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Paleolithic Diet?
Is It Relevant
For Today?
Professor Alana L. Jolley itsallaboutculture.com
Origins of Human Diets
Review: Humans are Primates, too.
Green Genes
Review: Green plants for good health!
Obesity
Review: The Globalization of Obesity
Across Genders
And Across Generations
No Obesity Here
Why?
Paleolithic Age
2.5 Million – 10,000 Years Ago
Paleolithic Period
•Paleolithic Period: stone tools to the development of agriculture 10,000 YA
Paleolithic Patterns
• Nutrition depended on environment
• Available resources
• Seasonal and local
• Periods of shortages and abundance
Modern Patterns
BadFats
Too Much Sugar
Too Much Salt
Modern Patterns
Sedentary Living and Fast Foods
Screen Time
Processed, refined, unhealthy foods.
Paleolithic Foods
• Use of aquatic foods is recent, 20,000 YA
Some people lacked access to aquatic foods.
Cro-Magnon Period43,000 Years Ago
• Meat consumption increased
Middle Paleolithic Period
Over-hunting, Climate ChangePopulation Growth
• Plant consumption increased; meat consumption decreased.
Domestication of Plants
Paleolithic Diets
• Paleolithic diets: unlike typical diet in U.S.
• Paleolithic diets: unlike USDA Pyramids
• Paleolithic diets: affected by extreme shortages, over abundance, seasonal availability
Early Agriculture AlteredNutritional Patterns
• Plant food up to 90% of diet.
Agricultural Patterns
• Smaller body size, sedentary living, complex societies, less exercise, more calories - but more work!
Acquisition of Food
Hunting and Gathering(Paleolithic Period)
Supermarkets (Today)
Distribution of Food
Egalitariandistribution of food(Food Sharing)Paleolithic Period
Taco Taxi (Today)
Mobile Food Distribution
Consumption of Food Today
Too much:
FoodFatSaltSugarRefined foodsPackaged foodsCarbohydratesCalories
Over abundance of food More food availabilityNo food shortages
Discovering Ancient Diets
• Primate diets
• Pre-agricultural, ancestral diets, DNA
• Diets of today’s foragers (few left)
• Legacy of food adaptations over time
Would You Eat This?
Extreme shortages made insects important.
Comparing Food Pyramids
United States Dept. of Agriculture
Comparing Food Pyramids
Vegetarian Food Pyramid
Comparing Food Pyramids
Comparing Food Pyramids
Paleolithic Pyramid
• Omit Dairy
• Omit Grains
• Omit Processed
foods
Is this sustainable today for all populations?
Paleolithic Diets
• High cholesterol, different fat, more essential fatty acids (EFA’s)
• More polyunsaturated fats (PUFA’s) than saturated fats.
• 1/6 th of salt content in today’s diets
• A defense against some modern diseases
Comparative Health ThreatsPaleolithic: Modern:
No sanitation methods
Heart disease
No modern medicines
Obesity
Infections
Lethal parasite infestations
Diabetes
Cancers
Paleolithic Lifestyles
Hunter-gatherers
No complex societies
Egalitarian (equal access to food)
No domestication of plants/animals
Are We Like Them?
100% biologically like Paleolithic peoples? No.
Humans Have Developed
• A gene for lactose tolerance
• Thrifty genotype as a survival
mechanism against famine
• Immune systems that resist
diseases like malaria
• Microbial gut communities
unlike Paleolithic times
* Gene-food-culture interactions
Foods Have Changed
• Fruits, vegetables, animals have also evolved since Paleolithic times
• Humans breed animals for maximum yields of meat, eggs, and milk
• Humans plant only seeds for biggest, best, juiciest, fruits and vegetables
World Cuisines Have Evolved
• Surpluses created need to preserve
• Meats are dried, smoked, or frozen
• Other foods are salted, smoked, boiled
• Processing has led to additives: salt, smoke, vinegar, fermenting, chemicals
Diet Accordingly
• According to age
• According to needs
• According to resources
• According to budget
Summary
• Paleolithic diets are generalizations, not exact interpretations.
• Impossible to know exact proportions of meat and vegetables in Paleolithic times
• All Paleolithic peoples did not eat the same exact diet.
• Is a Paleolithic diet a fad, or relevant in today’s world, with billions of people?
Bibliography
• Culture and Food Course @itsallaboutculture.com
• Goodman, Dufour, Pelto, Nutritional Anthropology, 2000, pp. 46-75.
• Jabr, Ferris, Scientific American, 2013.• Counihan, Van Esterik, Food and Culture,
3rd Ed, 2013, pp. 435-438.• White, Tim D., Human Osteology, 2000, pp.
433-434.