Ancestral Diet... eating right for your origins
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My inner anthropologist REALLY hates these kinds of diets!
There are a few isolated occurrences in which regional populations show a propensity for metabolizing certain specific foods differently. For instance a higher proportion of norther Europeans are lactose tolerant, but a study suggested this was related to factors other than historic consumption of dairy (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22643754).
The only true suggestion I have seen of ancestry affecting how we metabolize certain foods was the recent study regarding Inuits and omega-3 fatty acids (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story.html). However, this study is talking about a relatively small group of people who have adapted to living in a very extreme environment. It also makes no sweeping statements about this type of evolution occurring in large populations and people living in more moderate climates with much greater access to a variety of foods.
I would like to conclude by agreeing with juggernaut that diet absolutely played a role in the lifespans of earlier humans and hominids. Their shorter lifespans compared to modern people resulted from a number of factors including different diet, not just access to modern medicine.
This is the input I was hoping for! Thanks!0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Well I know that 85% of Asians are lactose intolerant. I know my body feels different (digestive wise) when I eat indigenous foods as opposed to an American diet.
Lactose intolerance is a real thing and we understand the genetic adaptations behind why some populations are better able to tolerate lactose than others. It doesn't follow that this applies to foods like rice. I regularly eat tropical fruits without a problem, foods my Irish ancestors probably never ate.
And similarly the Irish did quite well on potatoes (pre famine) even though potatoes were not an indigenous food (and many in Europe were quite resistant to them -- apparently the French tried to get them to catch on to deal with the regular failures of the grain crop in the years leading up to the Revolution). And of course tomatoes don't seem to have been a problem for the Italians, even though it was a New World introduction.
Also, what IS indigenous food when you are talking about the US diet? We've adopted stuff from everything, and come from all over. My ancestry is Irish/English/Welsh/Swedish, mostly, so maybe I'm just sensibly resistant to the depressing diet I'd likely have to adopt if this were so, especially in the winter months.0 -
I am a polish jew-does that mean I get to eat tons of bagels and cream cheese? (In all seriousness, I hope I don't have to eat like my grandma, I really don't like whitefish salad or pickled herring).0
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juggernaut1974 wrote: »It never ceases to amaze me how people can fall for the idea that an ideal diet comes from a time when the average life span was 30-ish years old.
First thing my wife said when we read this article. "My ancestors had ripped abs - because they starved 3/4 of the month, and ate Mastodon. You need the Mastodon Diet - buy this book to see how you too, can be cave man fit!"
On the subject of Rice and Milk... isn't Rice and Milk completely different now then what it was, say 100 years ago? Pasteurization? Instant? Brown, vs White, vs Long Grain, vs Wild? Pesticides?
I'm a firm believer in the Cell Phone Diet, exercise equal to 5% of the time you spend looking at your cell phone. Buy my book...
Eat less. Move more. LIFT HUGE.
\m/0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »The rice one seems questionable. I have no reason to think that rice was commonly consumed by my ancestors, and yet I have no issues with it -- and any diet experts claiming that white rice is inherently bad for a diet are just wrong. What's more common is that people need to adjust to foods, but the changes needed to do that can be developed in a short person of time. Matt Fitzgerald talks about that in Diet Cults -- Lewis and Clark and those in their party being unable to eat some foods they ran into for the first time on their journey west and then having adjusted by the time they were returning. You also see this with people moving to countries with very different diets and being exposed to lots of foods for the first time.
With lactose, of course it's true that some have the genetic mutation to be lactose tolerant into adulthood and some do not, and with people from cultures where dairy has been part of the diet for a long time (like northern and western Europe) it's extremely uncommon for people to be lactose intolerant (and I do suspect this is why dairy has never bothered me), whereas for people from areas where dairy was not common lactose intolerant is much more prevalent. You can plot this on a map, I believe there's a distinct difference between northern and southern India, for example.
This was very much in my line of thinking...0 -
questionfear wrote: »I am a polish jew-does that mean I get to eat tons of bagels and cream cheese? (In all seriousness, I hope I don't have to eat like my grandma, I really don't like whitefish salad or pickled herring).
Gefilte fish?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Well I know that 85% of Asians are lactose intolerant. I know my body feels different (digestive wise) when I eat indigenous foods as opposed to an American diet.
Lactose intolerance is a real thing and we understand the genetic adaptations behind why some populations are better able to tolerate lactose than others. It doesn't follow that this applies to foods like rice. I regularly eat tropical fruits without a problem, foods my Irish ancestors probably never ate.
There are other foods that I cannot tolerate, cows milk was only one example.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Well I know that 85% of Asians are lactose intolerant. I know my body feels different (digestive wise) when I eat indigenous foods as opposed to an American diet.
Lactose intolerance is a real thing and we understand the genetic adaptations behind why some populations are better able to tolerate lactose than others. It doesn't follow that this applies to foods like rice. I regularly eat tropical fruits without a problem, foods my Irish ancestors probably never ate.
There are other foods that I cannot tolerate, cows milk was only one example.
So wouldn't a better suggestion be to identify foods that don't agree with you if you are having digestive issues? I guess I really don't understand jumping straight on the bandwagon of the guy that claims his mother died of cancer because she didn't eat like her grandparents.0 -
Maybe I should just blame GMO's, it seems easier.0
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lemurcat12 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Well I know that 85% of Asians are lactose intolerant. I know my body feels different (digestive wise) when I eat indigenous foods as opposed to an American diet.
Lactose intolerance is a real thing and we understand the genetic adaptations behind why some populations are better able to tolerate lactose than others. It doesn't follow that this applies to foods like rice. I regularly eat tropical fruits without a problem, foods my Irish ancestors probably never ate.
And similarly the Irish did quite well on potatoes (pre famine) even though potatoes were not an indigenous food (and many in Europe were quite resistant to them -- apparently the French tried to get them to catch on to deal with the regular failures of the grain crop in the years leading up to the Revolution). And of course tomatoes don't seem to have been a problem for the Italians, even though it was a New World introduction.
Also, what IS indigenous food when you are talking about the US diet? We've adopted stuff from everything, and come from all over. My ancestry is Irish/English/Welsh/Swedish, mostly, so maybe I'm just sensibly resistant to the depressing diet I'd likely have to adopt if this were so, especially in the winter months.
I think the larger point is that many traditional foodways/indigenous diets DO tend to be healthier, overall, than the SAD. You don't have to be Italian to benefit from the Mediterranean diet or Japanese to benefit from a Japanese diet. These diets aren't good for people because they fit their specific genetic code, they tend to be good for people because traditional diets often do a good job of maximizing health benefits. But we shouldn't confuse that with thinking that we need to pick a specific diet that matches our heritage.0 -
Who says I'm blaming them. LOLGuitarJerry wrote: »Seems silly. Take personal responsibility for yourself and stop blaming your ancestors.
And allergies? What allergies?
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I'm Irish, so I should drink a lot of beer. I'm also Polish, so I can consume mass amounts of meat.0
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I'm Scotch-Irish. So potatoes, haggis, whiskey, beer and I am good to go apparently.0
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juggernaut1974 wrote: »It never ceases to amaze me how people can fall for the idea that an ideal diet comes from a time when the average life span was 30-ish years old.
We now know that short life spans of the past had more to do with how numbers were figured. Infant mortality rates heavily influenced average life expectancy.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Well I know that 85% of Asians are lactose intolerant. I know my body feels different (digestive wise) when I eat indigenous foods as opposed to an American diet.
Lactose intolerance is a real thing and we understand the genetic adaptations behind why some populations are better able to tolerate lactose than others. It doesn't follow that this applies to foods like rice. I regularly eat tropical fruits without a problem, foods my Irish ancestors probably never ate.
And similarly the Irish did quite well on potatoes (pre famine) even though potatoes were not an indigenous food (and many in Europe were quite resistant to them -- apparently the French tried to get them to catch on to deal with the regular failures of the grain crop in the years leading up to the Revolution). And of course tomatoes don't seem to have been a problem for the Italians, even though it was a New World introduction.
Also, what IS indigenous food when you are talking about the US diet? We've adopted stuff from everything, and come from all over. My ancestry is Irish/English/Welsh/Swedish, mostly, so maybe I'm just sensibly resistant to the depressing diet I'd likely have to adopt if this were so, especially in the winter months.
I think the larger point is that many traditional foodways/indigenous diets DO tend to be healthier, overall, than the SAD. You don't have to be Italian to benefit from the Mediterranean diet or Japanese to benefit from a Japanese diet. These diets aren't good for people because they fit their specific genetic code, they tend to be good for people because traditional diets often do a good job of maximizing health benefits. But we shouldn't confuse that with thinking that we need to pick a specific diet that matches our heritage.
Exactly.0 -
I am Scottish and Irish, so that means STINGY TILL IT COMES TO THE DRINK..... very true with me.0
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Indigenous, I was referring to food of my heritage.lemurcat12 wrote: »And similarly the Irish did quite well on potatoes (pre famine) even though potatoes were not an indigenous food (and many in Europe were quite resistant to them -- apparently the French tried to get them to catch on to deal with the regular failures of the grain crop in the years leading up to the Revolution). And of course tomatoes don't seem to have been a problem for the Italians, even though it was a New World introduction.
Also, what IS indigenous food when you are talking about the US diet? We've adopted stuff from everything, and come from all over. My ancestry is Irish/English/Welsh/Swedish, mostly, so maybe I'm just sensibly resistant to the depressing diet I'd likely have to adopt if this were so, especially in the winter months.
Makes perfect sense.janejellyroll wrote: »I think the larger point is that many traditional foodways/indigenous diets DO tend to be healthier, overall, than the SAD. You don't have to be Italian to benefit from the Mediterranean diet or Japanese to benefit from a Japanese diet. These diets aren't good for people because they fit their specific genetic code, they tend to be good for people because traditional diets often do a good job of maximizing health benefits. But we shouldn't confuse that with thinking that we need to pick a specific diet that matches our heritage.0
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