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

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Replies

  • mustangmonie
    mustangmonie Posts: 33 Member
    Very thoughtfully stated.
  • meaningful99
    meaningful99 Posts: 174
    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.
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
    People live so much longer now, but what is the quality of life for many elderly people? What's so great about living to be 90+ if you lose you mind, wear diapers and need constant care?

    Whether you end up like that depends a lot on lifestyle. Check out the Okinawan study, and a book called 'The Blue Zones'. There are areas of the world with a high concentration of centenarians who are still active and mentally with it, due to their lifestyles largely.
  • Callie_littlemorgan
    Callie_littlemorgan Posts: 5 Member
    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. :)
  • MsPudding
    MsPudding Posts: 562 Member
    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. :)

    .....not sure if you're joking.

    I hope you're joking.
  • chkn_WANG_Train
    chkn_WANG_Train Posts: 143
    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.....
  • holsieg
    holsieg Posts: 21
    If you really want to do a hunter-gatherer diet, you should run around all day to catch an animal for the village (or spend all day foraging if you're a woman), eat as much as you physically can, then eat again when you get more food. No wonder that hunter-gatherer's are so lean.

    I find it strange that some recommend eating small meals throughout the day (at the same time as recommending that we eat only foods which our evolutionary ancestors would have eaten), when our evolutionary ancestors would eat large meals, then possibly not eat for a day or two. I guess it depends on what you find the best for yourself
  • Contrarian
    Contrarian Posts: 8,138 Member
    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.
  • Asterie
    Asterie Posts: 159 Member
    Instead of hitting on women at the club they hit them over the head with a club, which I can say from experience, is a LOT more effective.

    HAHAHA! I'm glad someone's got it all figured out. :D
  • larnsperger
    larnsperger Posts: 161 Member
    What we know about cavemen is that they would have loved to eat candy bars, bacon, bread and birthday cake. That's for sure.


    ^This for sure!
  • dunnodunno
    dunnodunno Posts: 2,290 Member
    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
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    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
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    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
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    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
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    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
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    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
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    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
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    they didn't shave very often.

    CAPTAIN+CAVEMAN+COLOR+3.jpg
    I <3 him... He's got a big...club.. i heard it's the biggest out of all the cave dudes..
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    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
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    Obviously, not very much.:happy:
  • DaniH826
    DaniH826 Posts: 1,335 Member
    They were probably omnivores ... just like us.
  • mahanaibu
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    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
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    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
    pennydreadful270 Posts: 266 Member
    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
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    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
    EIEIElenaO Posts: 101 Member
    Bet they ate more bugs than brontosaurus burgers for their meat. . . :smile:

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