Paleolithic Diet

The Paleolithic Diet is an approach to diet and health that takes a few (large) steps back in time. To give it perspective, in geologic time the cenozoic era ranges from 65 million years to the present. Within the cenaozoic era a number of periods are distinct, namely and of relevance to this topic, the pleistocene. The pleistocene ranges from 1.8 million years to 10,000 years ago. A number of glaciations occured during that time; however the real planetary change came about as humans began to expand their numbers and range. The pleistocene saw an explosion of life in the interglacial periods with plants, insects, mollusks, mammals and birds flourishing. That explosion of life gave rise to the growing hominid population.

The Paleolithic Diet refers to the method of survival typifying homo sapiens which in essence was a hunter gatherer diet until agricultural methods were developed in the fertile crescent near the end of the pleistocene and the beginning of the holocene. The Paleolithic Diet then assumes that having evolved in the environment of a bounty of wild foods, our gastrointestinal systems are genetically adapted to consuming those hunter gatherer foods. The hypothesis extending from that observation is that optimal health might be achieved by eating those foods we evolved with. From there, how might that hypothesis really gain traction?

The first aspect of this diet that requires deeper consideration is a review of the foods commonly eaten by the hominid inhabitants of the globe in the pleistocene. To begin that investigation understand that the following time line is fairly well accepted in terms of evolution:

1. 2.8 million years ago: The appearance of stone tools

2. 1.5 million years ago: Controlled fire appeared

3. 200-300, 000 years ago: Cooking hearths

4. 100,000 years ago: Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal appeared

What difference does any of that time line make in the inferences regarding what a paleolithic diet consisted of. The big question is not WHAT was eaten, but rather HOW it was eaten. That is, was everything cooked or eaten raw? And considering the huge time span of what we consider "paleolithic" the early hominids may have eaten mostly raw foods, then later ancestors (having discovered the fire) began to cook foods.

More after you clean your room,

WG