23 Jan 09 The Evolutionary Lifestyle II: Radical Implications
What are the implications of the evolutionary lifestyle? To find out, we must first figure out what the evolutionary lifestyle consisted of. The timeline of human evolution indicates that evolutionary change takes place over hundreds of thousands of years. To put that into perspective, the complete timeline—from the earliest lifeforms to modern humans—spans 4 billion years.
We are the heirs of inherited characteristics accrued over millions of years; the vast majority of our biochemistry and physiology are tuned to life conditions that existed prior to the advent of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Genetically our bodies are virtually the same as they were at the end of the Paleolithic era some 20,000 years ago.
The Paleolithic era, otherwise known as the Stone Age, spans from 2.5 million years ago, with the introduction of stone tools, until the advent of agriculture 8,000-12,000 years ago. During this era, humans lived as hunter-gatherers. Anatomically modern humans—people with the same physical appearance and intelligence as ourselves—appeared in Africa at least 130,000 years ago.
Since our bodies have evolved to thrive under Paleolithic conditions, mimicking the Paleolithic lifestyle is the key to optimum health. We can immediately see that the implications of this approach are at odds with much of the conventional wisdom. The basic premises carry radical implications. A few examples:
- Diet: primarily meat, fish, shellfish, leafy vegetables, fruit, nuts and insects.
- Eating meat is the foundation of a good diet.
- Fat is good for you. Good quality fats (they ate the entire animal) are essential for good health.
- Grains and dairy have no evolutionary precedent in the human diet. We should therefore expect them to be lousy sources of nutrition and possibly even harmful.
- Water: drink when you feel thirsty, there’s no evolutionary precedent for forcing down 8 glasses of water per day. Nor is there any precedent for drinking fluoride-medicated water.
- Skin health: our ancestors lived for millions of years under the sun, without sunscreen (or clothes). We should expect sunlight to be healthy, but excessive exposure (sunburn) to be unhealthy. There’s no precedent for using moisturizing lotions, or other skin products, either.
- Exercise: Paleolithic exercise consisted of lots of low-intensity walking, coupled with occasional short bursts of high-intensity work (hunting, fleeing from predators, etc). Regular cardio exercise (jogging, cycling) has no evolutionary precedent. High-intensity, low-duration strength exercise is optimal.
- Rest: contrary to popular perception, hunter-gatherers enjoyed an abundance of leisure time. Laziness is natural.
Given that these ideas are extremely dangerous to some powerful special interests, it is perfectly obvious why the Paleolithic lifestyle is marginalized in mainstream health. In both the USA and Canada, the government publishes nutritional and health guidelines. And sure enough, they line up pretty nicely with the interests of some big lobbies. For example, both recommend eating a lot of grain and dairy, and using plenty of sunscreen.
If the bureaucrats and special interests are somehow right, we would be asked to accept a mind-boggling coincidence of stupendous proportions: that there is another type of lifestyle that by chance happens to be better suited for our bodies. Remember, our bodies have become highly specialized, through millions of years of evolutionary adaptation, to thrive under a specific set of conditions; it would be next to impossible for a different lifestyle to suit our bodies better than the one our bodies have literally grown into. The evolutionary lifestyle fits like a glove. There’s no alternative that could suit us any better.
For a neutral opinion:
From the advocates of the Paleolithic lifestyle:
- Mark’s Daily Apple – my favorite site about the Paleolithic lifestyle (he calls it the Primal Blueprint). I recommend starting with his Definitive Guide to the Primal Blueprint.
- PaNu – Dr. Kurt Harris is my new favorite paleo writer. He gives a rigorous scientific analysis of paleolithic nutrition. Check out his 12 steps.
- The Protein Power Lifeplan
– this book draws upon both evolutionary theory and empirical evidence and offers a comprehensive Paleolithic lifestyle plan.
15 Jan 09 The Evolutionary Lifestyle: A Logical Theory of Health
Unlike other lifestyles, diets and exercise plans; the evolutionary lifestyle is based on theory, not on empirical evidence. We know it’s a healthy lifestyle without even looking at any studies. This is crucially important for two major reasons. First, the conclusions of research studies seem to be constantly changing. There is still wide controversy in the field of health (unlike in chemistry or physics), which brings me to the second reason: government tainted science. Governments (tax-funded monopolies) have horrible incentives, so their involvement in the field of health is sure to spread misinformation and lies. In most countries, the government publishes recommendations for diet, exercise and other health-related topics. Given the perverse incentives of governments, it’s extremely important to question such nutritional guidelines. Fortunately, we can sidestep the empirical research by using evolutionary theory, which actually turns out to be a much more reliable and accurate way to discover the healthiest lifestyle.
The theory can be stated as follows:
Given that humans are the product of evolution, the lifestyle that the human body has adapted to through evolutionary natural selection will tend to be optimally healthy.
If we accept the assumption that humans evolved through Darwinian adaptation, then we can conclude that our bodies have become specialized in a certain lifestyle (diet, exercise, etc.) and this lifestyle will be optimal for good health. If we want to be healthy, all we need to do is read up on our evolutionary history. No research studies required.
Evolution is the process by which random mutations of the genes (DNA) that happen to confer an advantage to the organism survive and outcompete the old genes (and vice versa for bad genetic mutations). This positive feedback system, over thousands of generations, improves the genetic blueprint of the species. But evolution is not perfect; it is a process of continual improvement. The length of time (or the number of generations) that a species exists under certain conditions determines how much adaptation will occur. That is why the theory states that the evolutionary lifestyle will tend to be optimally healthy.
Unless critics can somehow disprove the theory, then all the research studies in the world wouldn’t be able to invalidate the thesis. Ultimately, however, if the theory is correct, the empirical research must illustrate it, by definition. I believe that it already does, but I won’t get into the empirical side here.
The evolutionary lifestyle is highest standard in the field of health, because the theory is logically, not empirically, derived. (Technically, it’s logically derived from the theory of evolution, which is empirically derived—but that’s a pretty solid empirical theory!) No longer are we to remain at the mercy of the ever changing nutritional advice of the empiricists. We now have a theory that will enable us to cut through the controversy and get straight to the facts.
