What Our Ancestors Ate to Keep Fit and Active

What little evidence exists of the diet of our prehistoric ancestors, and what do we know from the indigenous culture that prevailed in our day suggests that our ancestors were not carnivorous? Most foods are plant foods, roots, seeds, nuts and fruits collected by women, and possibly fish and seafood. The food our ancestors ate was far from the meat we found in our supermarket, which was full of unhealthy saturated fat.

Whenever I tell people I am vegetarian or I often recommend a vegetarian diet to my patients, someone always asks, 'But we don't mean to eat meat? 'Don't humans always eat a lot of meat?'

According to my anthropologist friends, the answer is No. Except the Innuit who eat most fish and seals because of their environment does not allow much plant growth. In most early societies, meat brought by hunters constituted only part of the diet. (Sorry, all hunters are out there!) Most of the food is food, roots, seeds, nuts and fruits collected by women, and possibly fish and seafood.

Equally important is the red meat that our ancestors grew rapidly. They consume significantly lower wild game fat, saturated fat and calories than meat grown on the farm, and higher in EPA, a omega-3 fatty acid that reduces the risk of atherosclerosis. That's far from the meat we find in our supermarket, which is full of unhealthy saturated fats and chemicals introduced into the meat production process.

Although humans began to raise animal food - cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, or goats - they were more valuable to live, producing milk, eggs, and fats for fuel, than roast. Most animal foods are eaten only during festivals or festivals.

In fact, go to any small village in Europe and Asia or elsewhere, and you will still find the pattern. When meat is included in the daily diet, it is usually in very small quantities to enrich and flavor most vegetarian foods.

You see, the village farmers know two things most westerners buy meat from supermarkets:

1. One can grow very little or no meat at all in the diet

2. It takes about four times the amount of food and soil and more water to raise food animals than it does to feed the whole family on plant foods. In terms of resources and energy, meat is very expensive.

So the villagers eat the meat carefully and store it for special occasions or for soups to strengthen it.

When we buy our meat from the supermarket, we don't see the actual cost of the meat. Little did we realize that for each steak and plastic wrap, we sacrificed enough healthy soil to feed our families, and provided many villages with clean drinking water for many years. We don't care about the costs of contaminated water, the air and land we - and our children - pay for the meat we eat.

We also don't realize the price we pay in poor health for eating a lot of meat. We now eat 4 times more meat because of our great-grandparents, and as a result, suffer from indigestion, bowel cancer (4th largest killer of men), obesity, increased allergy, rheumatoid arthritis and heart disease .

I do not support a vegetarian diet (although it does have many benefits), just a balance between vegetables and fruits, seeds and nuts, eggs, lentils, yogurt, starch, and a variety of cereals (cereal, quinoa, barley, brown rice, wheat whole), fish ... and if you like it now and then, a bit of meat.

If you like meat, make occasional treats, not the main part of your diet. Add it to the peanut butter; throw lightweight strips into your salad; or once a week, have a nice little steak with light steamed vegetables. Eat lots of vegetables (no grains or starch!) With your meat to aid digestion so you will get all the benefits of whatever meat you eat. Or try to go completely vegetarian for a month, and see how much more energetic and lighter you feel!

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