Nothing generates more controversy in nutrition than meat
consumption. Is it safe to eat? Is it immoral to eat? There are
seemingly more questions than answers.
Health experts in the 50s and 60s declared that red meat was bad
because it was high in saturated fat, which was linked to heart
disease and other health ailments. In recent times, high
protein, low carb fad diets such as the Atkins diet have
reversed this claim, calling for as much meat consumption as
your heart desires. And on yet another tack, vegetarians
disapprove of meat consumption on moral grounds.
All of these conflicting views leave us not knowing what to
believe. Should we stick to meat and potatoes like Mom taught
us? Should we do the "right" thing and begrudgingly give up our
beef for tofu burgers?
In answering these questions, it behooves us to consider how the
human body was actually designed to fuel itself. A relatively
recent, yet growing contingent of scientists and health experts
have started promoting The Paleo Diet, otherwise known as
The Stone Age Diet. This new body of work takes the view
that millions of years of evolution have shaped our dietary
needs, and that we can gain a better understanding of what those
dietary needs are by studying the diets of our ancestors.
From cave paintings of the wild bulls and boars that are the
ancestors of modern cows and pigs to the hunting to extinction
of the woolly mammoth, along with a good heap of archeological
and anthropological evidence, it is quite clear that our
ancestors ate meat. Lots of meat. In fact, human evolution has
developed an intimate relationship with meat consumption. It is
widely believed that a dietary shift to high volumes of nutrient
dense animal proteins is what fueled growth of the human brain
to over three times the size of our more distant
ancestors--which in turn gave rise to art, civilization,
technology, and many of the aspects of modern life that we
consider distinctly human.
Wait a second. Cavemen?! Meat consumption causing the rise of
civilization?! Woolly mammoths?!
It's very easy to dismiss The Paleo Diet because of how
different it is from everything else we have heard. And there
was probably a little bit more at work in the rise of human
civilization than a few steaks.
However, the undeniable fact remains--our ancestors ate meat,
and for millions of years. Our bodies are designed to fuel
themselves on meat. We live in a modern world of offices
lunches, fast food, and fad diets, but we have the dietary needs
of a paleolithic hunter-gatherer. Not only is it okay to eat
meat from a health perspective, but the evidence suggests that
we should probably be eating meat on a regular basis.
About the author:
Visit Brian's blog for more
ergonomic tips. Brian is passionate about achieving health
and happiness through diet and ergonomics tailored towards the
body's natural design. He also owns and operates
www.BodyCorrectLiving.com, an ergonomics store focused on
ergonomic chairs
and other ergonomic products.
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