Back in my first year of undergrad, when I first began looking into nutrition, I came across the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet was touted as being the diet that our ancestors ate. It made sense. If we want to get back to better health, we should eat like our ancestors did when chronic disease was far less prevalent. I gave Paleo a try and I loved it because of how it made me feel. I was getting in better shape and my athletic performance was improving. Turns out when you start eating more whole foods your body performs better. Who knew.
Over the years the conversation around ancestral dieting, that is eating as our ancestors did, has grown and evolved (just like we have). While I think we could all benefit from eating more like our ancestors, this conversation has become a bit one-sided. Now when the topic comes up, we have a tendency to take the stance that ancestral inherently means better. I don’t totally agree.
I think that when we start eating more like our ancestors we end up eating more whole food and less processed foods and I think that is a great health solution for nearly everyone. However, I think we should realize that just because a diet is ancestral does not mean that it is optimal, applicable, or sustainable. Let me explain.
Our ancestors were forced to eat whatever was available to them based on their location and the time of year. While there were likely many health benefits to this seasonal approach to dieting, I don’t think in all instances we should assume that the only nutrients they had access to are all that is needed for optimal health and human function. Chances are, our ancestors evolved to be able to make do with what they had available to them and survived in spite of potential deficiencies or less optimal food intake. Should we assume that since our ancestors did not have access to MCT oil that it should not be apart of an optimal human diet? What about other supplements that can be used today to optimize our diets and tailor them towards our specific goals?
We need to remember that we are different than our ancestors. Is it safe to say that the exact way our ancestors ate is still even applicable to us today? We and maybe even more importantly our environments have evolved. Our foods have changed. Many of the whole foods available to us today do not have the same nutrient profile that they did when our ancestors were eating them.
We are also not living under the same conditions as our ancestors. Our jobs are different and so are our environmental exposures and stressors all of which can play a big role in the nutrients we need to fuel our bodies for optimal health. All of these things need to be taken into consideration when talking about the application of ancestral nutrition today.
Another big piece to the conversation that is often left out is our changing culture. Like it or not, humans have gotten really good at making really tasty things and just because our ancestors didn’t have access to them doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy ourselves in moderate and non-gluttonous ways.
Don’t get me wrong, I really do think that taking a more ancestral approach to nutrition is a fine strategy but in the essence of trying to look at nutrition through a much broader lens, I think we should understand that humans have evolved and so much our dietary principles.
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