Genes and epigenetic mechanisms, by which we function today, were laid down between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago in Africa.  Evolution has continued to this today.  However, our basic lifestyles (diet, exercise) have changed drastically over time, and basic food patterns are considerably different today.  With human world-wide migration, diets changed from the original patterns, […]

The Paleolithic diet improves blood sugar control and cardiovascular risk factors in diabetes patients compared to a group fed the normal diabetes diet.  The evidence is that human metabolism has not changed fast enough to keep up with the changes that have been made in the modern food supply, hence the benefit of the Paleolithic […]

The study of the diets of our ancestors from 50,000 to 100,000 years ago is believed to be relevant for us today, because our genes were naturally selected at that time.  There has been some evolution of humans over time, but our basic chemical and physiologic functioning is unchanged. Our early Paleolithic ancestors came from […]

The modern American diet is believed to contribute to “diseases of civilization.” Paleolithic was the period of the genus Homo that started 2 million years ago and ended 10,000 years ago with the onset of agriculture (Neolithic period). Our Paleolithic ancestors ate lean wild meats, marrow, organs, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. They ate no dairy […]

The nutritional needs of humans (Homo sapiens) result from “natural selection” over millions of years. For most of that time our diets have been wild animals and wild plants. The diet of mankind for the past 10,000 years has been radically changed by agriculture and industry. The result is mal-adaptation, since there has been insufficient […]

Environmental changes, including diet and lifestyle, which took place 10,000 years ago have been too recent for the human genome to make a proper adjustment. As a result “diseases of civilization” have emerged. The types of foods and food processing developed in the recent Neolithic and Industrial Periods have changed the following elements of our […]