Thursday, October 6, 2011

Breaking out of the Zoo

Imagine for a moment you are a Zookeeper (its okay if the animals at your zoo talk to you, we won't judge), you have one job--keep the animals healthy and happy.  Okay just move the animals out of their habitat, put them all in a cage and feed them corn, right?  

Not likely...Pandas get pissed when they can't get their bamboo fix, and we all know pandas have skills.  Not to mention corn is well... lets save that topic for another post, for today lets just say corn has no place in the breakfast of champions or pandas.

All kidding aside, to ensure the animals live a happy, healthy life you would do your best to reproduce the environment in which the animals evolved.  You would give birds space to fly, monkeys trees to climb, and of course your pandas need their bamboo.  Animals living in the wild are healthier, often live longer and rarely become ill.  The same principle holds true to humans, to be healthy and happy we need to move, eat and live in ways that resemble the humans of the wild.

So what is the "natural habitat" of humans?  For most of human history, we have functioned as hunter-gatherers in the wild.  Not only did our ancestors survive... they THRIVED! 

From the Arctic to the tropical rain forests, deserts and mountains to grassy plains, humans adapted to living in the most extreme environments.  An ever increasing amount of evidence is proving our hunter-gatherer ancestors were taller, stronger, and healthier than we had previously believed.  Sure life expectancy was lower for our ancestors due to trauma, violence and infection-- most hunter-gatherers lived a life free of chronic disease and obesity.  All of this WITHOUT domesticated plants or animals-- just communication, teamwork, and some human ingenuity.

Fast forward to 10-15 thousand years ago, the Agricultural Revolution;  humans began to tame the wild, domesticating wild grains into what we know today as wheat, corn and rice.  Wild animals were bred and kept at pasture for their milk and meat, humans were exposed to new foods they had not evolved to eat.  These "advances" allowed for human kind to settle into more permanent dwellings, civilization was flourishing, while individual health was negatively affected.  "Diseases of Civilization" like cancer, heart disease,  diabetes, and obesity began to occur frequently, those same diseases avoided by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

If it's so easy a caveman could do it.. why can't we?


Short answer--we can, by eating a diet more like that of our not so distant ancestors (you don't have to ditch your fork and knife).  Okay makes sense, I'll do that, but wait what did our hunter-gatherer ancestors eat? Well thankfully some wicked smart kids up at Harvard dedicated the time to figuring this stuff out (okay I am sure they are not all from Harvard but some of them had to be).  Turns out hunter-gatherers ate only what can be hunted or gathered (d'uh) meat, veggies, nuts, berries, and some fruit.


If you have any questions about how to eat more like a hunter-gatherer, or would like more information on how to get started don't hesitate to email me or comment below.