What do we really know about cave men (and women)?

dunnodunno

And if The Flintstones have taught us anything, they used wisecracking animals as household (cavehold?) gadgets.

And had cars that they used with their feet.

MyChocolateDiet

Here is the answer:

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Debunking-the-Paleo-Diet-Christ

This was really interesting. I bet many paleo-diet adherents would be surprised to learn that plaque analysis of paleolithic-period dental remains in certain regions shows they ate barley and legumes.

lol. told husband this. his reply. "i don't care". back to cave.

MyChocolateDiet

I don't know about cave men... but I am a christian and the original man was Adam from the Bible. And we know from what the Bible says that he did not eat meat, but lived perfectly in the garden with a diet of fruit and veggies.

Well, yes. That's what everyone meant.

yeah but just stay away from that pesky apple. apples are SUCH a problem on MFP. from wax and chemical laden ones that can't cut into 1 ingredient diets to this one that can't be part of eden living, to that snow white one. man apples have a bad rap.

MyChocolateDiet

I'm not looking to put down the Paleo (or any other) diet. Anything that works for my fellow health seekers is great. I just want to raise a question about evolution because I see so many posts that say we evolved to eat this or that.

My question is, how do we know that what was optimal for survival of cave people is optimal for us? Cave people didn't live very long; the key to life, for them, was living to the point where they could have children and raise those children to the point of being able to take care of themselves. Very long life might even have been counter-productive. Sure, the elders could provide some wisdom from things they had experienced that would help younger people, but having too many elders would harm the clan or tribe because they mostly consumed resources without contributing them.

So it could be that the cave diet was optimal for a fairly short but productive life, rather than the very long llife that we now seek. They didn't worry too much about eating to avoid heart disease or cancer because they didn't tend to live long enough to experience those diseases.

Like I said, that's not to criticize the Paleo or any other diet; it doesn't mean they don't work. But the reasons they work might not have anything to do with assumptions about how we're "naturally" meant to eat. Animals evolve pretty quickly. Not too long after the cave days, Northern Europeans evolved to digest lactose without problems. When men became farmers, a certain set of wolves evolved to eat grains as well as meat--they were the wolves who wanted easy pickings from men's garbage, and the ones who could digest the grains that tended to be in the garbage were the ones who would survive and pass on their genes. What we think of as natural might not actually be optimal.

BTW nice use of euphemisms for "no offence" and the like OP. Hat's off.

DebbieLyn63

I just returned from seeing the movie- The Croods- and I now have the ultimate answer to what cavemen ate. They ate eggs from weird blue chicken/birds and later ate one of the chicken/birds, and at one point, had the opportunity to eat popcorn, and turned it down.

I, on the other hand, had plenty of popcorn while watching the very amusing movie with my family. My body isn't too happy with me right now, but it is worth it every once in a while, since I MUST have popcorn at the movies! Back to my chicken and veggies now.:happy:

mahanaibu

I just returned from seeing the movie- The Croods- and I now have the ultimate answer to what cavemen ate. They ate eggs from weird blue chicken/birds and later ate one of the chicken/birds, and at one point, had the opportunity to eat popcorn, and turned it down.

I, on the other hand, had plenty of popcorn while watching the very amusing movie with my family. My body isn't too happy with me right now, but it is worth it every once in a while, since I MUST have popcorn at the movies! Back to my chicken and veggies now.:happy:

;7)

eric_sg61

Paleo man ate what was available to survive. Modern "paleo" can arbitrarily pick and choose what to eat based on a guess of what real paleos ate. Unfortunately, paleo man didn't have option 2, and would enjoy a piece of cake.

Confuzzled4ever

they didn't shave very often.

I him... He's got a big...club.. i heard it's the biggest out of all the cave dudes..

Confuzzled4ever

I think a cave brain would explode upon explanation of how the food gets to us..... Now just sit still cave dude. We have to phone the pizza man. ....... No we aren't going to kill him when he gets here.....

No.. he was ok.. They already made the movie.. (pauley shore with brenden fraiser i think?) It's been made official.. Cavemen were hot! and they can be acclimated to 20th century living if you are a stoner.. woah dude...

neanderthin

Obviously, not very much.:happy:

DaniH826

They were probably omnivores ... just like us.

mahanaibu

I'm not looking to put down the Paleo (or any other) diet. Anything that works for my fellow health seekers is great. I just want to raise a question about evolution because I see so many posts that say we evolved to eat this or that.

My question is, how do we know that what was optimal for survival of cave people is optimal for us? Cave people didn't live very long; the key to life, for them, was living to the point where they could have children and raise those children to the point of being able to take care of themselves. Very long life might even have been counter-productive. Sure, the elders could provide some wisdom from things they had experienced that would help younger people, but having too many elders would harm the clan or tribe because they mostly consumed resources without contributing them.

So it could be that the cave diet was optimal for a fairly short but productive life, rather than the very long llife that we now seek. They didn't worry too much about eating to avoid heart disease or cancer because they didn't tend to live long enough to experience those diseases.

Like I said, that's not to criticize the Paleo or any other diet; it doesn't mean they don't work. But the reasons they work might not have anything to do with assumptions about how we're "naturally" meant to eat. Animals evolve pretty quickly. Not too long after the cave days, Northern Europeans evolved to digest lactose without problems. When men became farmers, a certain set of wolves evolved to eat grains as well as meat--they were the wolves who wanted easy pickings from men's garbage, and the ones who could digest the grains that tended to be in the garbage were the ones who would survive and pass on their genes. What we think of as natural might not actually be optimal.

BTW nice use of euphemisms for "no offence" and the like OP. Hat's off.

actually, that was sincerely meant. The Paleo diet could be great, or great for certain people, whatever .I'm just working hard on getting my weight down without judging others. I like what my nutritionist says: If one way of eating worked for everyone, we'd have a lot fewer problems with obesity. I just for years have been hearing, well we evolved to eat this way, or we evolved to eat that way. I'm not an expert on nutrition, but I am very interested in archaeology and evolution, and aside from the uncertainty about exactly how cave folks lived and what they ate, wanted to just put a bug in people's ears about whether that was even a relevant question for eating today.

neanderthin

It's just an eating philosophy to counter the SAD diet where about 60-5% of the foods are processed. Novel foods )processed and fast foods) and consuming them in proportions that cause problems (hypercaloric) is the basic argument, but for some reason has become a religion to some.

pennydreadful270

The thing that bothers me most about paleo is that many people do not accept how privileged one has to be to follow such a diet. I have seen people say others are stupid for eating grains, there's this whole superiority thing, like we have the right answer and everyone else is clearly a moron.

Well, our society only advanced to the point it has because of our cheap carbohydrate based diet. Moving from paleo to agriculture meant we could increase our population, and it seems to me that we are still in that position. I do not believe we could support the world's food need if everyone stopped eating grains. Meat would have a huge increase in price for a start.

Doesn't mean it's right, I would rather see the human population decrease. But it's a fact that most of the world still lives on this "stupid" type of diet, whether it's rice or wheat or potato based. To be able to choose not to eat carbohydrates, and swap for more expensive meat and fat, means you are in a tiny percent of the worlds population in terms of wealth.

Just, don't be so smug about it.

neanderthin

The thing that bothers me most about paleo is that many people do not accept how privileged one has to be to follow such a diet. I have seen people say others are stupid for eating grains, there's this whole superiority thing, like we have the right answer and everyone else is clearly a moron.

Well, our society only advanced to the point it has because of our cheap carbohydrate based diet. Moving from paleo to agriculture meant we could increase our population, and it seems to me that we are still in that position. I do not believe we could support the world's food need if everyone stopped eating grains. Meat would have a huge increase in price for a start.

Doesn't mean it's right, I would rather see the human population decrease. But it's a fact that most of the world still lives on this "stupid" type of diet, whether it's rice or wheat or potato based. To be able to choose not to eat carbohydrates, and swap for more expensive meat and fat, means you are in a tiny percent of the worlds population in terms of wealth.

Just, don't be so smug about it.

Low carb (more meat) is another point that seems to have been adapted without much actual evidence. Today if we look at modern H-G'ers around the world, not a lot of them left mind you, the macronutrient breakdown is pretty varied and for some reason low carb has been adapted and a dim view of carbs adapted, probably because a big percentage of carbs in this Country are derived from cereal grains. Considering the diversity of animal/plant availability dependent of region, it's unlikely that all H-G'er ate the same ratio's lol.

EIEIElenaO

Bet they ate more bugs than brontosaurus burgers for their meat. . .