Gut Microbiomes of Hunter-gatherers page

[Lewis]

This looks quite interesting.

They're calling it "anthropology of microbes" --

We will spend 9-12 months in eastern Namibia near the town of Tsumkwe (near Botswana border). Working with 4-5 San villages, we will study the current impact of diet on the gut microbiome. The study will also include working with several of the San villages to revert 100% back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for 30, 60 and 120 day periods. Detailed diet and environmental conditions will be monitored, and a full suite of samples (feces, skin and oral swabs, etc) will be collected and prepared for analysis. We will monitor the impact on the gut microbiome on seasonal changes in diet in a natural setting – something that has never been done.

Human Food Project



I found it, ironically enough, when reading a "Paleo" story put out by the "Drovers Cattle Network". I don't know who they are, but it does sound like an industry front for people who don't produce "real" beef.

Commentary: Paleo possibilities Cattle News - Editorial, Grain & Cattle Markets, Current Stories

They're also claiming that people in the Old Stone Age ate:

about 35% to 37% protein, about 40% Complex carbohydrates and no more than 25% fat.

... which sounds like complete ball*cks to me. Try a (still high but much less appealing to the meat industry) figure of 15 to 20% protein, a carbohydrate intake a fraction of that, and a fat intake of anything up to 80%

They continue:

Even by contemporary nutritional standards, that’s a pretty healthy, well-balanced diet, one that compares favorably with USDA’s current recommendations.

Because the USDA's recommendations are a measure of a sensible diet ... not ... Just remember that those recommendations have been a major driver of what people have changed their traditional diets to and look at the increasing rates of diet-related illness.

Heck, look at what happens to people forced to eat in line with the USDA recommendations:

If ever someone wanted proof that humans weren't designed to eat a grain-based diet, look at the American Indian population-almost all of them are battling overweight, diabetes, and heart disease. Addictions are common.

Guts and Grease: The Diet of Native Americans - Weston A Price Foundation

Anyway, I digress. The comments include a couple of gems from a loony vegetarian -- naturally. They also include people asking, pertinently, whether the meat being pushed here is grass-fed. But they also include someone pushing the Human Food Project site. A shameless plug, I guess, but I forgive him, because it does sound intriguing. This poster is claiming that people can actualy submit their own samples and "have them compared" to the gut microbiomes of Australian Aborigines and Bushmen from Namibia. That sounds pretty cool to me.

[Dualhammers]

Most animals you encounter in the wild are not as fatty as factory farmed cows. Combine that with the fact that you probably have to feed an entire village on a single kill it makes sense they supplemented with things such as tubers.

It doesn't mean they were scarfing bread, it means finding food was hard and life was shitty and people ate what they could get to stay alive.

[skorpion317]

Most animals you encounter in the wild are not as fatty as factory farmed cows. Combine that with the fact that you probably have to feed an entire village on a single kill it makes sense they supplemented with things such as tubers.

It doesn't mean they were scarfing bread, it means finding food was hard and life was shitty and people ate what they could get to stay alive.

Give Paleolithic hunter-gatherers a little more credit than that. They were actually very efficient, very successful hunters. They would kill large numbers of herd animals, and build up stocks of meat and fat. They supplemented this with whatever small game they caught and whatever plant food they gathered. At some points during the Ice Age, Cro-Magnons may have eaten only about a cupful of vegetables per year, the rest of their diet being meat and fat.

[Dualhammers]

Give Paleolithic hunter-gatherers a little more credit than that. They were actually very efficient, very successful hunters. They would kill large numbers of herd animals, and build up stocks of meat and fat. They supplemented this with whatever small game they caught and whatever plant food they gathered. At some points during the Ice Age, Cro-Magnons may have eaten only about a cupful of vegetables per year, the rest of their diet being meat and fat.

How do you store up meat and fat unless existence is like a meat locker? Not every group understood how to dehydrate foods.

Also, if we are going all the way back to the Ice Age to justify this why don't we go all the way back to when we were all bacteria and our best source of food was straight simple sugars?

I'm not going to give cherry-picked estimations of human history any more credit than it deserves. Don't worry guys, admitting that our ancestors ate some forms of carbohydrates doesn't mean eating bread, refined sugar, and chips is a good idea. Fat and meat are still ideal substances and you continue right along with what you are doing; just don't ignore science or assume it is an anti-paleo conspiracy to justify it.

[patrickh]

How do you store up meat and fat unless existence is like a meat locker? Not every group understood how to dehydrate foods.

Pemmican, my friend...Pemmican.