What Our Ancestors Ate to Keep Fit and Active

What little evidence we have on the diet of our prehistoric ancestors, and what we know from indigenous cultures that lasted into our times shows that our ancestors were not primarily carnivores. Most of the diet was plant food, roots, seeds, nuts and fruits gathered by the women, and maybe fish and seafood. What meat our ancestors did eat was a far cry from the meat we find in our supermarkets, which is full of unhealthy saturated fats.

Whenever I tell people that I am vegetarian or that I often recommend a vegetarian diet to my patients, someone invariably asks, 'But aren't we meant to eat meat? 'Haven't human beings always eaten lots of meat?'

According to my anthropologist friend, the answer is No. Except for the Innuit who ate mostly fish and seals because their environment did not allow much plant growth. In most early societies, the meat brought home by hunters made up only a part of the diet. (Sorry, all you hunters out there!) Most of the diet was plant food, roots, seeds, nuts and fruits gathered by the women, and maybe fish and seafood.

Just as important is the kind of red meat our ancestors thrived on. They ate wild game which is significantly lower in fat, saturated fats and calories than farm-raised meat, and much higher in EPA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid that reduces the risk of atherosclerosis. That is a far cry from the meat we find in our supermarkets, which is full of unhealthy saturated fats and chemicals introduced in meat production processes.

Even when humans began keeping food animals - cows, pigs, goats, poultry, or sheep - those animals were much more valuable alive, producing milk, eggs, and dung for fuel, than as roasts. Most food animals were only eaten at feast times or celebrations.

In fact, go to any small village in Europe and Asia or elsewhere, and you will still find that pattern. If meat is included in the daily diet, it is usually in very small amounts to enrich and flavour a predominantly vegetarian meal.

You see, village farmers know two things that most westerners who buy meat from supermarkets don't:

1. A person can thrive with very little or no meat at all in the diet

2. It takes four times the amount of food and land and lots more water to raise a food animal than it does to feed a whole family on plant foods. In terms of resources and energy, meat is very costly.

So village farmers eat meat sparingly and save it for special occasions or for broths to strengthen invalids.

When we buy our meat from supermarkets, we don't see the real cost of that meat. We don't realize that for each steak and plastic-wrapped packet of minced meat, we sacrifice enough healthy land to feed a family, and to give several villages clean drinking water for years. We don't count the cost in polluted water, air and soil that we - and our children - pay for the meat we eat.

Nor do we realize the price we pay in poor health for eating lots of meat. We now eat 4 times as much meat as our great grandparents did, and as a result, suffer from untold digestive disorders, bowel cancer (the 4th largest killer of British men), obesity, burgeoning allergies, rheumatoid arthritis and rampant heart disease.

I am not advocating a vegetarian diet (though it has many benefits), just a common sense balance of vegetables and fruits, seeds and nuts, eggs, lentils, yogurt, tofu, and a variety of whole grains (buckwheat, quinoa, oats, barley, brown rice, whole wheat), fish...and if you like it now and then, a little meat.

If you love meat, make it an occasional treat, not the main part of your diet. Add it to vegetable stir fries; toss thin lightly cooked strips into your salads; or once a week, have a good, small steak with lightly steamed vegetables. Eat lots of vegetables (no grains or starches!) with your meat to aid digestion so you'll get all the benefits from whatever meat you eat. Or try going totally vegetarian for a month, and see how much more energetic and lighter you feel!