Ancestral Diet... eating right for your origins
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I'm have about 7 different ethnicities. I guess I can eat everything0
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As an American descendant of a hodgepodge of cultures, what should I eat?0
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Carlos_421 wrote: »As an American descendant of a hodgepodge of cultures, what should I eat?
Everything.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »Whitezombiegirl wrote: »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.
Thats got very little to do with diet and more to do with lack of modern medicine e.g antibiotics. Also higher infant mortality alters the stats.
Just so I'm clear...are you suggesting that diet has nothing to do with longer life spans?
Bah...I'm a public health student and I tend to love the juggernaut posts and while, yes...diet does have something to do with longer life spans...diet is really a very sexy, modern and tangible health topic and it would be hard to isolate diet as a major contributing factor to the lengthening of life spans...a lot of it has to do with better infant/maternal mortality rates, large reductions in accidental deaths, and dare I bring up John Snow's pump handle contribution to sanitation and hygiene reducing the spread of infectious disease. ...0 -
WhatMeRunning wrote: »I'm Scotch-Irish. So potatoes, haggis, whiskey, beer and I am good to go apparently.
Potatoes are from the Andes. Try again!0 -
sunnybeaches105 wrote: »sunnybeaches105 wrote: »juggernaut1974 wrote: »
Nope, no such thing.
Actually there is, in parts of Asia, Africa, far north America, and South America. Homogeneous when it comes to genetics means common/similar, not exact (which I am assuming is what you are thinking).
Twins are . . .
Except that they've found more genetic commonalities between people of different "races" than those of the same "race". Which makes the term race kind of pointless.
The real question is whether it's cultural appropriation to eat food that doesn't come from your ancestral background . . .
You can appreciate without appropriate.
Gave me a good chuckle.0 -
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.
Yes...I have ancestors in the middle ages (Tudor England, Medieval Spain) who were living into their 60s and 70s...well, the ones who didn't die in battles or lose their heads at a premature age.0 -
I should have clarified in my OP by stating folks who are genetically homogeneous. And since I didn't, it invited a whole slew of other comments and confusion. lol
It looks like something that would only appeal to people who are immigrants or their ancestors were, and also managed to not mix with immigrants from other areas or with "locals"? Since e.g. the eat like your ancestors idea and the whole ancestors and origins thing would really not be such a novelty or anything to get excited about if you are a Chinese living in China, an Italian living in Italy, a Pakistani living in Pakistan and so on...0 -
How about we're all human beings and if you go back far enough we share a common ancestor.
Eat what you're not allergic to. Ancestral diet is a ridiculous concept.0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »WhatMeRunning wrote: »I'm Scotch-Irish. So potatoes, haggis, whiskey, beer and I am good to go apparently.
Potatoes are from the Andes. Try again!
Pretty sure people who are 80-90 living in Ireland did in fact eat potatoes.0 -
I enjoy the discussion!
I LOVE that I can come here and inquire, so folks can debunk the junk! (I did like the info and research puffbrat added to the conversation.) There's too much info overload nowadays. 0 -
We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow. So I'm not sure what my ancestors ate...0
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juggernaut1974 wrote: »Whitezombiegirl wrote: »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.
Thats got very little to do with diet and more to do with lack of modern medicine e.g antibiotics. Also higher infant mortality alters the stats.
Just so I'm clear...are you suggesting that diet has nothing to do with longer life spans?
Bah...I'm a public health student and I tend to love the juggernaut posts and while, yes...diet does have something to do with longer life spans...diet is really a very sexy, modern and tangible health topic and it would be hard to isolate diet as a major contributing factor to the lengthening of life spans...a lot of it has to do with better infant/maternal mortality rates, large reductions in accidental deaths, and dare I bring up John Snow's pump handle contribution to sanitation and hygiene reducing the spread of infectious disease. ...
For the record, I don't disagree that diets are not "the main" contributing factor.
However, that wasn't really the point.
Diet plans (including this one) that are based on some nostalgic notion that our ancestors ate such an admirable diet that we should strive to emulate today are ridiculous. The change in life span isn't the perfect indicator, but it tends to get the point across.0 -
I'm wondering how long rice has been processed. I'm sure your long ago ancestors ate whole grain rice.0
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williams969 wrote: »juggernaut1974 wrote: »I hope this means that if I have German heritage, I can drink more beer!
Sounds like how it works. I get tequila, tacos, chocolate and french fries, yay!
Guess I have to start eating squirrel. Dammit.0 -
I should have clarified in my OP by stating folks who are genetically homogeneous. And since I didn't, it invited a whole slew of other comments and confusion. lol
These days I doubt anyone is "genetically homogeneous".
Although if this is the case I'm sure there are lots of vegetarians and vegans who are going to be really upset that they have to start eating meat again.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »
Nope, no such thing.
Actually there is, in parts of Asia, Africa, far north America, and South America. Homogeneous when it comes to genetics means common/similar, not exact (which I am assuming is what you are thinking).
Don't forget Virginia.0 -
I guess malnourished, starving people in Africa should continue to starve and be malnourished since their grandparents were that way, too.
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »WhatMeRunning wrote: »I'm Scotch-Irish. So potatoes, haggis, whiskey, beer and I am good to go apparently.
Potatoes are from the Andes. Try again!
I thank the Spanish for stealing them to bring back to Europe. Or do foods not count within a certain time frame, about 400 years for potatoes? What is the time stamp on considering a food part of my ancestral heritage?0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »WhatMeRunning wrote: »I'm Scotch-Irish. So potatoes, haggis, whiskey, beer and I am good to go apparently.
Potatoes are from the Andes. Try again!
I thank the Spanish for stealing them to bring back to Europe. Or do foods not count within a certain time frame, about 400 years for potatoes? What is the time stamp on considering a food part of my ancestral heritage?
Well, the article and OP both said grandparent. Unless you're extremely old, I think you're fine with any foods that have been around since before 100 years.
ETA: Did we ever get clarification if we could go back to coke with cocaine and using opium to treat most anything?0 -
If it works for you, good.0
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I'm wondering how long rice has been processed. I'm sure your long ago ancestors ate whole grain rice.
People have been processing grains to one extent or another since grains became a crop. The efficiency and level of milling has improved over time, with the 1700s and 1800s seeing mechanization of the process rather than more simple human pounding.0 -
htimpaired wrote: »I should have clarified in my OP by stating folks who are genetically homogeneous. And since I didn't, it invited a whole slew of other comments and confusion. lol
These days I doubt anyone is "genetically homogeneous".
Although if this is the case I'm sure there are lots of vegetarians and vegans who are going to be really upset that they have to start eating meat again.
It depends to what extent you mean homogeneous. Compared to many animals, humans have a very homogeneous genome - we seem to have gone through a genetic bottleneck of 3,000-10,000 humans on Earth around 50 to 70,000 years ago, in what is called the Toba catastrophe theory.0 -
The average lifespan was low due to infant mortality and childhood disease. People who lived to adult hood could live into their 70s.0
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I do eat a lot like my grandparents. Both my grandmas grew and ate kale regularly. I have yet to meet a food I can't tolerate.0
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »WhatMeRunning wrote: »I'm Scotch-Irish. So potatoes, haggis, whiskey, beer and I am good to go apparently.
Potatoes are from the Andes. Try again!
Pretty sure people who are 80-90 living in Ireland did in fact eat potatoes.
But their ancestors did not, as potatoes only came to Ireland sometime after 1530. That's not very far back.
Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers/chiles, chocolate...none of those things existed in Europe until they were introduced from the new world.0 -
This is just another gimmick to sell books. It's basically saying that daily intake of fruits with meat/seafood/lentils together causes obesity-related disorders as do raw vegetables. That the healthy food craze is what's causing us to get sick. Just because certain fruits and vegetables are popular and their health benefits are overstated does not mean that people are eating a lot of them. The average intake of fruits and vegetables is actually not that high.
It could be my lack of sleep last night, but I found the the article to be inconsistent and lacking a clear message. In one paragraph it seems to blame fruits and vegetables for our ailments, and in another it touts fruits vegetables as healthy. In one paragraph it praises a good balanced nutrient-rich diet and in another it claims a balanced diet of one culture could be harmful for another, then circles back to say that it's okay to eat other traditional diets.
People who move to the USA and consequently change their diet to be heavy in convenience nutrient-poor energy-dense foods will of course see higher incidence of diabetes, kale has nothing to do with it.
Lactose intolerance aside, as this is a well understood issue, our ancestors have little to do with food-related intolerances. I tolerate rice perfectly although I don't have any asian roots. I also tolerate beans better than anyone I know although I don't have any mexican roots. What I tolerate poorly is eggs, although I know for a fact that I come from a long line of farmers with eggs being a staple. Olive oil was a major player in my weight gain although my original ancestors from the 13th generation and up were greek.
I really don't feel the need to line someone's pockets to know that eating a balanced nutritious diet is a good thing then listen to a bunch of sciency-sounding excuses full of twisted facts to convince me of it. I already know.0 -
Look what three generations can do. My granddaughter's heritage is 1/2 Rwandan, 1/4 Scottish, 1/4 German (In other words, 100% Canadian). Her mother does not tolerate milk very well, her father, well, if there were a case for homogeneous genetic predilection, theirs would be it. The Tutsi culture centers around cattle and their milk, and the people are tall. My granddaughter is meh when it comes to milk preferring almond milk. But she's tall.
So what in the heck is my granddaughter supposed to eat?0
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