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Evolutionary Questions – Should modern day humans be following the hunter-gatherer traditional diet for overall health?

Primary Sources

Carrera-Bastos, Pedro, Maelan Fontes-Villalba, James H. O'Keefe, Staffan Lindeberg, and Loren Cordain. "The Western Diet and Lifestyle and Diseases of Civilization." DovePress (2011)

Eaton, S. Boyd, Loren Cordain, and Phillip B. Sparling. "Evolution, Body Composition, Insulin Receptor Competition, and Insulin Resistance."Preventative Medicine 49 (2009): 283-85.

Kuipers, Remko S., Martine F. Luxwolda, D.A. Janneke Dijck-Brouwer, S. Boyd Eaton, Michael A. Crawford, Loren Cordain, and Frits A.J. Muskiet. "Estimated Macronutrient and Fatty Acid Intakes From an East African Paleolithic Diet." British Journal of Nutrition (2010)

Ramsden, Christopher E., Keturah R. Faurot, Pedro Carrera-Bastos, Loren Cordain, Michel De Lorgeril, and Laurence S. Sperling. "Dietary Fat Quality and Coronary Heart Disease Prevention: A Unified Theory Based on Evolutionary, Historical, Global, and Modern Perspectives."Current Treatment Options Cardiovascular Medicine 11.4 (2009): 289-301.

Teaford, Mark F., and Peter S. Ungar. "Diet and the Evolution of the Earliest Human Ancestors." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America 95.25 (2000)

10/1 Assignment - Changes and citation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet

Sentence added:   The extreme changes in human diets due to the agricultural and industrial revolutions occurred over less than 200 years ago, which is not enough time for genetic adaptation. [16] Citation: Ramsden et al. (2009)   - See above-

Suggestions made to talk page: I thought of a few suggestions when reading this article. First, under the subtopic "Humans are adapted to the Paleolithic Diet" The last sentence is a counterargument saying the are studies that show humans have evolved to be flexible eaters. This is not cited and there is no other information on these studies or this information. Secondly, under the subtopic "Human health has been in decline since the agricultural revolution because of dietary changes" within the first paragraph it states that there is "a necessary implication....eating foods to which Paleolithic humans were maladapted resulted in ill health and heightened rates of disease." Why is it necessary to imply that the different foods result in the disease rates? Where are the sources to back up the information or provide truth to this statement? Lastly, under the Rational and Counterarguments tab there is a subtopic titled "We understand and can imitate the Paleolithic Diet". This subtopic has inconsistency with the beginning of the article. In the third paragraph of the article there are multiple sentences about what little is actually known for certain about what food the Paleolithic humans consumed and a hypothesis regarding whether paleolithic humans were genetically adapted to specific local diets. There is a lot of uncertainty within these statements and I would suggest changing the name of the subtopic, since apparently we do not understand fully the diet. Also, within the rational and counterarguments tab there should be details on those statements presented in the third paragraph of the article and sources to back up those counterarguments.

FINAL DRAFT BEGINS HERE:

Following a Paleolithic Diet Improves Overall Human Health

The Paleolithic diet is the diet that humans’ Paleolithic ancestors of hunter-gatherers consumed while wandering the uncultivated lands of the earth. This diet contained fresh fruits and vegetables that were in season at the time the hunter-gatherers acquired them. It also contained the hunted wild game, which fed on unprocessed foods. The hunter-gatherers followed a high protein, high unsaturated-fats, and low carbohydrates diet. This diet is now regaining popularity and interest by becoming a fad diet referred to as the “Paleo diet”. People who are studying and trying this fad diet are doing so on the basis that our human genome is still adapted to the Paleolithic era and has not evolved in the short period of time that westernized culture exploded through the introduction of agriculture and industry. Many researchers and curious people are discovering the positive health effects associated with following the Paleolithic diet. These positive health affects in combination with our un-evolved genome is consistent with the Paleolithic diet approach since, “Diet is the source of virtually all structural and functional molecules in the body, diet is perhaps the most important environment determinant of health” (Ramsden et al., 2009). Today’s westernized diet shares little overlap with the traditional Paleolithic diet. The hunter-gatherers mainly fed on uncultivated fruits and vegetables, as well as wild game, which fed on those same fruits and vegetables. The hunter-gatherer’s cranial and dental traits, as observed through fossils, showed that the dietary capabilities of early hominids expanded to include both hard and soft foods as well as abrasive and nonabrasive foods. This change occurred 4.4 to 2.3 million years ago, when the hunter-gatherers switched from a savannah to land-water ecosystem. This change left them well equipped with evolved dental traits to eat the various types of food they came across while traveling in diverse types of climates (Teaford and Ungar, 2000). The Paleolithic diet followed the macronutrient compositions of 25-29% protein, 39-40% carbohydrates, and 30-39% fats. Today’s westernized diets generally follow the macronutrient compositions of 15% protein, 49% carbohydrates for men, 52% carbohydrates for women, and 33% fats. The amount of protein in humans’ diets drastically decreased, while carbohydrates increased. Even in the short amount of time from 1972 to 2000, the carbohydrate values in the United States increased for men from 42-49% and for women from 45-52%. The higher percentage of carbohydrates in the diet essentially took away a percentage of the fats intake, which decreased the amount of fats for men from 37% to 33% and for women from 36% to 33%. Following these patterns of increasing amounts of carbohydrates in the human diet will have a continuation of decreasing amounts of proteins and fats in the human diet, which could in turn continue encouraging negative health affects on the human populations (Kuipers et al., 2010). The biggest problem with the switch to the modern western diet is due to the human genome evolving in the Paleolithic era in Africa. By using applied Darwinian medicine, the use of modern evolutionary theory to understand health and disease, one can see that the human genome today was chosen by natural selection for the ancestral Paleolithic environment. Natural selection took time and the cultural and lifestyle changes to westernized culture occurred too quickly for the gene pool to evolve with the environmental changes (Carrera-Bastos et al., 2011). Between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago the agricultural revolution brought about the replacement of certain uncultivated foods from the Paleolithic diet with grains and dairy (Ramsden et al., 2009). The industrial revolution, in combination with the development of agriculture, brought about significant changes to the diet less than 200 years ago as well (Ramsden et al., 2009). This revolution brought about crop manipulation, animal-rearing practices, and food processing, thus further changing the westernized diet (Ramsden et al., 2009). Both of these major instances occurred recent enough that the human genome did not have time to adapt to the changed environment. Alleles that were selected for or were neutral in the hunter-gatherer environment now promote diseases in modern environments and diets (Eaton, S. Boyd, 2002). Some of the alleles selected for in the past had positive effects for survival and reproduction, but caused health problems in the post-reproductive years (Carrera-Bastos et al., 2011). Selection processes that were made in post agricultural alleles were due to pathogens in the environment, not diet, lifestyle, or environmental changes (Carrera-Bastos et al., 2011). With the introduction of agriculture, grains and dairy were quickly acclimatized into westernized society. Since then, the only free-living primates in the world that regularly eat cereal grains are humans (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2001). The cereal grains make up 40-90% of humans’ calorie requirements (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2001). Epidemiological studies have proven that fruits and vegetables have a significant amount of cancer preventative activities compared to grains. Through one experiment, out of 18 cancers studied, fruits displayed significant preventative activity against 16 types of cancers and vegetables substantial preventative activity against 12 types of cancer. Grains only exhibited moderate preventative activity against one type of cancer (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2001). The phytochemicals of fruits and vegetables interacting with human physiology has formed a subsistence relationship through adaptation over millions of years. However, the phytochemicals of cereal grains have had less than 10,000 years to form a relationship with human biology (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2001). Also, the known 181 uncultivated fruits and vegetables the Hunter-gatherers ate, contained more calcium than today’s source, dairy products (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2001). Dairy also contains lactose, which is poorly tolerated by many modern humans today (Eaton, S. Boyd and Cordain, 1997). When individuals who follow a non-westernized diet switch to a westernized diet, their risk for chronic degenerative diseases (CDD) increases to the level of modern humans, yet when they return to a Paleolithic diet many symptoms subside (Carrera-Bastos et al., 2011). Modern humans are the only free-living primates that eat more sodium than potassium (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2002). With a Paleolithic diet, potassium intake greatly outnumbered sodium intake (Eaton, S. Boyd and Cordain, 1997). This potassium and sodium imbalance leads to high blood pressure, cerebral vascular accidents, kidney stones, osteoporosis, asthma, and gastrointestinal tract cancers (Carrera-Bastos et al., 2011). Along with being the only primates to eat more sodium, humans are also the only ones that suffer from high blood pressure, or hypertension (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2002). In regards to BMI (body mass index), 10 current hunter-gatherer groups had an average BMI of 20.9. Comparatively, mid-19th century college students had an average BMI of 21.1, and contemporary college students now have a BMI of 25.8. This shows that, until recently, the proportions of muscle and fat remained somewhat close to that of the hunter-gatherer populations. This excess fat and reduced muscle that is seen currently leads to increased insulin resistance and risk for type 2 diabetes (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2009). From observing the traditional North African Pastoralists, whose diet follows the Paleolithic diet of limited fat with empty calories, high protein, and high quantities of physical activity, a physiological advantage has been established. The hunter-gatherer children’s average age of puberty is 3 years later than current westernized cultures. This creates a larger gap for westernized children between psychological and sexual maturations, which leads to increased incidences of teen pregnancy. Girls from westernized culture acquiring an earlier age of menarche and reaching adult height quicker compared to hunter-gatherers increases the risk of acquiring breast cancer and high blood pressure. This could be due to the renal system not being able to maintain proper function with the rapid growth of the individual. The slower growth of the hunter-gatherer individuals also proved to be associated with, through lab animals, increased longevity (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2002). Many studies have been completed comparing a Paleolithic diet with that of a westernized one to see the adverse health affects on individuals. One study had individuals follow a Paleolithic inspired diet for three weeks. The findings showed advantageous effects for coronary heart disease (CHD), regulating blood pressure (BP), type 2 diabetes, glucose tolerance, and insulin sensitivity. The individuals also showed a reduction in weight, BMI, and waist circumference, which benefits overall health (Kuipers et al., 2010). Another study, called the Lyon Diet-Heart Study, enrolled 302 random individuals who had suffered from a myocardial infarction (MI). The experimental group followed a traditional Paleolithic Mediterranean diet, while the controls followed a traditional western diet. After 27 months, coronary events of the experimental group had a 73% decrease with mortality rates having a 70% decrease. Similar results followed after 4 years of following the diet (Ramsden et al., 2009). The concept of evolution based prevention is useful to the health of modernized humans, because it can be used by medical professionals to advise at-risk individuals on their diets to help minimize their risk for certain diseases. By following the Paleolithic diet for certain preventable diseases, 70% of the costs developed from Americans’ illnesses would be reduced (Eaton, S. Boyd et al., 2002). Hunter-gatherers, with their Paleolithic diets, compared to modern humans on westernized diets have lower blood pressures, no association between blood pressure and age, lower BMI, lower waist-to-height ratios, increased bone health, and lower amount of fractures (Carrera-Bastos et al., 2011). Through these analyses and examples one can clearly see that the human genome did not have enough time to adapt with the intense environmental changes of the introduction of agriculture and the industrial revolution. Modern humans who follow a westernized diet face many more health problems than those who switched to the traditional Paleolithic diet. Therefore, humans should follow a Paleolithic diet approach for acquiring and maintaining good overall health.

References

Carrera-Bastos, P., Fontes-Villalba, M., O’Keefe, J., Lindeberg, S., Cordain, L. 2011. The western diet and lifestyle and diseases of civilization. Research Reports in Clinical Cardiology. doi: 10.2147/RRCC.S16919

Eaton, S. Boyd, Cordain, L. 1997. Evolutionary Aspects of Diet: Old Genes, New Fuels: Nutritional Changes Since Agriculture. World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Eaton, S. Boyd, Cordain, L., Eaton, Stanley B. 2001. An Evolutionary Foundation for Health Promotion. World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Eaton, S. Boyd, Cordain, L., Sparling, P. 2009. Evolution, body composition, insulin receptor competition, and insulin resistance. Preventative Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2009.08.002

Eaton, S. Boyd, Strassman, B., Nesse, R., Neel, J., Ewald, P., Williams, G., Weder, A., Lindeberg, S., Konner, M., Mysterud, I., Cordain, L. 2002. Evolutionary Health Promotion. Preventative Medicine. doi:10.1006/pmed.2001.0876

Kuipers, R., Luxwolda, M., Dijck-Brouwer, D., Eaton, S. Boyd, Crawford, M., Cordain, L., Muskiet, F. 2010. Estimated macronutrient and fatty acid intakes from an East African Paleolithic diet. British Journal of Nutrition. doi:10.1017/S0007114510002679

Ramsden, C., Faurot, K., Carrera-Bastos, P., Cordain, L., De Lorgeril, M., Sperling, L. 2009. Dietary Fat Quality and Coronary Heart Disease Prevention: A Unified Theory Based on Evolutionary, Historical, Global, and Modern Perspectives. Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine. 11:289–301.

Teaford, M., Ungar, P. 2000. Diet and the evolution of the earliest human ancestors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

EDITS TO PALEOLITHIC DIET WIKIPEDIA PAGE

Under "HUMANS ARE ADAPTED TO A PALEOLITHIC DIET"

By using applied Darwinian medicine, the use of modern evolutionary theory to understand health and disease, one can see that the human genome today was chosen by natural selection for the ancestral Paleolithic environment. Natural selection took time and the cultural and lifestyle changes to westernized culture occurred too quickly for the gene pool to evolve with the environmental changes [22]. Between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago the agricultural revolution brought about the replacement of certain uncultivated foods from the Paleolithic diet with grains and dairy [23]. The industrial revolution, in combination with the development of agriculture, brought about significant changes to the diet less than 200 years ago as well [24]. This revolution brought about crop manipulation, animal-rearing practices, and food processing, thus further changing the westernized diet [25]. Both of these major instances occurred recent enough that the human genome did not have time to adapt to the changed environment. Alleles that were selected for or were neutral in the hunter-gatherer environment now promote diseases in modern environments and diets [26]. Some of the alleles selected for in the past had positive effects for survival and reproduction, but caused health problems in the post-reproductive years [27]. Selection processes that were made in post agricultural alleles were due to pathogens in the environment, not diet, lifestyle, or environmental changes [28].

Under "Human health has been in decline since the agricultural revolution because of dietary changes"

The Paleolithic diet followed the macronutrient compositions of 25-29% protein, 39-40% carbohydrates, and 30-39% fats. Today’s westernized diets generally follow the macronutrient compositions of 15% protein, 49% carbohydrates for men, 52% carbohydrates for women, and 33% fats. The amount of protein in humans’ diets drastically decreased, while carbohydrates increased. Even in the short amount of time from 1972 to 2000, the carbohydrate values in the United States increased for men from 42-49% and for women from 45-52%. The higher percentage of carbohydrates in the diet essentially took away a percentage of the fats intake, which decreased the amount of fats for men from 37% to 33% and for women from 36% to 33%. Following these patterns of increasing amounts of carbohydrates in the human diet will have a continuation of decreasing amounts of proteins and fats in the human diet, which could in turn continue encouraging negative health affects on the human populations. [34]