What Our Ancestors Ate…
Probably Nothing That You Do!
I’m writing this for a few reasons:
1. I’m sick of people telling me what is/isn’t “Primal”. Primal to me and the #primal hashtag on sites like Twitter, refers to the Primal Blueprint as laid out by Mark Sisson of Marks Daily Apple. This diet follows a 80/20 rule and allows for sensible vices.
The vibe I’ve always gotten from the Mark’s site, is that his plan is a whole foods diet loosely based on the paleo diet, teamed with a simple common sense approach to exercise. A lifestyle!
I eat almost zero processed foods. The ones I do use are single/few ingredients, such as teas, cocoa, spices, and canned goods (fish & veggies), so the bulk of my 20% is RAW dairy (most of which is fermented). I’m dieting on the 6 week cure right now, so you can add 1 ingredient whey protein isolate to the list.
I personally do not consider RAW dairy a “vice” because RAW dairy (especially fermented) offers a whole host of health benefits, but… it’s not paleo so I do consider it my 20. Paleolithic man was not a dairy farmer. Other than RAW dairy, my diet is nearly 100% paleo all the time.
Note: I do have a few fails. Usually when attending a birthday party and forced to stare at the cake for 5 hours. Most the time I don’t eat the cake, but it does send me into binge eating. I’ve often wondered if seeing this junk food creates an insulin spike, dropping my blood sugar and sending me on a ravenous mission for sugars.
2. I’m sick of people telling me my “diet” is not sustainable. Well I’ve been at it a year now and it seems to have worked pretty well for another big bunch of folks for 2½ million years. How is that not sustainable?
“Protein shakes are not primal”
Not accurate. Mark Sisson sells protein shakes! While protein shakes are in no way “paleo” they do have a place in the Primal Blueprint. PEOPLE ARE FAT these days. A good majority of the people who find the Primal Blueprint are probably stumbling onto it looking for a way to lose some pounds. Low-cal/low-carb protein shakes are a helpful way to intake less carbs, achieve a caloric deficit and help people lose the fat getting back to a state of homeostasis without taking years. Paleo man was in homeostasis… I feel MDA’s philosophy is getting us back to that state.
So about your diet…
You may have a Paleo or Primal diet, but lets get this clear… you do not “eat like” our paleolithic ancestors! You and I have no idea what our ancestors ate and probably never will. Most people will never find themselves in a situation more than 5 minutes from a store. They will never feel “real hunger” or the motivation needed to eat anything to survive.
I generally agree with the no grains thing. Farming grains is very labor intensive and we know paleo people didn’t do it. They may have had some honey-hole meadows they visited, but they probably would have starved to death before they could gather enough grains to survive on for any period of time. Grains are seasonal and easily go rancid etc… so yes, grains are probably out of the picture for the most part. Did they eat some grains? I bet they did, but I also bet it was a smaller amount than your bowl of oatmeal in the morning and very infrequent.
What about Meat?
Pretty easy to obtain if you’re highly in tune with your environment. Maybe not always what we think is pretty meat (see above), but meat! Nutrient dense & lots of energy to be had from meat!
EARLY MAN ATE MEAT! They probably even ate some of the fresh kill raw. I have no doubts about this at all. I think its funny when Vegans say ”humans are repulsed by the thought of raw meat.” How in the hell would they know? Have they ever tasted it? Just about everyone I know loves a good rare or medium rare steak. It doesn’t taste that much different than raw (I know). Crap, it’s practically even the same temperature as a fresh kill. Total BS! These vegans have probably never gone more than a few hours without eating, and many of those vegans pack their pie-holes with processed soy (from land that was raped to produce it) all day long. I truly feel sorry for them. The soy must be eating their brains.
What’s Your Point?
My point is, our ancestors had an oddly varied diet since they really had no choice but to eat with the seasons. This diet contained zero beef (ever seen a wild Angus, Hereford or Holstein?) or poultry. Many wouldn’t have had much fish and exactly ZERO of plants you buy and find in the produce dept at your local market. Virtually all of which have been cross & selectivly bred.
While we’re visiting this… Don’t forget about nuts like almonds that you’re probably packing your face and cooking with. Not so long ago these were poisonous too!
Paleo man’s diet was likely largely composed of: bugs & grubs, bitter old leafy greens, chalky/starchy root vegetables, some fresh, but some rotten fruits, fermented things, lots of odd dried meats and plants, eggs stolen from big stupid birds (think ocean birds like seagulls & cormorants and waterfowl like ducks & geese). They probably had much less discrimination on the meat’s cut or source (think easily trapped rodents, tweety birds and slow mammals like opossums, porcupines, beavers, racoons, etc..) these were easy sources of food for a people trying to stay alive. Sure they had some good stuff like venison or whatever (depending on where they lived), but I bet paleothic people were opportunistic eaters and slow stupid stuff is easy to get.
Keep in mind, they ate these things day in and day out. They knew how to prepare for the best flavor in the different seasons. They didn’t look at the many sources of nutrient dense food (like a healthy fat DOG, stinky bear, or bloated lava) and think “ewww.” There’s evidence that paleo man may have even eaten Neanderthals. Now I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen any of that in stores lately!
We’ll never know about their knowledge of food preperation, preserving, or eating habits until we create a time machine. Remember, they didn’t have fridges, freezers, dehydrators, food savers, zip-locks, lid-locks and all this crap we have. Just think… If you were a cave-person and wanted something as simple as an ice cube, you had to climb a mountain. It was melted by the time you got home. Not a good use of your difficult to acquire energy.
So back to Paleo & Primal style diets…
Eating “like them” – YOU DON’T! Basically the idea of eating paleo or primal is the idea of eating whole foods with macronutrient levels similar to what our ancestors from all over the world may have eaten. Paleo/Primal is a very sustainable and extremely tasty way to eat if you have the willpower to commit to it. Most people don’t. They can’t drop the sugar. They grew up on junk food and the convenience of it. Social situations add a lot of pressure and so do the billions of dollars worth of ads flashed in our faces non-stop. Modern food is a drug… PERIOD!
Bottom line
Unless you have a health condition or extreme athletic goal which motivates you to make the necessary life changes and keep them, it’s likely not a sustainable thing for you. Would an alcoholic ever go to rehab if there was no consequences for his drinking problem? This is a reason why many people will roll their eyes when you talk to them about paleo/primal diets. They just don’t have any reason to be interested like you yet.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t sustainable for me and maybe you? But don’t tell me what I can or can’t sustain. I can and have shut off the Starbucks, margarita, and Snickers side of my brain and there are zero plans or reasons for me to go back to my old ways. I love this food and love the way I feel even more!
Have a though about the primal or paleo diet?
Has it changed your life or have you failed?
Leave a comment!
Right on. #1 is great and something I noticed happening as soon as MDA re-launched (SonOfGrok wrote about it too) and why I quickly stopped visiting the forums there, or even tracking #primal on twitter.
It is hard to sustain at times (every now and then I find that I run out of ideas for meals and want/do fall back on bread/pasta) and yes, it seems like falling off the wagon tends to be an extreme thing. However, you can immediately feel the difference in your body and that is always a wakeup call.
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@Jedidja I hear you! This whole #6WC thing is what got me revved up. “6WC is not primal” Who gives a shit? Eades never intended it to be! You probably spent 1,900 weeks of your life not being primal, spending 2 more drinking shakes to get rid of dangerous fat stores isn’t going to kill you.
I get your second point, but I’m one of those people that’s kind of like a dog… I’ll eat the same thing at every meal for a long time and be completely happy. I have to mix it up just to make sure I’m getting all my nutrients. Ha-ha! When I first started primal, I was at a complete loss about how to eat without bread & cereals.
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Great post and absolutely true.
I’ve been LC for over 2 years and Paleo/Primal for over a year of that.
If you are dedicated to improving your health it’s a perfectly do-able lifestyle. I intend to eat this way for the rest of my life.
For what it’s worth, I have NEVER fallen off the wagon – ever. Then again, I’m a “do or do not’ sort of person. I gave up tobacco and caffiene cold turkey. When i went Paleo I just did it one day and never looked back.
Also, my “cheat” or 20% is cheese and alcohol. Cake, ice cream, and candy don’t hold a candle to a slice of good cheddar or a glass of red wine.
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@ThriftyMom Thanks, & I hear you on the cheese. I’m part Swiss. I have about 15 different kinds in my fridge right now. I eat it like crazy! But slice is not in my vocabulary, so it was stalling my weight loss & I’ve had to basically shut it completely off for a while.
Up until two weeks ago (started the 6WC) I was going through 1-2 gallons of raw milk per week and probably no less than 6-10oz of cheese a day. I cook in mostly butter and also use butter slices for a snack. I am a dairy consumer! You can see how this gets a bit out of hand.
This pic was 34oz (17oz x 2) of rare elk meat with who knows how much cheese. I want to think it was somewhere around 4oz. It didn’t fill me up.
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This was such a refreshing read. While I am not on this bandwagon, nor do I intend to be in the near future, I was always under the impression that most paleo people were just ignorant schmucks. This is largely due to people getting on the forums/blogs and posting that our ancestors only ate “this and that”. So my question was “well how in the hell do you know your exact lineage and what they ate?” I wasn’t being facetious (all the time) but peoples diets can vary greatly depending on their location.
Mainly I really just enjoyed reading your viewpoint, figuring out what it really means to be primal/paleo and realizing you aren’t one of those schmucks.
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Thanks @JC! I know your not on this wagon, so I appreciate your words.
I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors. I haven’t see a whole lot of of supermarket food growing out there in my years of travel. I know my pasty white ass’s lineage is not from anywhere near the tropics, so I’m probably not much of a fruit eater type
Probably more likely mountain goat, rabbit, lichen, seagull eggs & dandelions Ha-ha!
I’m really considering doing a bunch of toying/research with metabolic typing. I’ve never quite been on that wagon and know I’m perfectly capable of being healthy without it, but I’ve tried a million tweaks to my diet and still can’t figure out my satiety issue. MT definitely has some merit and being hungry all the time is annoying. I don’t really know what else to do.
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“I’ve often wondered if seeing this junk food creates an insulin spike, dropping my blood sugar and sending me on a ravenous mission for sugars.”
I can’t recall the source of my information, but I do remember reading that just the thought of food will get your digestive system revved up and, yes, that includes a preliminary insulin spike. So being around food you can’t eat will certainly spike your insulin, leading to low blood sugar and the cravings that go with it.
“I think its funny when Vegans say ”humans are repulsed by the thought of raw meat.” How in the hell would they know? Have they ever tasted it? Just about everyone I know loves a good rare or medium rare steak.”
That reminds me of this post: Paleo YouTube Videos
I commented on that post: “First off, I agree that vegans are wrong. But I disagree that it takes “a very hungry person.” While I’m not currently following a paleodiet for reasons other than diet or health, I did follow that way of eating for about a year. The longer I was on the diet eating natural foods 99% of the time, I found myself actually craving my meats rarer and rarer. Not sure if it was because of the diet, or a blow to the head, but once I stopped eating natural, I could no longer stomach the same rarity.”
In addition to that, I’m not a seafood fan and can barely stand the fish oil I take. But once I was paleo for a few months, I started craving fish. So going primal/paleo will certainly affect your tastes and preferences.
“I’m one of those people that’s kind of like a dog… I’ll eat the same thing at every meal for a long time and be completely happy.”
I’m with you on this one. My wife won’t even consider eating the same thing back to back, but I can eat and have eaten a properly done meal repeatedly for weeks.
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@JC Totally agree with “peoples diets can vary greatly depending on their location.”
One of these days I’m going to write a post on it, but just too lazy…
Think of latitudinal differences in diet. The Inuit way up north get very little sugar via fruits or veggies, but tons and tons of fat. As you move south, the game you’ll find at a latitude will have less and less fat but you’ll find more fruits and veggies to replace the drop in fat energy. Until you get to the tropics where the game will be very lean and you’ll find more tropical fruits, etc. The carbs you find in nature are much healthier than processed carbs INCLUDING the fruits and veggies you find in supermarket produce sections… I consider those highly processed because they have been bred for sugar content, not nutrition.
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Great discussion
@Paleo Dan – Totally agree with the latitudinal differences, being able to eat meat rarer and rarer, and fruits in nature being different than the supermarket.
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LOL, I have had to cut cheese out temporarily as well! I’m suffering!
But I figure after having lost 150+ lbs that I won’t let a stall keep me from losing the last 25lbs! So I’m willing to give it up for a bit as well.
On the subject of rare meats, I fix all of mine extremely rare and have no compunction about eating ground meat raw – I often do.
I also eat much of the same things every day – my menu is pretty limited compared to the typical SAD diet: meat, eggs, cheese/butter, some veg (cruciferous mostly, plus roots/bulbs)… aaaand that’s about it.
I love what I eat, though, and have no cravings for crap even when at a buffet or family gathering. It’s pretty cool.
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@Paleo Dan,
“The longer I was on the diet eating natural foods 99% of the time, I found myself actually craving my meats rarer and rarer”
Nail on the head. I eat 100% cacao now and it tastes like a Hershey bar. I’m salivating just thinking about it. I’d eat raw meat all the time, but I’m slightly worried about parasites. Even in fresh game meat. I feel nature just isn’t allowed to run it’s course anymore and wipe out the weak with all our management and intervention, so there’s more bugs in food.
“My wife won’t even consider eating the same thing back to back”
It’s a women thing… they can just never be happy Ha-ha
You know I love ya ladies!
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Great job @ThriftyMom! And you can come cook for me anytime
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P.S. @Paleo Dan “preliminary insulin spike”
I read that somewhere once to. I dumped such HUGE volumes of sugar (you guys couldn’t even fathom the stuff I did) into my system for so many years, I have no troubles believing this for a second. I will literally shake sometimes at the sight & smell of birthday cake and ice cream. I should bring a blood meter with me sometime for fun.
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@Paleo Dan: I really appreciate your input. I find your gatherings about energy content of the food based on the latitude(less fat, more fat etc) interesting.
I would love to do an 3-6 month experiment with eating this way but I just cannot be bothered. It’s not that I do not care about general health. I really do. I eat plenty of fruits, healthy fats, fish oil etc. Once my daily requirements are met, I just eat whatever the hell I want to make up for energy expenditure.
I just don’t have any real issue with hunger, satiety or ever feeling deprived. Maybe I am just lucky but I feel it has a lot to do with my flexible approach.
Then again, it could be voodoo magic of the western diet
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@JC It’s always hardest to convince and convert folks that are thin and/or “fit”.
Honestly, though, if you’re healthy and happy, more power to you. But if that ever changes, paleo/primal is there to help.
Curiosity: What makes up your “whatever the hell I want” category? Carbs aren’t bad, and a HC diet can work if they are healthy and un- or under-refined carbs. The fewer “white” carbs you consume, the better.
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Whatever the hell I want = bags of sugary cereal (think cocoa puffs, frosted flakes etc), pizza, greasy burgers etc.
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I could really go for a greasy, undercooked, no-bun burger loaded with bacon, cheese, and avocado. Mmmmm…
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@JC “I feel it has a lot to do with my flexible approach”
Definitely! Being happy with what you’re eating certainly goes a long way for the mental side of eating issues (probably most people’s problem). It’s obviously working just fine for you (at least for now) and may forever.
I do think you have a good dose of luck in there though.
Up until a few years ago I was perfectly happy eating what I was eating also and didn’t care about the volume at the time. As a matter of fact, it was cool! I could out eat anyone (or two) people. Makes you feel like a mans man! I always maintained a average body (skinny-fat). I’m 6′ and fluctuated between 170-189lbs. I got to down to 125lbs pounds in 2001 jogging a lot on a diet of endless boxes of Cocoa Puffs, quarts of honey, saltine crackers and bottles of original Xenadrine (ephedra). This was my low-fat diet. I stopped within months when the inflammation took out my knees. I blamed it on motocross.
The problem is, I started caring about the volume and then the quality when my grain based diet just about killed me by the age of 26. I had about every ailment under the sun. Dr.s took one look at my decent physical appearance and said I was fine. I’m not a big fan of pharma medicine anymore as a result.
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99% grain free for 10+ months now. I get suckered into a couple of Guinness every once in a long while when out with friends but otherwise, it’s meat, nuts and veggies for me (in that order)with a little fruit thrown in every now and again. ‘No Grains’ was a revelation and has altered my perception forever regarding food, eating, advertising and lifestyle. TV advertising is beyond ridiculous – I love to watch and make fun of all the ludicrous commercials, especially the pharmaceuticals and the list of side effects that inevitably follow the advertisement.
Your recent post that showed you gutting a deer got me motivated. I spent last weekend sitting out in the woods with a friend (that knows how to gut a deer properly) and a bow. We got off a couple of shots but didn’t score. We’re planning on hitting the archery range this week and giving it another try at month’s end. I intend to fill my freezer with fresh venison this year for sure!
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@Garth, I don’t have TV anymore, but when I do watch it, it seems like very other commercial is a “fiber” something or pharma. I think @KeithNorris said it best the other day “The low down on drug ads: Go Paleo & they become just so much white noise.”
Awesome, you must be in whitetail or muley country. Around here you get lucky if you can even see a couple. Best wishes on your hunt! Go practice already!
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With all the meat talk, it seems like no better time than to show you guys…
Kill to Eat Finale.
I think you’ll enjoy it.
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I’ve pretty much given up chattering away about what I eat, why fat isn’t bad, etc. I have a female friend who has gone essentially paleo (though she still seems scared of “bad” fats) and started lifting weights, but if I had told her 6 months ago about how great this way of eating is, and how girls should lift, she would have thought I was crazy. Now she won’t go back to her old lifestyle. Granted, it seems to have quieted down her Crohn’s, so she’s gotten a very obvious and immediate example of why it’s good for her.
I pretty much lump “diet” in with religion and politics. To sway somebody from one position to another, it’s going to take either a sudden powerful event (I almost died, now I believe in god!) or a long process of gathering information from the alternative point of view. A 5 minute conversation simply isn’t going to be enough in most cases.
So if people are curious, I’ll talk about it. I mean, some people you’ll never be able to open up to an alternate point of view. Example: I’ve read where people will look at this very fit and lean person (who got that way through paleo/primal) and say, “Well sure, they look healthy, but I worry about what’s going to happen to them when they get older” (meaning, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc).
Ah well, we know what’s good for us, right? I feel no need to defend my views unless it is going to have some effect in my life and the life of others (say, like banning raw milk).
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@8bitpixel: I agree about grouping it with religion. I hear the craziest stuff coming out of the bros’ mouth in between sets at the gym. 2 years ago I would’ve interrupted to “help out.” Nowadays I just don’t care unless someone specifically asks me. Then I tell them I eat kiddy cereal all the time and then they hate me.
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@8bitpixel @JC
Diet is 100% in the politics and religion category. It makes up the third leg of the “Three things you avoid like the plague on dates”. I use twitter to help get all three out of my system.
Here’s me:
A paleolithic, agnostic, constitutionalist. Don’t like it? Talk to someone who gives a crap
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@Grok: HAH, now that gave me the lulz.
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I’m coming into this way of eating, or this lifestyle, in a bit of an unorthodox manner. My German Shepherd was negatively affected by his last vaccination, which was not admitted by the vet, and was being prescribed different foods because it was believed he had a food allergy.
This began MONTHS of research into canine diets, the damage vaccines do, fixing illness and not covering up the symptoms, etc. Very briefly summarized – for at least 16,000 years domestic dogs ate scraps of food provided by the humans. Wild dogs have prospered for much longer than that off their kills or the kills of others. To thrive dogs need meat, bone and offal. PERIOD. They need no grains, fruits or vegetables.
Greed and profit came into play and now humans are manufacturing food for dogs that offer a convenience. Much like processed human foods are a convenience, processed dog foods are a convenience and with that offering come the illnesses and disease. Dogs and humans are both negatively affected by these convenience foods.
Back to profit: Dog food manufacturers are in the business of making a profit, so they lessen the quality of the ingredients, add more fillers (grains) and offer this as a food for your dog.
Look at the dog population and you’ll see disease and obesity that mirrors the humans that care for them.
During the time I was researching a diet for my dog I was actively involved with Weight Watchers. In 10 months I lost 90#, but still felt like garbage, friends I hadn’t seen in a while thought I was sick and none of my previous illnesses – like hypertension – had been eleviated.
Seeing the positive results that my dogs were experiencing, I started looking at what *I* should be eating. The whirlwind of information started to flow in and I’ve been a fan for several months now. I feel better than I have in years though I’ve not been 100% faithful to the diet/lifestyle.
As each week progresses I become more committed and more enthusiastic. I’ve turned my “look” around so that I look healthy now. I’m able to maintain my bodyweight without much thought/effort.
Regardless of what Grok ate, I’m content with what I have available: Raw milk, grass-fed beef, veggies and very limited fruits. Now if I could find raw beer my plan would be complete.
Lastly, for those who may have questions about a species-appropriate diet, please get with me. I’ll be more than happy to share my knowledge with you.
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@GunnarGSD – hell yes! When I was living in India for a year (Bangalore), the people there were shocked that we bought “dog food” at all … they fed their dogs table scraps (including meat, bones, etc) and the dogs were extremely healthy. I think the dog/cat food industry is like the baby food one — we lived for a _very_ long time without any of them, yet they have somehow made us believe we need to depend on them now.
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@Jedidja – the medical community and Big Pharma have people so afraid of everything AND people have so much trust in these doctors and vets, that they’ll believe anything that is said.
Look at the number of sick, fat people at the doctor’s office and you’ll easily be able to compare that to the sick, fat pets at the vet’s office. The advice being given is not sound.
I saw a quote, but I don’t recall the list I saw it on. It went something like this – not a direct quote: People go to their doctors for medical advice. All they get are more medications.”
I think that says a lot. Just remember: A healthy population generates less monies for the medical community and the pharmaceutical companies.
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@Jedidja @GunnarGSD Our whole society is based around fear mongering. Sure fire way to get people to hop off their wallets and beg for slavery to boot.
@ GunnarGSD As you well know, the K9 is mans best friend. Why should they make his food any better?
Congrats on your turnaround no matter how you got there.
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Baby steps – that’s all I can say. Modern idiocy has led us astray, so baby steps are needed to get back in stride. I’m trying and thanks for the help.
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@GunnarGSD It can take a while. I was a major addict. It took me months to get past the weekly-to-biweekly binges.
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Yeah – just call me Binge Crosby. HaHa
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I just realized recently that I’ve been eating a diet duplicating the theoretical diet of our Paleolithic ancestors — for 3 years. I can tell you wholeheartedly that it is very much sustainable.
It took me somewhere between 6 to 18 months to completely break free of the sugar and grains addiction. Somewhere in this period, the severe cravings slowly and steadily diminished. Now I can stare at a plateful of birthday cake or a plate of garlic-cream pasta without so much as a flinch. I’d even choose to eat a *small portion* at a holiday meal with close friends and family, but only as a means to enjoy fully the holiday spirit along with the others.
Great post, Grok.
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@Johnny – I had a good test of will last night. My internet has been down from a winter storm. I spent the day at my parents house using their internet so I could work (kinda). I was coming off 5 days of no food (protein sparing fast).
That house was full of almost nothing I’d eat! I fried up the remaining vegetables which amounted to: some rotting peppers and old onions, with eggs and some *cough* extra moldy blue cheese.
The rest of the time I had to stare at: Hot Pockets, cupcakes, jelly filled white donuts, fresh breads, boxes of sugary cereals, berry/aspartame fill yogurts, freezer FULL of “fruit bars”, and mountains of home canned fruit and jellies laying around! Of course behind cupboard doors were all the delicious MSG and soy infused hydrogenated oil products.
I left that place eating zero junk! The worst sugar filled thing I had was a very fresh Braeburn apple
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