Paleolithic Diet - Term Paper Example

Paleolithic Diet Introduction Paleolithic diet is a mundane human diet used in the contemporary society assimilated fromthe diet used by the human ancestors more than two million years ago. The Stone Age diet also called the paleo diet or the hunter and gather diet follows a strict conservative diet of both animal and plants as assumed to be the early man’s diet before the development of Agriculture. The diet comprises of fish, meat from selective wild animals, fruits, fungi and nuts. While the diet comprises more plant products, it evidently excludes dairy products, grains, dairy products, potatoes, refined sugar and refined salt all of which are major components of the contemporary society yet products of Agriculture. The hunter-gatherer diet in the modern society is complex and follows a strict dictate to ensure compliance with the actual balanced diet of the early humans. The proponents of the diet in the contemporary society contend that humans adapted to the modern society following the dietary precedents set by their ancestors. It is obvious that the early primates lived longer despite the adverse environmental factors of the time a feature largely attributable to their simplistic diet (Eaton and Melvin 11). Such follow the claims that the modern day humans have shorter life span a feature that most of the diet professionals attribute to the numerous diseases arising from the modern day agriculture, the genetically modified products and the processing of food products. The hunter-gatherer diet is thus more effective than the contemporary diet, it promises healthier and longer living thereby eliminating the risk to most of the modern day diseases as the study below ascertains. Background and significance It is evident that most people in the modern societies show preference to agricultural products. However, the changing climatic condition and the increasing demand for food products is overwhelming producers thereby prompting the inducement of the growth of both the animal and plant products in order to meet the demand. Modern day scientific studies and researches on agriculture have thus resulted in the genetically modified products that best meet the pressure from the consumers. Additionally, to increase the shelf life of the food products comprising of both animals and plants products, modern day humans process their food products thereby adding preservatives that increase the duration of the products to improve their convenience in serving humans. This is unnatural and increases the chances of the food products harming the consumers. The modification and the subsequent processing of food products changes the genetic components of the products thereby interfering with their dietary effectiveness, additionally, such mal treatment of the food products with chemicals introduces foreign substances in the food products possibly eliminating the nutritious value of the products (McCleary and Leon 22). Such account for the rising cases of the dietary related diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure among many others, the evolutionary diet thus seek to link human to the natural foods that fed their ancestors. The research thus seek to investigate the claim that the hunter gatherer diet is more nutritious than the contemporary diet and that it is indeed capable of minimizing the prevalence of some of the modern day dietary related diseases. Problem statement It is evident that the modern society is riddled with dietary complications as most diseases relate with the unbalanced and irregular food consumptions. The rising cases of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure among many other diseases are attributable to the consumption of modern day food substances. The early man lived a naturalistic lifestyle owing to the evident lack of manufacturing and processing information. They ate wild fruits and meat yet lived healthier longer lives. As evolutionists assert, the modern day human evolved owing to the accumulation of better traits from their ancestors. It is thus assumed that the modern day agriculture and dietary also evolved from that of the early humans. However, as scientific studies show, the modern means of carrying out agriculture and the processing of food products change the genetic components of the food products thereby affecting the nutritious value of the modern day food products (Lewis and Marcus 22). People have increasingly abandoned the naturalistic ways of living often crowding urban centers most of which are polluted and have food scarcity. To feed the high number of humans in these centers, humans feed on biological products with improved genetic components. The processing of foods and the consumption of junk food is attributable to more deaths and reduced life expectancy as opposed to that of the human ancestors who followed a more naturalistic way of life. The paleo diet thus seeks to incorporate the alien diet on the contemporary society (Guthrie 44). This way, the research will investigate the nutritious component and value of the food products comprising the diet, their effectiveness in eliminating the modern day dietary relate diseases and the achievability of such a diet in the contemporary setting and lifestyle. Goal, objectives, and research statement The primary goal of the research is to determine the nutritious value of the hunter-gatherer diet thereby establishing its effectiveness in the contemporary society. To do this, the research will carry out extensive content analysis of the existing literature in order to determine the ideas of both the proponent and opponents of the dietary in the modern society. The sheer number of humans in the contemporary society coupled with the changing lifestyle justifies the rise of most of the lifestyle diseases. However, it is common knowledge dietary is a major lifestyle component. The consumption of better food products presents increases the propensity of humans to live longer and healthier lives. The objectives of the study thus are to determine the nutritious value of the diet. This will include the investigation of the components of the diet investigating the single food entities in the diet and their relevance in improving the life value of humans in the contemporary society. Additionally, the research seeks to determine the possibility of achieving such a diet in the contemporary society owing to the different lifestyle features such as the human population and the settlement patterns (Wilson 55). In doing this, it investigates the cost implications of the diet. Comprehensive literature review Several researchers and food scientist have investigated the concept of the Paleolithic diet thereby contributing to the rise of the proponents and the opponents of the idea. The diet as discussed earlier is adopted from the earliest human ancestors who habited the universe millions of years ago. They lived in a pollution free society with clean ecological factors that guaranteed a healthier and longer living. The plant to animal ratio was thus a major attribute of their diet. Fruits and vegetable were readily available owing to the fact that they lived in forests, additionally, gathering presented lesser risks as opposed to hunting which presented a conflict between the humans and other animals. This implied that the earlier humans consumed more of plant products such as leaves, fruits and grains than they did meat products. The Paleolithic diet thus consists of many plant products. The earlier humans discovered fire much later preceding the existence of the Paleolithic diet. Thus comprises of quasi-cooked food the humans consumed mostly fruits which required no effective cooking. Additionally, after the discovery of fire, the humans restricted their diets to the basic forms of cooking such as boiling and roasting. These are some of the most effective cooking methods, which do not introduce any other foreign substance into the food products. Roasting and basic boiling differ greatly with the modern day types of cooking which consist of simmering and frying thereby adding more fats into the foods. Cooking method is an important aspect of the dietary as modern studies have shown. Most families in the contemporary society prefer fast foods owing to the busier lifestyles. However, fast food firstly consists of agricultural products, which the Paleolithic man never ate. Most fast food outlets dispense potatoes and deep fried fish or chicken and carbonated drinks. This implies that at each of the different foods comprising the human diet has several additives that eliminate the nutritional value of the food. Carbonation of the soft drinks for example introduces foreign particles into the water (Debe?nath and Harold 23). The Paleolithic diet consists of large intake of water, which was the only liquid the humans ingested. The modern day soft drinks on the other hand drink on the other hand consists of more additives including processed sugar and carbon all of which are foreign substance to the natural composition of water. Every food particle in the diet of the modern day human consists of sugar and worse still it is processed sugar. The Paleolithic diet consists of natural sugar obtained from the food substances. Such sugar is controlled naturally thereby ensuring the introduction of adequate sugar into the human body. Sugar presents potential risks to humans as it increases the chances of suffering heart failures, diabetes and high blood pressure among others. Processed sugar is worse as it introduces other additives used it the manufacture. Carbonated drinks thus present numerous health risks to humans since they have unfavorable composition of sugar, carbon and other additives such as food color all of which are toxic substances. Fast food, which is a major feature in the modern day dietary, is thus dangerous. Deep frying of foods such as potatoes,, fish and chicken among others introduce more fat into the animals thereby presenting heightened heart risks as the layering of the fat below the heart increases. The animals have adequate and natural fats within them, deep-frying on the other introduces more fat into the foods and does not ensure that other intricate parts of the food cooks properly (Salovaara, Fred, and Maija 14). This results in the ingestion of half cooked food, which further presents more risk to humans as they increase the chances of animal human infections. The Paleolithic diet encourages the consumption of proteins obtained from plants such as nuts since this has low cholesterols. The earlier man ate more of this owing to the convenience of harvesting the produces from plants. Hunting just as explained earlier presented a number of risks to the humans. Proteins and oil from plants is more purified than fats from animals, which would require further cooking. Red meat for example present serious health implications in the contemporary society, the early human thus preferred fish and chicken all of which are white meat and cooked faster than red meat obtained from other mammals. However, the opponents of the diet claim that the plants and animals too evolved thereby gratifying their chemical and structural components. Such claim that owing to the ecological changes over time, the plants and animals restructured to better adapt in the changing societies and is doing changed some of their structural thus nutritious value. Most plants live in the already polluted environment while the widespread practice of agriculture have simply ascertained the availability of food to a larger diverse population but has not restructure the composition of food substance (Higdon 30). Such claim that the health risks that most people associate with the foods is a result of successive lifestyle features which does not permit the consumption of better food (Alters and Wendy 33) Major findings After an effective analysis of the existing viewpoints as presented by both the opponents and the proponents of the diet, the benefits of the diets manifest themselves naturally. The research makes the following findings: I. Paleolithic diet is more nutritious than the contemporary diet. II. The diet presents lower risks as it it encourages a naturalistic consumption of food substances. III. Paleolithic diet is however more expensive and unrealistic especially in the contemporary society characterized by high population and low-income earners. IV. The diet followed a basic way of coking the selected food including boiling and roasting all of which retained the nutritious value of the foodstuff. Conclusions From the extensive study of the existing literature on the Paleolithic diet, it is natural to conclude that the diet presents more health benefits just as attributed to the earlier humans. Dietary is indeed an important aspect of human lifestyle. The consumption of fast food and the genetically modified food substance has resulted in the numerous health implications exhibited in the modern society. The Paleolithic diet is naturalistic and encourages the consumption of more fruits and plant products. Such fruits as sugar cane and carrots have natural and controlled sugar components. Additionally, they strengthen the teeth among other bones in the human body. Paleolithic diet thus naturally presents more health benefits a means of increasing the lifespan of humans in the present-day society. Recommendations While Paleolithic diet presents several advantages, it is difficult and less cost effective to achieve in the contemporary society. The following recommendations are therefore natural to the study: I. People should change their dietary pattern to simulate the natural diet. This will include a difference in the modern day cooking patterns to adopt that help retain the natural nutritional value of the food substance. II. Reduced consumption of processed food products such as soft drinks, this reduces the introduction of foreign chemical products into the body most of which the body cannot easily eliminate. III. Increased consumption of fruits and vegetable, this introduces natural and controlled sugar into the body system as opposed to the processed salt and sugar dispensed in stores. Works cited Alters, Sandra, and Wendy Schiff. Essential Concepts for Healthy Living. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2013. Print. Debe?nath, Andre?, and Harold L. Dibble. Handbook of Paleolithic Typology. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1993. Print. Eaton, S B, Marjorie Shostak, and Melvin Konner. The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet & Exercise and a Design for Living. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Print. First Steps: Your Healthy Living Journal. Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics, 2006. Print. Guthrie, Russell D. The Nature of Paleolithic Art. Chicago [u.a.: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2005. Print. Higdon, Jane. An Evidence Based Approach to Dietary Phytochemicals. Stuttgart: Thieme, 2007. Print. Lewis, Carole, and Marcus Brotherton. First Place 4 Health: Discover a New Way to Healthy Living. Ventura, Calif: Regal, 2008. Internet resource. McCleary, Barry V, and Leon Prosky. Advanced Dietary Fibre Technology. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2001. Internet resource. Salovaara, Hannu, Fred Gates, and Maija Tenkanen. Dietary Fibre Components and Functions. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Pub, 2007. Print. Wilson, Elisabeth. The Feel Good Factory on Healthy Living: Vitality-boosting, Mouth Watering, Time-Saving Ways to Get Healthy for Life. Oxford: Infinite Ideas, 2009. Internet resource. Read More