It is often echoed in the gazettes these days: one of the new fads in terms of diet is to claim that prehistoric food would better suit our genetic heritage and would protect us from the diseases of civilization …
This is one of the new dieting fads. It is very trendy, very “echo friendly”. However, there is little evidence to prefer the cave to the tavern! It is a theory born in the United States in the mid-1980s, which claims that the prehistoric hunter still slumbers in us and that the period between him and the delicious being who gives me the reply is too short for our genes have actually changed. Which leads to the conclusion that our diet being completely different, we would no longer be genetically adapted to this modern food model.
Let me summarize; our genetic heritage has not evolved since time immemorial, while our eating habits have changed. This is not a silly theory; And this goes in the fashionable discourse: industrialization is not all good! …
Yes, except that our change of diet is well before the industrial phase! It is the passage from the hunter to the shepherd that is in question. In the first case, hunter-gatherers feeding on meat and plant products. In the second case, the domestication of animal and plant species, gave birth to a diet enriched in sugar, salt, cereals, dairy products … This is where all our ills come from: diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and why not. cancers …
Hence the solution of returning to ancestral food! With fresh fruits and vegetables, oleaginous fruits such as walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds, and lean meats, fish and seafood. On the other hand, we eliminate dairy products, cereals, animal fats.
To enhance the menu, remember your family cave, a few insects and small reptiles, a few flowers and leaves at will. The trouble is, the Paleolithic diet does not exist. There have been different regimes in 2 million years, to be honest no more than 20 years ago in the western world, but quite a few nonetheless.
Moreover, the imagination of our dieticians who have largely occupied the media scene in recent weeks, borrows a lot from these periods during which climates and resources have varied. Several species of men, with different eating habits. For example, this diet very rich in meat which is all the rage at the moment. This diet with a first phase exclusively based on protein, that is to say above all meat … It was for a long time the basis of food for hunters who gorged themselves on game for fear of famine which was never there. very far.
Then, with the arrival of Homo sapiens, we integrated fish and seafood, but the basic diet remains dominated by the consumption of animal products. And our varied diet, we must not think of ourselves as too modern, dates back several millennia in our regions, between 9000-8000 and 5000 BC.
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