Our cave-dwelling ancestors were hunter gatherers. Their diet varied depending on where they lived, but generally the men hunted large animals and the women gathered seeds, nuts, fruit, eggs and wild greens. They ate a lot of protein and very little fat. When our ancestors settled down and began farming around 10,000 years ago, grains were added to their diets.
Modern diets – a health hazard?
Some people are now suggesting that grains and other carbohydrate foods lead to modern health problems, particularly obesity and diabetes. They say our bodies aren’t genetically programmed to eat grains and high-carbohydrate foods and we should go back to a caveman-style diet, with more protein and fat, and fewer carbohydrates.
Are these claims supported by scientific research?
No. In fact, these ideas go against the findings of every dietary study for years. Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton believes that the caveman diet was fine for cavemen, who had short, very active lives, but it’s not necessarily suitable for us. Obesity and diabetes were rare for 10,000 years and have only become problems in the last 30-50 years. It makes more sense to look at modern lifestyles, and especially our lack of exercise, for the causes of obesity and diabetes. There’s no one dietary pattern that suits everyone, but there really is a lot of evidence that we’d be much healthier if we ate only small amounts of lean meat and more plant based foods including things like fruits and vegetables, grains, seeds, nuts and breads.
Do we need to change anything?
Yes. We need to stop eating so many junk foods and exercise more. Rosemary says it would be a backward step if we started eating fatty meats and rejected all the really good wholegrain breads and cereal products that are now available. There’s certainly no evidence to suggest that we’d live longer or be healthier if we all went back to following a caveman diet.
