What are humans designed to eat?
What are humans designed to eat?
This should be the most basic question underlying all dietary recommendations.
The answer needs to take into account many facets like anatomy, physiology, and evolutionary history.
In exploring this question there is 1 really big hint…(and it’s been right behind our eyes!)
I first gave this hint in an instagram story (saved under “brains”) and then broke it down in a tweetstorm:
What are humans designed to eat?
Here are 2 hints:
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
1st hint:
For several decades now healthcare has told us to cut down on fats, especially saturated fats, avoid red meat, eat a diet consisting of whole grains and starches, and lots of fruits and vegetables.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
Since we have followed these recommendations obesity, diabetes and a host of other diseases and chronic illness have exploded.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
2nd hint:
Our brains exploded.
I’ll explain.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
2.5 million years ago and earlier hominid fossils show that our cranial cavities remain fairly constant in size.
But 2.5 million years ago our brains begain to explode in size. Growing to 4 times their ancestors size.
So what happened 2.5 million years ago?
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
About 2.5 million years ago the world cooled down and the series of ice ages began which lasted until roughly 10k years ago.
So for 2.5M years even places close the equator would have had a climate similar to that of Greenland today.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
With long cold winters and short cool summers, there would have been very few plant foods for much of the year.
It was inevitable that animals like reindeer, bears, rhino, mammoths had to become our prominent food source.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
Ice Age animals tended to be fat, and their fat provided both insulation against the cold and energy reserves.
It was this fat that humans ate that built our brains.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
Animal fat is a source of ready-made long-chain fatty acids, including 20 and 22 carbon chain fatty acids like AA, DTA, EPA, DHA essential for brain development and found only in animal foods.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
The longest chain in vegetable oils – linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3) are 18 carbon fatty acids.
Humans, just like all mammals can chain elongate and desaturate these to produce the longer chain fatty acids but we’re very inefficient at it.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
By eating meat, we fed the brain with preformed 20 and 22 carbon fatty acids.
We no longer had to endogenously synthesize these fats from the 18 carbon plant fatty acids.
Our brain growth could never have happened without these fats.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
Now for the scary part of the story.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
10k years ago we invented agriculture at the end of the last ice age.
We traded our high-energy, fat-rich foods of animal origin for grains which became our staple food.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
In the last 10k years, which is basically overnight in terms of our evolutionary history, our brain has shrunk well over 10%.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
I’ll let you decide what you think we are designed to eat.
— Kevin Stock (@kevinstock12) April 17, 2018
My brain is a big reason why I first experimented with a carnivore diet.
Sometimes the evidence isn’t right in front of our eyes – but right behind them.
So this is a hint into our evolutionary history – but what does our anatomy say we should eat?
Are we built more like herbivores or carnivores?
Great questions. Here you go 🙂
Hope this helps clarify, and come join me on twitter for the next tweetstorm ?
I also email these out every saturday at 7…