We Can't Blame Obesity On Our Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors Anymore

We Can’t Blame Obesity On Our Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors Anymore

Science • January 2014 • Views: 2,491

Hmm… looks like maybe supporters of the paleo diet are onto something, despite some possible problems with it.

One popular idea to explain the current obesity epidemic proposes that our hunter-gatherer ancestors had a fat-storing adaptation, which allowed them to survive frequent famines. Today, with our overabundance of food, this adaptation is causing us to get fat. There’s just one problem with this idea — research now shows that hunter-gatherer societies aren’t necessarily prone to food shortages.

Read more at io9

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8 comments

Norbrook Fri, Jan 10, 2014 8:26:31am

Aside from the reality that the paleo diet idea is pretty much complete bullshit, the other thing that gets rather ignored in that is that hunter-gatherers were a hell of a lot more active than most people are today. I know in the course of my work, during “field season” I’m outside walking between 7 to 12 miles a day, along with doing a lot of other physical things, and I end up losing quite a bit of weight.

CriticalDragon1177 Fri, Jan 10, 2014 10:32:36am

Norbrook,

True, they did exorcise more than we do today. However, even the biggest supporters of the Paleo diet, don’t say that you shouldn’t exercise or that exercise won’t help you loose weight.

CriticalDragon1177 Fri, Jan 10, 2014 12:14:13pm

re: #1 Norbrook

By the way, I just saw something critical of the Paleo diet that you’re comment reminded me of. I had booked marked it, but I forgot to watch it, until now, I might post something on it later.

Origuy Fri, Jan 10, 2014 1:04:19pm

I wonder how many people who say they are on the paleo diet eat offal and marrow, let alone termite grubs and grasshoppers?

wheat-dogghazi Fri, Jan 10, 2014 7:02:39pm

The paleo-diet is hogwash, because it presupposes that humans have not evolved at all in the last 10,000 years, and that our genetic makeup in Stone Age times left us incapable of eating grains and dairy.

It also ignores the fact that early humans did not live as long as we do now. As a result, they didn’t have time to get cancer or heart disease. Infant mortality was high, as was illness, parasitic disease and malnutrition.

CriticalDragon1177 Fri, Jan 10, 2014 9:21:25pm

re: #5 wheat-dogghazi

Its also wrong because it turns out that a lot of the foods they say primitive pre agricultural people didn’t eat, they actually ate. Also even the food we eat today, that supporters of the paleo diet claim our ancestors ate, they actually didn’t eat.

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Norbrook Sun, Jan 12, 2014 9:25:28am

re: #3 CriticalDragon1177

Check out John Hawks, he’s a paleoanthropologist and he has some rather scathing things to say about the paleo diet.

However, I can break down the bullshit items. First off there was no specific “diet” that we “evolved to eat.” Humans were pretty quickly spreading out and the “paleo diet” early humans in Asia were eating wasn’t what it was in Africa, or even any given part of Africa. Secondly, most of the food items we can obtain these days, i.e.; in your grocery store, bears little to no relationship to the foods back then. If there was a “paleo diet” it was “whatever happened to be around that was edible.”

aagcobb Tue, Jan 14, 2014 5:10:06am

I can’t blame my obesity on my ancestors? What, do you expect me to blame it on eating too much and not exercising?

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