Ancestral Diet... eating right for your origins

azulvioleta6 wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

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.

You didn't read the thread or the article did you?

azulvioleta6 wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

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.

I mentioned that way back in the thread. But OP's article said grandparents, so people have been talking about various ancestors. I don't know how all of my specific ancestors ate 10,000 years ago or whatever, no one does.

azulvioleta6 wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

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.

So how far back in history need my ancestors to have eaten a food before it's good for me?

The haggis and potatoes I'm cool with. Whatever the Vikings ate (fermented fish product?), I'm less cool with.

EvgeniZyntx wrote: »

I get all the tacos and kielbasa!! Falafel and chorizo!! Chocolatl!

That's it, you're adopting me. That's how this works, right?

I didn't read the whole thread, but I wanted to chime in. What people eat by region has had to do with the climate of the area and the foods that could be grown there for centuries. Rice in monsoon climates, olives and wine in Mediterranean climates, root vegetables and cabbage in wet/dry colder climates, etc, etc.. It's the same reason we have different skin colors, hair colors and textures, heights, and eye shapes - temperature, excess or lack of sun exposure, desert living - our ancestry dictates our distinct characteristics. But anyway, people of different countries have cultural eating habits that reflect our past. It doesn't mean that people are "meant" to eat anything. In modern industrialized nations, all of that crap went out the window anyway.

Also, Lactose tolerance is a mutation, and proof of evolution.

Carlos_421 wrote: »

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.

Yep! Pretty simple really. People come up with far too many rules and regulations and/or excuses. Eat what suits you and your lifestyle!

This is rubbish. My family is from India but even as little as a 1,000 years ago India didn't exist and it's people were mostly soldiers from other places (in the case of my family - Tibet, Taiwan, Nepal, Egypt, Iran though I look very Indian).

I dare you to just try taking my Mango from me.

crazyjerseygirl wrote: »

EvgeniZyntx wrote: »

I get all the tacos and kielbasa!! Falafel and chorizo!! Chocolatl!

You are quite the perfect mix!
Let's see I get lots of Ham products (polish) but my husband is Jewish so does that mean my kid can't eat anything???

I'm partially a Jewish pole, so I hope not. Kielbasa for the kids, too. Latkes for everyone.

There are several issues with the article, which is being taken as scientific, but wasn't really intended, as far as I can see, for that purpose. It is meant, just to get you thinking. Which has been a success, so there ya go.

Beyond that, here are some of my thoughts.
1. Correlation does not equal causation. The article is cherry picking information from various studies, which aren't sited, which you have no idea who funded, carried out and interpreted. Eating ice cream is correlated with more shark attacks, but ice cream doesn't cause them, it's just because there are more attacks in summer, which is when more ice cream is eaten.
2. It sounds like the "ancestral" populations started having issues when they adopted Western Diets, which has nothing to do with your genetic make up and everything to do with eating too many refined carbs and sugars.
3. Vegetables as dangerous? Really? Yes there are trace amounts of cyanide in apples (but I believe that is in the core and seeds, but I may be mistaken). Seeds have items such as natural insect repellants and phytates etc that hinder consumption and breakdown. Thats because seeds want to be planted, not eaten.
4. Finally, how in the world do they KNOW what our hominid ancestors ate? Have they found a stomach with food in it? A hominid with his dinner plate in hand? Talk about reaching.

I eat a certain way that makes me feel good bodily and keeps me at a healthy weight and strong. That so happens to mean that I eat less sugar, no grains for the most part and the lower end of carbs. If it works for you do it.

Rant over.

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crazyjerseygirl wrote: »

cmarangi wrote: »

There are several issues with the article, which is being taken as scientific, but wasn't really intended, as far as I can see, for that purpose. It is meant, just to get you thinking. Which has been a success, so there ya go.

Beyond that, here are some of my thoughts.
1. Correlation does not equal causation. The article is cherry picking information from various studies, which aren't sited, which you have no idea who funded, carried out and interpreted. Eating ice cream is correlated with more shark attacks, but ice cream doesn't cause them, it's just because there are more attacks in summer, which is when more ice cream is eaten.
2. It sounds like the "ancestral" populations started having issues when they adopted Western Diets, which has nothing to do with your genetic make up and everything to do with eating too many refined carbs and sugars.
3. Vegetables as dangerous? Really? Yes there are trace amounts of cyanide in apples (but I believe that is in the core and seeds, but I may be mistaken). Seeds have items such as natural insect repellants and phytates etc that hinder consumption and breakdown. Thats because seeds want to be planted, not eaten.
4. Finally, how in the world do they KNOW what our hominid ancestors ate? Have they found a stomach with food in it? A hominid with his dinner plate in hand? Talk about reaching.

I eat a certain way that makes me feel good bodily and keeps me at a healthy weight and strong. That so happens to mean that I eat less sugar, no grains for the most part and the lower end of carbs. If it works for you do it.

Rant over.

I think I may actually know this! Paleobotinists. They specialize in identifying fossilized plants, seeds and pollen. So we can know what plants were around our ancestors (and extrapolate what was eaten by what we can eat today). There is also evidence of cut marks on bones that have been butchered, so we can see what meat was eaten.
It's not as direct as finding direct stomach contents, but it's pretty awesome science!

It's very cool, but I still suspect that most of us don't know where our specific ancestors were precisely. People migrated over time. I know where my ancestors were (mostly) before they came to the US, but 10,000 years ago or more? Nope.