Diet from the Stone Age could be the way forward (From Worcester News)

Diet from the Stone Age could be the way forward

9:06am Wednesday 18th January 2012 in James Connell By James Connell

Diet from the Stone Age could be the way forward

WHEN most people think of the caveman they probably picture Fred Flintstone or some big hairy bloke with a bone through his nose holding a club.

But, believe it or not, the caveman is also a diet based on what our ancestors ate long before the supermarket, the takeaway, the microwave meal and the pot noodle were even so much as a glint in the eyes of their inventors.

The palaeolithic diet, to give the diet its technical name, describes a way of eating much as our palaeolithic ancestors would have done before the advent of farming, a relatively recent development in our evolutionary history.

Adam Miles, founder of Weighs2Change, who also works at Nuffield Health, off Droitwich Road, Worcester, has more than 11 years of experience as a personal trainer and nutritionist and has made it his mission to wade into the murky, prehistoric swamp of our distant beginnings for answers.

He said: “The basic idea behind the caveman diet is that for millions of years, humans and their relatives have eaten meat, fish, eggs and the leaves, roots and fruits of many plants. Basically, anything that could be foraged from the natural environment while on the move.

“One big obstacle to getting more calories from the environment is the fact that many plants are inedible. Grains, beans and potatoes are full of energy, but all are inedible in the raw state as they contain many toxins.”

Mr Miles said we started eating this type of diet about 2.5 millions years ago and it only changed drastically when we discovered agriculture.

He said: “The idea is that our genes and physiology evolved over the 2.5 million years through the process of natural selection and are most adapted to be nourished with the food that we evolved around.”

Such food would include beef, fish, shellfish, poultry, pork, lamb, bison, including their fat and organs, as well as eggs, vegetables, fruits and nuts. He said: “On the opposite side, some of the foods that we started eating in large quantities since the beginning of agriculture about 10,000 years ago are completely alien to our genes and metabolism and wreak havoc in our body, often causing what we call the diseases of civilisation.”

Mr Miles said these include obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, auto-immune diseases, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s and a host of other conditions unknown to our ancestors. He said: “We can see this in action when we study the few hunter gatherer societies still living in isolated pockets around the world today. These societies seem not to suffer from the lifestyle diseases mentioned above even though their quality of life on the surface seems much lower than our own.”

Meats (including seafood) and eggs are perhaps the most important components of the caveman diet. Ideally, the animals from which the eggs and meat come from are fed a natural organic diet. Chickens have access to greens, insects and grain. Cattle eat grass and other pasture greenery. Fish should come from the wild, or at least be fed what wild fish eat. Some versions simply say that if it can’t be eaten raw, don’t eat it, though this doesn’t mean that it must be eaten raw, only that it should be able to be eaten raw.

Potatoes and other starchy tubers are not allowed. Foods made from flour are also not allowed so bread and pasta are out.

Fruits are generally allowed although many advocates of the caveman diet advise that people who need to lose weight should limit consumption of high sugar fruits. Fruit juice should only be consumed in small quantities as it is very high in simple sugars. Nuts and seeds are generally allowed although, again, those who want to lose weight should limit them to a couple of handfuls per day.

Olive oil, nut oils, and flax seed oil can be used and fish oil supplements are often recommended. Drinking lots of water and limiting caffeine and alcohol are also important.

Mr Miles said people on the diet often feel they have more energy and are more alert.

He said: “I would always recommend that you speak to a health professional first before making any changes to your dietary intake.”

Nutritionist Monica Price, of Cutnall Green, near Droitwich, helped devise the key change, a tool which clips on to a supermarket trolley which helps people work out how much fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates and salt is in the food they buy.

Mrs Price, who has a different view about the caveman diet, said: “That sort of diet will cause a lot of problems with cardiovascular disease because red meat is known as a risk factor in cardiovascular disease. There is a lot of saturated fat in meat. We also now live a more sedentary lifestyle when, in palaeolithic times, we would run for miles to catch our food while foraging would use a lot of stretching and pulling, building lots of muscle. To make this diet work you would have to go to the gym.

This is a diet for body-builders or those who want to build good muscle tone. There are other diets that are just as good.”

For further information on Weighs2Change, e-mail adam. miles@ weighs2 change.

com.