Paleolithic DietHunter Gatherers Diet and Lifestyles
Nabil Isseh, MD Kalamoon University
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1. The paleolithic ageold stone age: 2million years
2. Mesolithic age Middle stone age: at the end of the last ice age era, 10000 years
3. Neolithic ageNew stone age 9000-7000 BC
Britannica Encyclopedia 2010
The stone age
1. Paleothic period2.6 million years – 10,000 years ago
2. Agricultural revolution10,000 years ago
3. Industrial revolution 200 years ago
4. Western dominance200 years ago
5. American dominance50 years ago
Britannica Encyclopedia 2011
Mankind’s journey through time
Why?
Paleolithic nutrition
Discordance Hypothesis
The prevalence in modern societies of many chronic
diseases is the consequence of a mismatch between modern
dietary patterns and the type of diet that our species evolved to
eat as prehistoric hunter-gatherer
Eaton SB & Konnor M N. Engl J. Med 312, 283-289
Paleolithic peoples
Eaton SB & Konnor M N. Engl J. Med 312, 283-289
They lived in small clans, or groups
1. Nomadic hunters and gatherers2. Sheltered in caves3. Used fire and fashioned stone tools4. Food scarcity5. Adaption to starvation
Eaton SB & Konnor M N. Engl J. Med 312, 283-289
Paleolithic peoples
• Long history• Momentum after 1985• S. Boyd Eaton, MD, and
Melvin J. Konner, MD• Seminal paper in New
England Journal of Medicine
• ”Paleolithic nutrition”
S. Boyd Eaton, MD
Paleolithic nutrition
• Seminal paper from 2000
• 229 hunter-gatherer societies
• 73% obtained 56-65% of the energy from animal foods
Loren Cordain, PhD
Paleolithic nutrition
•Animal Foods: 68% Plant foods: 32%
Loren Cordain, PhD
The Hunter Gatherers Diet
• Mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, marine species
• Everything edible on the animal carcass was eaten
• Non-domesticated animals lack fat deposits in muscles
• Even liver and brain while rich in cholesterol and fat were also rich in long chain n-6 and
• n-3 fatty acidsUCLA center for human nutrition, 101
Introduction to nutrition in western civilization
Animal Foods
• Uncultivated plants and honey • Rich in fiber, low in sodium, rich in
calcium• Magnesium and potassium• Low energy density, low glycemic index
UCLA center for human nutrition, 101Introduction to nutrition in western civilization
Plant Foods
– Large animals are preferred over small animals
– Animal foods are almost always preferred over plant foods
• because of their increased energy yield
Whenever and whereever it was ecologically possible, hunter-gatherers always preferred animal food over plant foodNo doubt that hunter-gatherers favored the fattiest part of the animals they hunted and killed
The Hunter-Gatherers DietFood Preferences
• Calorie dense food• Depot fat• Organ meats• Fatty insects• Honey
UCLA center for human nutrition, 101Introduction to nutrition in western civilization
The Hunter-Gatherers DietFood Preferences
Food consumed immediately by gorging and wastage rare. Would gorge 2 to 3 kg of animal after successful hunt. Would also gorge on honey, eggs, insects or fat.
UCLA center for human nutrition, 101Introduction to nutrition in western civilization
The Hunter-Gatherers DietEating Patterns
1- Protein, high and lean2- Carbohydrates: moderate3- Total fat: moderate4- Saturated fat: moderate5- Monounsaturated: High6- Polyunsaturated: moderate
Mayo Clinic Proc, 2004
Food of the Hunter-Gatherers
7- Omega-3 fat: moderate8- Fiber: High9- Fruits and vegetables: high10- Nuts and seeds: moderate11- Salt: low12- Refined sugars: low13- Glycemic load: low
Mayo Clinic Proc, 2004
Food of the Hunter-Gatherers
1. Lean protein2. High fiber 3. High vitamins4. High minerals5. High anti-oxidants6. No refined grains and sugars
Mayo Clinic Proc, 2004
Real food not synthetic food
1. 2-3 times more fiber2. 2 times more poly and mono fats3. 4 times more omega-3 fats4. 60-70% less saturated fats5. 2-3 times more protein6. 3-4 more times k7. 4-5 times less Na
The paleolithic dietvs.the western diet
Mayo Clinic Proc, 2004
RichardWrangham
Easier to Eat Meat
More Benefit from Food:
increases digestibility of plants
Why Cooking is Important
The paradoxical nature of the Hunter diets:
Meat based yet not atherogenic
Eur J Clin Nut, 2002 56, 542-552
Can meat be cardioprotective?
1. Meat-based HG diet were nonatherogenic2. In western diets were atherogenic3. The flesh of wild game contain about 2-4%
fat with high levels of mono and omega 3 fats
4. Domestic meats, contain 20-25% fat, rich in saturated fat.
Eur J Clin Nut, 2002 56, 542-552
Can meat be cardioprotective?
1. Anti inflammatory2. Algae, grasses and leaves3. Fish and larger gazing animal4. Meat from domesticated animals low in
omega 3 fat5. Mediterranean diet6. Reduce CVD risk 32-50 %
Mayo Clinic Proc, 2004
Omega 3 fat
• 50% of HG total fat intake• Reduce CVD risk: 50%• Nuts rich in:
– Mono, poly unsaturated, omega 3– Protein– Fiber– antioxidents
Mayo Clinic Proc, 2004
Monounsaturated fats
Eaton S, Osteoporos Int, 17(suppl 2): S2-3, 2006
Hunter-Gatherers Lifestyle
• Physical activity: 3-5 hrs per day spent in sustained activity. Digging, walking briskly, chopping with stone axe.
Eaton S, Osteoporos Int, 17(suppl 2): S2-3, 2006
Hunter-Gatherers Lifestyle
How is human health when eating Paleolithic diet and unprocessed
foods?
•Non-communicable diseases (cancer, ASCVD, obesity, diabetes, hypertension) are rare to non-existent.
•Life was short, death rates were high.. Main causes of death include: accidents, food shortage, predation, parasitic disease
Hunter-gatherer health and disease
Staffan Lindeberg, MD, PhD
PhD study 1994
Adult Melanesians at Kitava
Staffan Lindeberg, MD, PhD
Adult Melanesians at Kitava
PhD study 1994Apparent absence of
stroke and heart attacks
hypertensionoverweightmalnutritionacne
1. Lean2. Fit3. Free from chronic diseases
AMJ Med 198884: 739+
The hunter gatherers
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The revolution that has
changed the human’s life
The Agriculture Revolution
Britannica Encyclopedia 2011
Britannica Encyclopedia 2011
Animals domestication
Agriculture
Agriculture is thought to have offered one principle advantage — providing a greater amount of food per unit area of land — which could feed a larger population
Early River Valley Civilizations
Britannica Encyclopedia 2011
The origin Agriculture Revolution
The Fertile Crescent: The “fertile” lands of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Phonecia
Britannica Encyclopedia 2011
River Valley Civilizations
Why domestication?
1.Climate change2.Decline in big game population3.Increase in human population
Britannica Encyclopedia 2011
Domestication of Plants and Animals
Harris .., eds 1987Food and evolution 261-283
Agricultural diet1. Relative abundance2. Cycles of feast and famine3. Cultivate crops mainly
cereals4. Domesticated animals:
meat, milk
سورة يوسف
رقم 46آية
تجربة البشر
ية
Agricultural grain-based
diet
1. General health deteriorated2. Adult height was shorter3. Shorter life spans4. Higher childhood mortality5. High incidence of osteoporosis and rickets
and other vt. deficiencies
Harris .., eds 1987Food and evolution 261-283
Agricultural grain-based diet
The Agriculture Revolution People before
Relied on hunting and gathering.
Nomads lived in small hunting , and food gathering groups.
Waited for migrating animals to return each year.
People after
Learned to farm and were able to produce their own food.
Settled into permanent villages.
Learned to domesticate, or tame, animals. This provided a dependable source of meat.
Harris .., eds 1987Food and evolution 261-283
The Industrial Revolution
•Population Growth
Mortality Rate
IndustryThe Industrial Revolution
Population growth•10,000-years ago, < 10 mil.
• 1800, 1 bil.there is little doubt that human populations grew more rapidly in
the first few thousand years following the agricultural
revolution than in the few million years preceding it
•Sedentary lifestyle
• Longer life
• Abundant food
• Processed food
• Degraded environment
• Increase in medical technology
The Industrial Revolution
• Sedentary life
• Eating highly processed synthetic diet
Today…
Eat to
Live!Live to
Eat!
Before now
• 99% of mankind’s existence on Earth has been as a HUNTER & GATHERER!
Hunter & Gatherers
Today…The human genome
is now struggling to cope with the vastly different diet and lifestyle of the modern era
AMJ Hum Genet 1999
The human genome has remained largely unchanged during the past 10,000 years.
The genes we are born with are those that we live an die with.
•Eaton SB. 2006. Proc Nutrit Soc. 65(1):1-6
The human genome evolved under harsh selection conditions over a period of 3.5 million years ~
The spontaneous mutation rate for nuclear DNA is estimated at about 0.5% per million years
Over the past 10,000 years, the human genome is calculated to have changed only 0.05% from our paleolithic ancestors ~
The modern human paradox
But genetically we remain citizens of the stone age
Socially we are a people of the 21st century
Modern man fails to adapt to changing diets and lifestyles
76
The epidemic of CVD is at least in part due to these striking discrepancies between the diet we are designed to eat and what we actually eat today
• Obesity• Cardiovascular diseases
–CHD, stroke, hypertension• Diabetes• Certain cancers
–colon, prostate, breast• Osteoporosis• Non-infective bowel diseases
Mayo Clinic Proc, 2004
Diet-related diseases of western lifestyle
What happens when humans start eating a
modern and processed diet?
• No cancer, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes or dental caries
• Appears as soon as such humans change environment and lifestyle, particularly diet
Historical experience of indigenous/traditional peoples
Striking replacement of infectious disease that kills early in life with non-communicable disease that kills lateNew diseases in human history caused by conditions of life arising during the industrial period (smoking example).
diseases of affluence
Diabetes care 1999, 22: 1993+
Pima IndiansAboriginal peopleRich Arabs
When the former hunter adopts the westerner’s
lifestyle
Pima Indians
• 1900s–Moving to reservations caused
them to adopt western food
• 1940s and 50s–No longer able to live off land and
were required to buy foods
Changing With Time
• Starch often takes up too much of meal• Portion sizes are much larger• Use much more fat and salt in
cooking processes• Lower activity level and food
patterns have caused decline in health
Indian Diets Today
المكسـيك أريزونا
25 33120 12475 76146 1758,5 % 64 %
Diabetes care - 1994
Pima Indians
كتلة مشـعرالجسم
الضغط االنقباضيالضغط
االنبسـاطيكولسـترول
الدمانتشـار السـكري
Australian Aborigines
89
Before European contact, hunter-gatherer population diets approximated the Paleolithic Diet~ Australian Aborigines ~ migrated 50,000 yrs ago
and isolated until 1778Diet based on wild game, seafood, nuts, seeds, yams & greens
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines
Impact of 7 weeks temporary reversion to hunter
gatherer lifestyle:
• Weight Loss
• Striking improvement in glucose tolerance
• Improved insulin response
• Normalisation of dyslipidaemia
• Reduction in blood pressure
O. Dea K. Diabetes 1984:33:596
Impact Of Lifestyle Change In Australian Aborigines On Type 2 Diabetes And CVD Risk Factors
November 4, 2009
Al-Nuaim
Fatani et al
Anokute et al El-Hazmi et al
El-Hazmi et al
Al-Nozha
Bacchus et al4Abu-Aisha abst*.
References
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