Crystal Nelson
Eating what came into the Stone Age cave 10,000 years ago – the Stone Age diet works so simply. All nonsense, say, researchers. According to a recent study, the low-carb interpretation of the Stone Age menu is completely wrong!
Paleo is also referred to as the Stone Age diet because it is said to be based on the original diet of hunters and gatherers. The basis is food that was already available to our ancestors in a similar form around 2.5 million years ago. The main components of the Stone Age diet are vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meat, fish, eggs, and healthy fats. Processed foods, which were only available after the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry, are avoided. These include grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, highly processed vegetable fats, and artificial additives.
A controversial theory of the Stone Age diet
But did our ancestors really eat like this? According to a new study recently published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, the notion of the Stone Age diet is wrong. Scientists found that our ancestors consumed carbohydrates just as often as we do.
Based on archaeological, genetic, and physiological evidence, the researchers concluded that vegetable carbohydrates (e.g. potatoes, rice, legumes) and meat were important staple foods in the Stone Age. The analyzes show that cavemen preferred to eat tubers and other starchy vegetables. The root vegetables, which many people avoid as part of the modern Stone Age diet, played an important role in the Stone Age. Because these plants grew underground, they were likely a key food source for our ancestors to dig for.
Nutritional requirements and evolutionary evidence support the notion that cavemen did not eat exclusively meat. At that time, brain development had already started, so the brain needed a lot of energy. It got this from carbohydrates.
Stone Age Diet: Black salsify allowed!
The conclusion of the scientists for all supporters of the Stone Age diet: reach for black salsify more often.
