The Cro-Magnon man unmistakably adopted a healthy diet that kept him and his Cro-Magnon family healthy.
Another fad diet?
God no – not another fad diet! It seems that there are as many diet plans as there are obese people – myself included. No, I am not what I consider fat. I weigh 185 pounds and am 6 feet tall. But I have a lot of guts. Many doctors agree that people come in three forms:
* Slim and Trim
* pear shaped
* apple shaped
Of course we all want to be slim and trim – rightly so! But recent government statistics show that two-thirds of the population is overweight. According to the US Air Force’s height-weight chart, I could weigh up to 205 pounds at my height. But the large intestine is a problem.
The Dangers of an “Apple-Shaped” Figure
Belly puts me in the apple shaped category. Apple body shape (body fat stored around the middle – ie the abdomen, chest and surrounding internal organs, such as the heart) is associated with health problems such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and gall bladder disease .
Doctors say that the pear-shaped (fat is stored around the hips – away from vital organs) is safer – although it is an undesirable position. To lead a healthy life we need to know about two factors – diet and exercise. There’s that word again – diet. I’ve never officially been on a diet — until recently (more about that in a minute). I try to eat healthy, but like most of the population, I often turn to junk food and sometimes fast food. I bet you must have thought that junk food is fast food, or vice versa. Not so, say many nutritionists. Some fast food can be healthier than food prepared in the kitchen at home. But that too is another story.
The Caveman Diet
So what does all this have to do with the Cro-Magnons – the people of the caves. That’s it–I found one of those pay-per-click ads on the TV station’s website. It shows a picture of a fat woman who is showing how to get rid of belly fat. So I clicked and saw a very interesting video. The narrator said that we should eat like the cavemen (and the cavewomen) ate. Paleontologists (bone collectors) say that Cro-Magnons were mostly muscular, trim creatures, and had very little body fat. The unaccustomed diet they followed was a necessity. Yes, the market is flooded with all kinds of diets – some include supplements (diet pills that ultimately don’t work), fad diets, low-carb, high-fat diets, and so on.
Try to imagine what those ancestors of ours ate. During the warmer months they had an ample supply of fresh plant material – fruit (mostly berries) and an insane assortment of wild vegetables. In winter they ate meat, and they could easily choose lean meat as they had whole animals to choose from. It is believed by many that the Cro-Magnons varied their diet and calorie intake from day to day. Hardly they would eat the same food two days in a row.
So Did They Discover an Honest “Fat Burner” Plant 30,000 Years Ago? no way. The body is a furnace, it burns (converts) food into useful nutrients. Food, in itself, doesn’t burn anything – so be careful with these “fat burner plans”. They probably won’t hurt you (at least I don’t think they will) but they will take out your wallet – and still leave you fat.
the human body is not a machine
Your body is not a machine… but it easily adapts to what you feed it. If you feed it the same thing every day, your body says, “Hey… there’s no need to burn this food. I guess I’ll just store it as fat!” Oops! Therein lies the problem. This is exactly what happens when you eat a ‘typical’ western diet. You end up with a lot of sugar and starchy carbs, as well as unhealthy fats… and not the healthy fats we need for good health.
The ancients got plenty of healthy fats! Worst of all, we get basically the same number of calories each day. Many fad diets currently ask you to calculate your calorie intake based on your height, weight and age. I found a nifty calorie counter on about.com that says for me, at my age, I should be consuming foods that provide 2146 calories per day. But if you believe the Caveman Diet to be true, and you stick to the calorie numbers from the calculator, your body will say, “I’m used to it… no thanks…”
Be flexible with calorie intake
Ok so I need to be flexible with caloric intake and eating specific foods from day to day… but I need to vary these foods and not eat the same stuff day in and day out. It doesn’t seem too difficult. In fact, it looks so easy a caveman could do it!
Source by Don Penven
