What food is “natural” for humans?

What food is “natural” for humans?

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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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There’s a lot of talk about diets related to the environment at the moment but often the discussion touches on ideas about what’s our “natural” diet.

You often hear arguments for vegetarianism about being dropped into our natural environment presumably some kind of savannah or whatever and the food we would be able to eat (without tools and fire) is fruit and vegetables and berries and nuts etc.

Other arguments about our teeth and intestinal tracts seem to favour plant based diets also.

Another, perhaps more philosophical argument, I heard was someone saying that if we look at an orange or a strawberry etc we want to eat it but if we look at a cow or sheep then our natural instinct probably isn’t to think of it as food. I kind of agreed with this but maybe others think it’s bks.

Do people think it’s natural to eat meat? Other animals don’t cook meat before eating it, do we actually need to cook meat first or have we just evolved into preferring cooked meat?

I eat a mixed diet so I’m not pushing any particular diet, just curious what others thought about which is the more natural diet for humans?


Evoluzione

10,345 posts

242 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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Meat, veg and fruit. Not anything made from grain and more above ground veg than root veg.
We can't eat raw meat because we haven't got the stomach for it, it'll make us ill. Or at least it will if it's kept a while and then eaten.
It begs the question, could we eat raw chicken as long as its fresh?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
Evoluzione said:
Meat, veg and fruit. Not anything made from grain and more above ground veg than root veg.
We can't eat raw meat because we haven't got the stomach for it, it'll make us ill. Or at least it will if it's kept a while and then eaten.
It begs the question, could we eat raw chicken as long as its fresh?
So if we can’t eat raw meat, It’s not really “natural” for us to eat it is it?

Evoluzione

10,345 posts

242 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
El stovey said:
Evoluzione said:
Meat, veg and fruit. Not anything made from grain and more above ground veg than root veg.
We can't eat raw meat because we haven't got the stomach for it, it'll make us ill. Or at least it will if it's kept a while and then eaten.
It begs the question, could we eat raw chicken as long as its fresh?
So if we can’t eat raw meat, It’s not really “natural” for us to eat it is it?
We can eat raw meat, I could cut open a cow or a deer now, have a meal from it and be ok.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
Evoluzione said:
El stovey said:
Evoluzione said:
Meat, veg and fruit. Not anything made from grain and more above ground veg than root veg.
We can't eat raw meat because we haven't got the stomach for it, it'll make us ill. Or at least it will if it's kept a while and then eaten.
It begs the question, could we eat raw chicken as long as its fresh?
So if we can’t eat raw meat, It’s not really “natural” for us to eat it is it?
We can eat raw meat, I could cut open a cow or a deer now, have a meal from it and be ok.
I thought you just said we couldn’t, or do you mean we can as long as we eat it straight away?

Sorry for sounding thick but I don’t actually know much about eating raw meat. I assumed we cooked it because eating it raw was more likely to make us ill. hehe

If eating raw meat is ok but slightly old meat is really bad for us you think we’d be more adept at killing the bacteria with stronger stomach acid or whatever like other animals do?

rfisher

5,024 posts

282 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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We are omnivores - we have evolved to be able to eat anything.

Drinking animal milk evolved later, and required a mutation, which then spread into more of the human populations due to the advantage it gave in terms of higher nutrition for lower energy expenditure.

Same advantage was derived by partially digesting meat by cooking it before eating. But we can certainly eat raw meat.

A 'natural' diet would have almost no refined products or sugar.

Not to mention the hugh amount of moving we would have done to survive, which would require us to eat almost constantly, particularly using animal fat intake for energy.

Very different existence to humans today and for far shorter time.

Evoluzione

10,345 posts

242 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
El stovey said:
Evoluzione said:
El stovey said:
Evoluzione said:
Meat, veg and fruit. Not anything made from grain and more above ground veg than root veg.
We can't eat raw meat because we haven't got the stomach for it, it'll make us ill. Or at least it will if it's kept a while and then eaten.
It begs the question, could we eat raw chicken as long as its fresh?
So if we can’t eat raw meat, It’s not really “natural” for us to eat it is it?
We can eat raw meat, I could cut open a cow or a deer now, have a meal from it and be ok.
I thought you just said we couldn’t, or do you mean we can as long as we eat it straight away?

Sorry for sounding thick but I don’t actually know much about eating raw meat. I assumed we cooked it because eating it raw was more likely to make us ill. hehe

If eating raw meat is ok but slightly old meat is really bad for us you think we’d be more adept at killing the bacteria with stronger stomach acid or whatever like other animals do?
Yes, i'm imagining us as cavemen and that what we ate then is probably what we should be eating now. Anything we invented or created since then is quite possibly not very good for us.
Back then of course if you killed a deer, you ate it. As time wore on we needed to try and preserve food to be eaten later. Once something is old it needs heating to kill off the bacteria which has formed in it. That's the general rule, but is also why I then went on to ask if we could eat a fresh chicken - going on the theory that it degrades and becomes riddled with bacteria as time goes by.
I'm going to ask Google rather than try it though tongue out
Preserved and processed meat is now the norm, but is not very good for you at all in comparison to fresh. Apart from freezing which doesn't cause many ill effects as long as poultry and such like are cooked after they've defrosted.

We were never supposed to eat much grain or sugar, the fact we do now and eat too much is why the amount of diabetes (at least T2 anyhow) cases have gone through the roof. They have both been created by us.
Once you are T2 you need to revert back to a very basic and controlled (caveman style) diet to control it which is where my thoughts on the subject stem from.

Edited by Evoluzione on Sunday 8th December 16:12

Evanivitch

19,800 posts

121 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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Eating raw meat isn't a major issue for humans provided it is:

- Very fresh
- Not from intensive farming
- Not from polluted source

There is a risk of illness from it, but there is from eating fruit/veg washed in natural, untreated waters (and drinking that water too).

Eating raw isn't as low risk, or as nutritionally efficient as cooking it, and that applies to both meat and non-meat sources generally.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
rfisher said:


A 'natural' diet would have almost no refined products or sugar.
fructose is natural sugar. you have honey, tree sap etc all natural sugars.

StevieBee

12,789 posts

254 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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Natural also means regional and seasonal. Our relatively rapid move away from this is thought to be the root cause of many maladies.

We shouldn't be able to get strawberries, tomatoes and peppers at this time of the year in the UK yet that's what I bought as ingredients for tea tonight.

We should be gorging on flat leaf, root veg and meat in season - all rich in vitamin D which we are denied via sunlight due to shorter days plus other nutrients needed for the climate at any given point in the year.

There's nothing wrong with eating strawberries, tomatoes and peppers at this time of the year but because they taste nicer than cabbage, we tend the replace the former with the latter.

Also worth noting that almost all of what we eat is the result of human manipulation at some point in the past. Natural cauliflower bares little if any resemblance to that which we eat today looking more like a cabbage gone wrong.



Mr E

21,581 posts

258 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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We are omnivores and endurance hunters.

So, pretty much anything we can find or chase down.

As pointed out above, almost everything we eat has been manipulated over time.

Zarco

17,701 posts

208 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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El Stovey - why do you think everyone loves the smell of a bbq?

It's because we all still have a bit of cave man in us.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
Zarco said:
El Stovey - why do you think everyone loves the smell of a bbq?

It's because we all still have a bit of cave man in us.
I agree I love bbq but a bbq isn’t 100% natural hehe

If a look at a cow or pig I empathise with it a bit, I don’t really think about eating it. An apple or orange looks tasty though in its natural form.

Perhaps it’s just me though.

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

260 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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Evoluzione said:
We were never supposed to eat much grain or sugar, the fact we do now and eat too much is why the amount of diabetes (at least T2 anyhow) cases have gone through the roof. They have both been created by us.
Once you are T2 you need to revert back to a very basic and controlled (caveman style) diet to control it which is where my thoughts on the subject stem from.
The increase in T2 is primarily due to an increase in obesity, partly due to an ageing population and earlier diagnosis. Sugar has no more effect than any other source of calories.

cml24

1,410 posts

146 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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I went to a farm yesterday and whilst I didn't start salivating whilst I watched the pigs, my mind certainly drifted into curing meat!

I just tried a quick google, but this article seemed believable. Very varied plant based diet with occasional meat as and when it was there. They key thing seems to be the variety.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2115127-ancie...

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
cml24 said:
I went to a farm yesterday and whilst I didn't start salivating whilst I watched the pigs, my mind certainly drifted into curing meat!

I just tried a quick google, but this article seemed believable. Very varied plant based diet with occasional meat as and when it was there. They key thing seems to be the variety.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2115127-ancie...
I eat a mixed diet myself. I suppose I’m saying if you lived in a savannah and there was plentiful fruit and berries or nuts etc why would you start chasing after animals that are harder to catch prepare and digest?

That’s obviously what people did though. Maybe it’s to do with seasons or as we migrated to different areas and different foods were available?

CypSIdders

835 posts

153 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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What food is “natural” for humans?

It really depends on how hungry you are, doesn't it?
If you are actually starving then I'm sure a lot of things would, all of sudden, seem perfectly natural to eat, be they animal or vegetable!

bigpriest

1,577 posts

129 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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Zarco said:
El Stovey - why do you think everyone loves the smell of a bbq?

It's because we all still have a bit of cave man in us.
The BBQ smell most people love is the fuel - not the food!

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
quotequote all
our body for 1000s years has been used to parasites in our food. That is natural yet not many fads advocate there reintroduction in our 1st world diets.


grumbledoak

31,499 posts

232 months

Sunday 8th December 2019
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Humans and mountain gorillas evolved from the same hominid. We went one way by eating meat, they went the other. Our diets for the next few miiion years have made us what we are.

Up until about 10,000 years ago meat was mostly what we ate - it is the only thing available year round. Fruit, nuts, berries, leaves, and roots are *all* seasonal, and basically don't exist over winter.

As a result of this heritage you can eat very nearly all meat raw. Even the stuff you think you cannot because culturally and historically we do not - chicken, dog, horse, lion, polar bear, whatever. Bacteria are an issue to us -we are not carrion eaters, but the flesh is fine with only very specific exceptions. Polar bear livers have too much Vit A for us, for example.

Conversely 99% of all plants are inedible to us, and many are actually poisonous. Even some of the plants we do eat contain toxins that aren't very good for us.

So, our historic (Paleolithic) diet was mostly meat. Since agriculture was invented our diet has been more omnivorous, and not that good for our health (ask the Paleoanthropologists). Since the industrial revolution our diet is turning into one of wheat, sugar, and chemically extracted gloop from seeds.