advocating a diet closer to the paleolithic era of humanity, rather than our currrent neolithic diet.
As it explained, humanity has spent the majority of its existence in the hunter/gatherer lifestyle. With no farming techniques, our bodies evolved to be adjusted to a diet of different types of meats, vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, root-vegetables, and orgam-meats. The diet would have been extremely high in nutrients and protein, with a lower level of carbohydrates used more efficiently (mainly taken from fruit I suppose).
When humans finally developed agriculture, we began consuming starches, wheats, rice, and other such grains. Comparatively speaking, all these starches and grains were considerably lower in nutrients, but extremely higher in carbohydrates. Essentially, they were the first energy bombs, or "empty calories". Such high energy foods enabled humanity to spend less time looking for food, and for the first time having the time to do things like develope writing, government, technology, religion, all that good stuff. Agriculture is attributed as being the catylist of human society (as we know it anyway).
However, this is not how our bodies were meant to eat. Our diets sacrficed the nurtients were meant to consume for high energy instead. Furthurmore, grains and starches actually contain large amounts of toxins (5 raw potatoes eaten in quick succession can kill you actually). Cooking these products actually removes most of the toxins, but some remain that pollute our bodies on a daily basis. This is why we're all on "de-toxification" programs, though we shouldn't have to be.
They also say (and I actually already knew this as an established fact), that hunter-gatherer society's have almost no instances of arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, schizophrenia, or cancer. I would also like to point out from my own knowledge, that evidence is showing more and more that wheat is actually quite harmfull to the body in the quantities we consume it in (think abou it, we eat wheat ALL THE TIME). Schizophrenia and authism are both highly prevelant in wheat-eating societies, whereas in wheat-free societies they're pretty much unheard of. I can also say from personal experience that I feel SO much better when I eat mostly fruit and vegies all day, rather than grain products.
It should be noted however, that (at least I think so) grains should not be cut out all together. Our increased consumptions of both grains and meats are major contributors to humanity developing higher brain function and understanding of abstract concepts. But, we don't need to be consuming 1/10th as much as we are to see these results. Right now I'm just sticking to one small grain-based meal a day, then eating paleolithic style the rest of the time.
And just a little extra something for you all, I think everybody should read the following articles about human nutritional needs in regard to vitamin-C. There's actually very good evidence that humans need at least 12 times the vitamin-C recommended to us by mainstream sources.
The government-approved food pyramid is a lot of nonsense really; I have my suspicions that it's highly biased in favour of the wheat and dairy industries. (it should be noted, since it's not mentioned in the links, that vitamin-E doubles the time your body can retain and use vitamin-C).
http://www.doctoryourself.com/c_roberts.html
http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/faq.html
http://www.cforyourself.com/
I came across a most interesting article on the human diet and I was wondering what you guys thought about this. So you don't have to read this rather long article yourself (unless you want to of course, that would be great), I'll sum things up.
Basically this page is advocating a diet closer to the paleolithic era of humanity, rather than our currrent neolithic diet.
As it explained, humanity has spent the majority of its existence in the hunter/gatherer lifestyle. With no farming techniques, our bodies evolved to be adjusted to a diet of different types of meats, vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, root-vegetables, and orgam-meats. The diet would have been extremely high in nutrients and protein, with a lower level of carbohydrates used more efficiently (mainly taken from fruit I suppose).
When humans finally developed agriculture, we began consuming starches, wheats, rice, and other such grains. Comparatively speaking, all these starches and grains were considerably lower in nutrients, but extremely higher in carbohydrates. Essentially, they were the first energy bombs, or "empty calories". Such high energy foods enabled humanity to spend less time looking for food, and for the first time having the time to do things like develope writing, government, technology, religion, all that good stuff. Agriculture is attributed as being the catylist of human society (as we know it anyway).
However, this is not how our bodies were meant to eat. Our diets sacrficed the nurtients were meant to consume for high energy instead. Furthurmore, grains and starches actually contain large amounts of toxins (5 raw potatoes eaten in quick succession can kill you actually). Cooking these products actually removes most of the toxins, but some remain that pollute our bodies on a daily basis. This is why we're all on "de-toxification" programs, though we shouldn't have to be.
They also say (and I actually already knew this as an established fact), that hunter-gatherer society's have almost no instances of arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, schizophrenia, or cancer. I would also like to point out from my own knowledge, that evidence is showing more and more that wheat is actually quite harmfull to the body in the quantities we consume it in (think abou it, we eat wheat ALL THE TIME). Schizophrenia and authism are both highly prevelant in wheat-eating societies, whereas in wheat-free societies they're pretty much unheard of. I can also say from personal experience that I feel SO much better when I eat mostly fruit and vegies all day, rather than grain products.
It should be noted however, that (at least I think so) grains should not be cut out all together. Our increased consumptions of both grains and meats are major contributors to humanity developing higher brain function and understanding of abstract concepts. But, we don't need to be consuming 1/10th as much as we are to see these results. Right now I'm just sticking to one small grain-based meal a day, then eating paleolithic style the rest of the time.
And just a little extra something for you all, I think everybody should read the following articles about human nutritional needs in regard to vitamin-C. There's actually very good evidence that humans need at least 12 times the vitamin-C recommended to us by mainstream sources.
The government-approved food pyramid is a lot of nonsense really; I have my suspicions that it's highly biased in favour of the wheat and dairy industries. (it should be noted, since it's not mentioned in the links, that vitamin-E doubles the time your body can retain and use vitamin-C).
http://www.doctoryourself.com/c_roberts.html
http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/faq.html
http://www.cforyourself.com/