Can today's Gatherers go back to a Diet that provided the perfect foods our ancestor ate 20,000 years ago? Not if we listen to all the experts.

Hunter-Gatherers In today's world are inundated with information, so much so, that we literally have no idea what a proper diet is, what foods are in that diet, and what to eat day to day.

The Paleo Diet leads one to believe that it is based on what the paleolithic man ate, and by following the Paleo Diet, you are eating what the caveman ate.  This is all just Marketing and Wordsmithing plan and simple, the availability and verity, is nothing like what the Paleo-man ate. 

What did the paleolithic man and women eat? simple, Meat, Plants, Eggs, Nuts and Berries.  But we won't find any Woolly Mammoths, any more than the Paleo Dudes and Dudettes could find all the Plants we have today.  So what do we do, and what do we know, and how does that help any of us?

Meat and Plant based foods are what we have in common with past and present hunter-gatherers.  In the past just like today, hunters would kill their meat, use the skins, all the fats for cooking, and everything else from that animal.  Some hunters in very cold regions of the planet lived on animal fat from seals, with very little protein at all, and others chase their prey for days on foot, with no carbs what so ever.

They would Gather plants, when in season, for spicing their meats, and Fruits or nuts to supplement them in between hunting.  In today's life we process nuts for oils and milk substitutes, and consider them as Healthy fats, and yes they are damn tasty.  Let's face facts though, years and years ago, nuts like almonds, were not used as a milk substitute, and Healthy Fat came from animals not avocados.  Protein was derived from the meat because beans were not grown and sold in Supermarkets, and could only be found in specific areas around the World.

As you can see, there are similarities, but they all have been corrupted to fit into today's modern belief structure and morals.  Just because someone calls it Paleo, does not make it so, in fact if one looks at the list of what they call Paleo Foods, you will see the finger prints of misdirection on all of it.

This is from every Paleo website I found, and was the same on every site, so I figure it is the standard for all Paleo Diets. Got this list from Here

Lean meats
Fish
Seafood
Eggs
Vegetables
Some fruit
Nuts, but not peanuts
Natural oils

Let's assume as Hunter-Gatherers that Meat, back in the day, was whatever you were lucky enough to kill, lean was not a concern, and most wild game is fairly balanced as far as fat to protein ratio is concerned.  

As far as Fish, Seafood, and Eggs are concerned, they made up little of the Caveman's diet due to the scarcity, and difficulty was concerned, just watch Naked and Afraid for a season or two.

I could write an entire article on Vegetables, but the simple truth is that many of the veggies we eat today did not exist even hundreds of years ago, so forget thousands of years ago.  Most Fruits are eaten by the bears, small animals and birds way before man comes along on a hunting trip to harvest them.  Nuts are in scarcity, just as vegetables are because those cute little squirrels love them more than we do.

And that leaves Natural oils, the Paleo list shows olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oils, yet Paleo says to stay away from processed foods, and these oils are not naturally derived, not like lard and tallow, so I'm confused.  If you add this all up, you can see that over 95% of the paleolithic man's diet was from meat and fat exclusively.

A million years ago things where different, much of the foods eaten were only available if our caveman friend lived in certain areas, and climates.  Those that lived, even 15,000 years ago, had far less choices than we do today, and most likely avoided plant based foods, due to the uncertain toxic nature of plants.  They may not have known that their bodies could not digest cellulose, but if they ate plants at all they felt the same problems we do today, inflammation, gas, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and low energy levels.

Meat, all meat, on the other hand can be safely consumed, even raw, this makes it the safest food to eat if we were Cave Dwellers, and would be our Energy of choice, in fact, meat is the only energy source found in extremely cold or hot climates as well.

The Paleolithic man, or Caveman, may have invented the wheel, but he never drove a car.  Did he eat nuts? yes, did he make almond milk or flour out of them? no, he did not.  To think that Paleo is Paleo would be a false premise and a mistake, is it a good diet? yes, it is light years better than the Supermarket diet, hands down.

The purpose of this Article is not to put a bad light on the Paleo Diet, but to point out that we can never become true Hunter-Gatherers in this modern World in witch we live in today.  Very few people can, or will, ever try to become Mountain Men, or attempt ReWilding as a lifestyle, even those that live in Alaska count on food to be brought in on trucks these days.

The best we can do, the most we can count on, is for us as individuals to try and work out a diet that is healthy, and promotes wellness for ourselves and our families.  I feel that the Perfect Diet contains bits and pieces of the Paleo, Ketogenic, and LCHF Diets combined.  All other diets we see today are just "Meal Plans", based on the carbs good, fat bad, junk science, all they do is restrict calories, and increase insulin to dangerous levels.

If a Caveman had a Plate, it would be covered with meat, would there be vegetables on that plate? no, would there be butter? no.  Why you ask, because most of them veggies did not exist, and just like today, 98% of all plants on this planet will kill you if eaten, and the first reference to butter in our written history was found on a 4,500-year-old limestone tablet, after the domestication of farm animals.