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.