A healthy body and a healthy mind. That’s what we’re all about at Castlefield Clinic, and there is a lot going around about a new Caveman Diet.
The word diet immediately brings up negative connotations about starving yourself or denying yourself the things you love to eat. We prefer to call it ‘going back to our roots’ because the caveman diet is just that.
Human beings have evolved over thousands of years from the same small group of descendents who once roamed the plains of the savannas of East Africa. Consequently, our ancestors, who were foragers by nature, have shaped us as human beings. We still have the same physiology, digestive system, biochemistry, and mentalities.
Our foraging ancestors didn’t suffer from obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis or any of these diseases associated with a more modern lifestyle. They walked 15 to 20 miles a day, hunted for their food, and ate in the ratio of 1 part of animal matter like meat to 4 parts raw plant matter like vegetables and fresh fruit.
They ate plenty of micronutrients, that our bodies came to depend on. And these micronutrients helped aid digestion more than anything else. Our digestive system is designed to be full of healthy bacteria that keeps the body healthy and keeps us safe from harm. However, over the years, and more recently in the last 1,000 years, our dietary habits have changed beyond recognition, which has made our digestive system a toxic sewer, leading to diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s, diverticulitis and cancer.
When it started to go wrong
Sugar
Our bodies were designed and adapted to a low glycaemic diet, that was low in sugar.
Surprising Fact: Our ancestors only consumed 4 pounds of sugar per head per year in the form of honey. We, in contrast, consume nealry 160 pounds per head per year, which is a whopping 4,000% higher. And yet this has happened in a relatively short timescale, so our bodies have not adapted to this sudden change.
Grain
It all started to go wrong when we began farming. It became common to start eating grain, which is starchy and so another form of sugar. This meant we were already consuming a lot of hidden sugar before we even knew about it.
Surprising Fact: the hidden sugar from a slice of toast hits our blood stream faster than eating a teaspoon of sugar. This leads to hyperinsulinemia, and that excess sugar goes straight to fatten the hips and thighs!
Grains are not only starchy, but they are poor in micronutrients, and therefore we are denying our bodies the key nourishment they need to function correctly… the way of our ancestors.
Potatoes
Another staple of the modern diet, which only emerged 200 years ago, is as bad as grain… the humble potato. A potato causes the same hyperinsulinemia that grain does, but it also carries some nasty poisons which inhibit the good bacteria in our digestive system.
Fats
Life in the savannas was not particularly fat-free, indeed fat accounted for nearly 25% of the overall daily intake. That fat, however, was rich in omega-3 and omega-6. We need a balance of the two to lead a healthy life.
Dairy Products
Around 2,000 years ago, the herders of north-west europe developed a strange habit of consuming the milk secretions from the mammary glands of their lactating animals… they started drinking milk! Thus, dairy farming as an industry was born.
But consuming milk is not a normal human adult activity. Milk is for the young of the species. Even human milk isn;t right for humans after the age of about 4 because we don;t have the digestive enzymes to handle it, and we don’t need it anymore.
Surprising Fact: Only about 20% of the entire world’s population consumes dairy products.
So What Does This All Mean?
The first part of the process is understanding why ceetain foods are bad for us, and ultimately what they can do to us. After that, it is important to understand that it is simply a matter of retraining ourselves to treasure and crave the foods we once did 60,000 years ago.
Consider your food as a pyramid.
1. At the base, you want low-starch, raw plant food – i.e. eat one big salad every day!
2. Then come the low-starch vegetables – i.e. the usual vegetables but avoid potatoes and go easy on sweet potato, carrots and peas
3. Next up are the low glycaemic fruits such as berries. They are packed with micronutrients. you should go easy on sugary fruits like mango, melon and pineapples
4. This next layer is about good proteins like tree nuts, as well as all kinds of seafood. Oily fish and eggs in particular are rich in omega-3
5. Finally most poultry is fine such as chicken, turkey, duck, goose, and wild game, but do avoid battery chickens due to their poor fatyy acid profile.
In fact, most animal matter is fine apart from beef, lamb, and especially pork as they are high in saturated fats that disrupt our biochemistry, cause cancer, and heart disease.
Lifestyle Choices
Sun Exposure
Our ancestors spent 365 days under the tropical sun, and so our bodies are used to getting plenty of sunshine. Unfortunately, due to the fear of melanoma, westerners shy away from the sun too much now. Low exposure to the sun can cause osteoporosis, depression, diabetes, obesity and ironically melanoma.
A good suntan is healthy and even attractive because it is the brain detecting health sunshine nutrition… just don’t burn yourself.
Exercise
It goes without saying that our ancestors exercised a lot. Our lifestyles are much more sedentary. But exercise need only be moderate. A recent study showed that regular golfers lived 5 years longer on average than non-golfers, just because they regularly walked 4 or 5 miles!
Action Plan
So in summary, you action plan should not be to embark on a diet, but a way of life that takes you back to your roots.
1. Eat plenty of low-sugar fruit and veg including 1 big salad everyday
2. Avoid grains, dairy products and potatoes
3. Avoid beef, lamb, and pork
4. Get out in the sun
5. Do some moderate exercise
