Actual hunter gatherer foods.

I just happened to be watching an Australian TV program last week about Kalahari bushmen returning to their traditional lifestyle in Mozambique.
Intersting to see what they were eating...basically a westernised version would be 1/2 kilo of beef, a parsnip and a cantaloupe. They didn`t seem too perturbed at the lack of cruciferous vegetables. absence of flaxseed oil or the nasty saturated fat which they neglected to trim from their gazelle. They did look obscenely lean and fit though.

Once upon a time, our fellow Andrew Dunbar rambled on about "Actual hunter gatherer foods.." Our champion De-Medicalizing in sci.med.nutrition retorts, thusly ...
Ha, ... Hah, Ha!
Has it ever occurred to you that diet is built around your activity level? And, that bushmen don`t care about living past the ripe old age of 20?

carbohydrate diets could almost fill a thimble.

with a different fat profile (less saturated, more omega-3), since the wild animal itself has been eating lots of vegetables and getting plenty of exercise running away from hunters (human or otherwise)? gathering?

exercise.

Once upon a time, our fellow Andrew Dunbar

Our champion De-Medicalizing in sci.med.nutrition retorts, thusly ...
Here today, and gone tomorrow.

Bushmen live to be in their late 40's, and frequently into their 60's.

So as for the longevity issue... the average longevity for agricultural people before the Industrial Revolution was 30. This includes medieval Europe. 30.

Hunter Gatherer: 40-50 and with better health.

Of course AMERICANS and EUROPEANS and the JAPANESE are living longer because of fossil-fuel powered medical technology.

So while we may live LONGER than a hunter gatherer, our QUALITY OF LIVE is much less.

These are happy, content and playful people. Look at the average American. Not a happy picture.

So don't look at things so simply. "They live to be 20". They live to their 60's.

"AVERAGE LIFESPAN" includes infant mortality... which they have high levels of. But once you are the age of 13 you can expect to live to be around 40-60. Thx.

Hi Teegan, welcome to the forum here I hope you will like it.

You really think the quality of life of the bushmen was better?

Hunter-gatherers live in the way that humans are biologically designed to live. We've only had cars, high-tech jobs, and urban centers for centuries while we lived as hunter-gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years. Our body is more suited to doing what they do, instead of what we do in the modern developed world.

With access to modern medical care, these type of people should have the longest lifespan. I think the reason tribal people don't live as long is probably due to minor diseases and other infections at older ages.

Our body isn't designed for cars (we have legs), TVs, rental housing (you build your own house!), and supermarkets (you hunt/plant your own food).

I also believe that their quality of life is somewhat better. There is satisfaction in what they do. If they're hungry, they will hunt their own food, cook it, and eat it. There's a certain sense of accomplishment.

In the developed world, all of that is replaced by the pursuit of money. Money alone satisfies the need for housing, food, safety, relationships, social status and other things. I'd have to believe that at the end of the day, many people end up not so satisfied with their jobs or their lives because of the money aspect.

Post edited by: gummybear, at: 2008/02/27 20:16

i agree with you. however, there are more things that make people happy. to see your children grow up and be satisfied, to live and work and go on holidays, to have time (and money) for leisure...


just think about dental care those days. probably much less people would suffer from tootache, but what with the anesthetics and having your toot taken out without it to have an illness or physical restriction...


there are always two sides to look at things.