To Eat or Not To Eat Meat? That Is The Question

Let me ask you a simple question?  What is the perfect diet?  Is there such a thing?  Are we genetically optimized to eat a certain type of diet?  Low carbs?  Low Fat?  The Zone Diet?  The Paleo Diet?  The Atkins Diet? The South Beach Diet?  Vegetarianism?  Vegan?...  Well, one thing I can almost certainly guarantee, is that you'll get a different answer depending on who you ask. 

Not at all surprising, considering we get contradicting information from real experts, as well as "so-called" experts and of course our highly trusted media (...wink...wink...) including the worldwide webs. When real facts get mixed up with opinions and even worse...get suppressed or manipulated due to monetary gains and political influences we end up in the mess that we're in today. 

I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that the decline in our general health and the progressive incline of serious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, obesity, metabolic syndrome  and autoimmune disorders (...the list goes on...) can largely be attributed to poor diet.  A poor diet that consists mainly of processed foods, packed with sugar, trans fats and other compounds detrimental to our health.  The problem is the boundaries of what's considered "real" food have become so deeply blurred that whole foods are more foreign to people than processed foods.  And this brings me back to my original question? 

Is there such a thing as the perfect diet?  A diet that can prevent modern diseases and reverse our declining health and get us healthy enough so we can kick our dependency on drugs?  Well that's exactly what the film makers of a documentary called "In Search of the Perfect Human Diet" wanted to find out.  The makers of the film travel all over the world interviewing experts, collecting information and facts in search for the answer to their one question...the perfect diet.  Personally I liked the film and if you're into health and diet, I think it's worth a look. I especially appreciated the fact that the film makers gathered information from experts in the field of evolutionary anthropology and Paleolithic human nutrition who have no (real) biased opinion when it comes to nutrition.  They are academia that base their conclusions on hard evidences found from fossilized remains.  And according to our 2 million year evolutionary timeline, evolutionary anthropological evidences clearly indicate that we (humans) evolved eating meat, rich in protein and fats, as our main source of food.  In fact, evidences show that the consumption of meat is what allowed our brains to grow and develop.  If we had evolved as herbivores (plant eating organism) we would have lacked the brain development due to the absence of vital nutrients, necessary for brain development, in plant foods. Our current Neolithic diet has only been around for the last 20,000 years, since the introduction of agriculture, which means for the first 1.98 million years of our existence or 99% of our time, we thrived on a protein rich diet without much carbohydrates. 

It's funny to think that a low carb diet is thought of as a fad or even sometimes frowned upon by some because it seems "unnatural"...but in fact it's what we ate for 1.98 million years!  Which would technically make all other "natural" diets a fad instead. This is why I created The MEGA Way Holistic Nutritional  Lifestyle Program. It is based on several eating modalities that are related to evolutionary diet. Eating a diet that helped our species progressively evolve for 2 million years seems like the perfect diet for us.  If it was good enough for us to evolve for 2 million years, it should be good enough for us to evolve another 2 million years. Ironically, even with all the foods available to us, it can be somewhat challenging to eat like our like our ancient ancestors mainly due to factors like (lack of) convenience, (too expensive) expense, (stressful) lifestyle and (lack of) time.  But the flip side is worse.  Compromised health, weight gain, disease and sickness are all consequences of a poor diet.  It's worth the extra time and effort it takes to eat a healthy "evolutionary beneficial" diet. Here are some simple tips to keep in mind when following a healthy evolutionary diet: Eliminate processed foods, processed and bleached grains, refined sugar, limiting dairy and legumes. Include various sources of quality protein from meat, fish and fowl.  Consume about a 1g of protein per lean body mass...if you're active. Keep your carb intake low, preferably under 100g a day and keep 85% of your carb intake from vegetables and fruits and 15% from roots and tubers (sweet potatoes, yams and Quinoa). Consume enough healthy fat from sources like (grass fed) red meat, cold water fish (high in omega 3 fatty acids), olive oil, coconut products, coconut oil, avocado and some nuts. Stay clear of trans fats and high fructose corn syrup (...easy to do if you're avoiding processed foods Keep all (...or majority) of your liquid intake from water.  Stay away from juices, sports drinks, soft drinks and alcohol.  A glass of red wine a day is OK.

When in doubt think what your ancient ancestors would have eaten?  If it's in a in box...well you already know the answer. 

Brigitte M, Britton HN