Healthy People In History

Scientists have wondered about diet and health, and one of their wonderings has been to investigate primitive groups of people — people isolated from “modern” society to see what their health was and what their diet was.

The role of carbohydrates and fats? I won’t touch on that just yet, but let’s understand that man, for millions of years, has had to have protein in his diet — regardless of any difference among groups.

Now a relatively unknown datum: The body can convert proteins into sugar. Normally we think of carbohydrates as the source of energy for the body — and energy is ONLY sugar in this sense. Thus, ALL carbohydrates, of any type or kind, are converted into one single substance inside the body — glucose — a simple sugar.

We think of glucose as extremely valuable because it is the source of all the energy used by the body. You couldn’t live without glucose.

But, if, indeed, protein can be converted into glucose inside the body, then it is possible we could live without carbohydrates. That would be a controversial subject for many! While it may be an emotional concern of many, the scientific fact is that we COULD get all the glucose we need, naturally, because of the body’s ability to convert protein into glucose.

Fat is a bit more complex. There are components within fat that are NOT contained in either protein or carbohydrates — and the body seems to need those components. These are, for instance, the fatty acids and the body cannot make these fatty acids from either proteins or carbohydrates.

So, we can conclude, in very gross terms, that the natural body of man needs proteins and fats, but could get by without carbohydrates.

How about minerals and vitamins, you say? That is a complexity I’ll take up later.

For now, I want to zero in on the simplicity of man’s natural diet, based on a look at his diet over the millions of years, and based on the simple body chemistry we understand:

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Proteins and Fats are essential to life
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Carbohydrates are not essential to life

The above should certainly not serve as the final word on body chemistry, but it will do for a start.

Now, let me ask you to look at ways in which “man” has changed dramatically.

I claim that his body has changed but little!

But, man’s thinking, man’s behavior, man’s social patterns, man’s understanding — all of these have changed dramatically.

Among all these many changes we could certainly agree that man’s eating patterns have changed drastically.

The caveman did not have a microwave nor a box of Oat Meal in his cave!