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Imagine when we were cave men & women before farming came into place, lets look at longevity between the two. There with a lot more natural selection due to no hospitals or doctors. We had to look after ourselves and we were active throughout the day whether it be foraging or sprinting after animals with spears and swimming catching fish, we had to work for our food and there was no such thing as old age everyone was the same it was survival, we didn’t slow down due to age.
Put yourself in the shoes of 2 people one being Grok the caveman he’s from the Palaeolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C. He eats a high fat, fairly low carb diet of which he gets from plants. Grok consistently moves around all day at a slow pace and does sudden explosive sprints and lifts heavy things to make shelters and move objects. Grok gets his fibre from vegetables, fruit and nuts. His body is fat adapted which eliminates the need for regular sit down (big) meals. His energy is used from the food he eats as he doesn’t have too much stored fat. He eats animals when he can find them & lots of eggs, nuts and seeds – depending on where he lives, his blood sugars are never spiked from simple carbohydrates.
2 million years we lived like this to the age of 60 or 70!
Many humans of this era may have died before voting age due to sudden death from predators or infected wounds but if they were lucky, they would live very strong and healthy for the rest of their lives with no pain or discomfort. We lived like this for over 2 million years for 6 to 7 decades in these unimaginable conditions so small genetic mutations have been made which has evolved us to the amazing humans we are today. We sustained that longevity. Can we do that now without medicine?
The year 2022
Now Steve from the year 2022 works at HSBC Canary Wharf Steve wakes up with an alarm. He gets the tube to work and walks up the escalators and takes the elevator to his office, he sits in his soft chair looking at a screen for 4 hours at a time (on a good day) where he goes and grabs a sandwich meal deal from a café at the bottom of his building, he might go sit in the square if the weather is nice to eat it. Steve is told through media and conventional wisdom Fibre comes mostly grains and is told this improves gastrointestinal function and speeds elimination, so like most choose this as it’s a convenient way to get his fibre in. After work, he goes to the pub to relieve stress with friends. Steve might start having aches and pains in joints from the age of say 25 onwards and might start becoming a little overweight from sitting a lot of his week and eating high simple carbohydrates or processed ready made foods. He goes to the gym once a week and feels guilty for only exercising once a week but he’s too tired during the week from his job, whilst in the gym he will have a “more is better” attitude to try and make up for the fact he’s not moved all week he will spend an hour and a half in total doing cardio and lifting to the point of exhaustion.
A surprising amount of people in this day and age think that some people are just fortunate to have “good genes” and some are not. They accept that some people get diabetes, heart disease or become obese “it’s just the way it is” and end up going on medication to tackle any issues from lifestyle. We live longer but with issues using medication making us able to carry on as we are. As you age you tend to do less and less due to the body not being used to moving and everyday life becoming harder and harder.
Can you see the difference in lifestyle… Can we live the primal life now? It depends on our job and how we move our body’s, Grok played a lot and had fun as part of his day, he got vitamin D all day every day in winter too as he’s outside he’s not getting bloated and worrying about the small stuff he has no small stuff! he ate a high fat diet of animal, eggs, seeds, plants and nuts. Everything was organic and not farmed. Happy days.
Conclusion
I believe we shouldn’t eliminate all grains from our diet BUT should live 80% of the time away from processed carbs and meats. Also, the carbohydrates you consume need to come from the complex (whole) variety rather than simple sugar spiking ones such as ground flours in bread, pasta, cow’s milk, syrups, sugars and white rice. We shouldn’t worry about high fat content in a natural food, fat is very good for our body; grass fed animal fats or fats from nuts, seeds and avocados. Eating these fats helps with cravings and keeps blood sugar levels at a level that doesn’t spike and make you want more carbohydrates or a big meal. What we do need to take out of our diet is processed carbohydrates and meats - this is the big problem marketing nowadays with cereal for example says on the box it’s high fibre and low fat, most of the time where there is low fat, they replace it with sugar and they say high fibre… although maybe it would be in the original grain if eaten whole, but cereal is very heavily processed and. So, lots of this over time has caused type 2 diabetes and the list goes on. Our bodies can never get enough simple carbohydrates because your body is asking for more variety; protein being the main one, Pringles: “ONCE YOU POP YOU CAN’T STOP” – well yeah.
At the end of the day the best diet is what works best for YOU but I have noticed personally cutting processed carbs from my diet and making sure I get all the vitamins and minerals my body needs. My energy has skyrocketed. This day and age it’s hard to know exactly where all our food comes from and what the animal was fed so I do the best using the 80% rule as I don’t want to be that “keto diet friend at a party that won’t eat anything” I take my multivitamins so I don’t have to take any medications when I’m older. I’m planning to LIVE LONG, STRONG AND DROP DEAD! Rather than have a slow decline in health. So yes we can work on our longevity by using food as medicine its a preventative for not needing any medicine.
An example of Grok’s day
Breakfast: Sunrise 2 eggs, berries.
Morning Snack: Lots of seeds and a few nuts eaten if found, also any edible plants picked and stored for tomorrow all at varying intervals throughout the day
Lunch might not have lunch depend how lucky you are today
Afternoon managed to catch a fish that's dinner sorted!
Sleep at sundown
How many calories is that? Does it matter not for Grok!
If we follow these 10 rules Quoted from “The New Primal Blueprint” book by Mark Sisson. we will live strong!
1. Eat plants and animals
2. Avoid Poisonous things
3. Move frequently
4. Lift heavy things
5. Sprint once in a while
6. Get plenty of sleep
7. Play
8. Get plenty of sunlight
9. Avoid stupid mistakes
10. Use your brain
Sources of information
“Eat Fat Get thin” by Mark Hyman
And the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sission
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