Your Ancestors Could Hold the Key to Your Dietary Success
As technology races on at the speed of light, its easy to forget that our bodies are still programmed for the dark ages. While it takes nanoseconds to make a new version of the iphone, it takes centuries for our genetic makeup to evolve and that has serious implications to our overall health. More and more scientists are studying Ancestral Health for clues to our growing obesity and metabolic disease epidemics and the key to our success (or not) could lie with our forefathers and mothers lifestyle habits. Understanding your heritage could help determine how far off course you’ve strayed from your family’s evolutionary path.
Ancestral Health studies have shown that our bodies still run on hunter/gatherer time. Your great- great – great grannies and gramps spent more time trying to stay alive than texting or watching TV. Our bodies are designed for feast or famine which is why we cling desperately to those carbs and greedily hoard as much fat as possible for the big drought or the locust infestation or the spring of (1658 that is) when a rogue pack of wolves dangerously thinned out the deer population.
These implications apply to what we eat, when we eat, how often and also what we do with the rest of our day.
Ancestral Health looks at geography as well as what were the main food sources and means of attaining them for your earliest relatives? Mostly hunting would indicate a meat-centric diet or mostly gathering would indicate a diet rich in nuts and berries, Agriculture would imply grains (but what type?) fruits, veggies and possibly even dairy. Our genetics are still programmed to be most efficient at eating the foods of our ancestors. So we are or become intolerant of other foods or even similar foods that have been altered by genetic modification, additives, preservatives, hormones, or even the composition of the soil where the food is grown. Chances are the food you eat is not the same as your grandparents but your genetics are still hot-wired to run on their food. For example, according to the Missing Human Manual, if your ancestors were from the Middle East or Northern China, your body is adapted for wheat consumption BUT know that the wheat today has a much higher gluten content. If you come from Northern Europe, your body is adapted to cow milk BUT not hormone ladened cow milk. Southern Chinese and other Asians are well adapted to rice but have very low tolerance for dairy (along with South Africans). If you are a descendent of the Inuit or Native Indians (or other relatively recent hunter/gatherers) your body will NOT be adapted to agriculture. And NONE of us are adapted to processed foods.
So the next time you are about to scarf down some neon orange powdered cheese product or add laboratory fabricated sweetener to your food after having spent the vast majority of your day on your bum (at meals, in the car, at the computer or in front of the TV), consider how your ancient bod is going to deal with these highly evolved behaviors.
