The Paleolithic Gatherers were not Gardeners, they gathered food, like birds eggs, wild berries, and nuts, when in season only, most of what we eat today did not exist 30,000 years ago.

Most gatherers today suffer from a belief structure that says the Paleolithic Humans were Farmers, nothing could be further from the truth.  So where does this false premise come from? LIFE! that's right, our life experiences, what we see on the television, read in magazines and on Social Media, what we hear from a Health Couch, or from our parents as children, Co-workers, Doctors, and everything we taste, yes Mom's cooking was the best.

This input from life into our minds becomes the Meta-Data we use as our filters, almost like brainwashing, but not as nefarious, we are consciously and passively gathering information, but not for some Pop-Quiz, just life. We speak to relatives about Grand-mamas cooking, and think (in the past) they ate this or that, we see movies and watch how people ate during the Wild West, or how the King and Royals ate back in 1400's, yes we see them all, as the Ancient Ones.

This is the view we all have when it comes to "The Past", but none of those past events come close to the 20,000 years past.

To get a feel for what the Paleolithic Men and Women ate, we must jump back in time, past the Agriculture Age, 10,000 years ago, when we as humans had not become grain eaters.  So now we need to put ourselves in our virtual, or imaginary Time Machines, imagine if you will, standing on the very spot you are now, but 10,000 year back in time.  What do you see? is there a produce isle in the market, is there even a market at all?

Take out your shopping list you brought with you, you did remember the list, right? Good!!! let's go shopping. Lettuce, tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, and some croutons, I'm In the mood for Salad, but wait, there is no lettuce, not in your area, whats a crouton your BFF cave friend asks?  You see, most of what we eat in today's modern world did not exist back then, there was no Big Agra farms or long line of logistics, just what you could find, forage, Gather.

Produce as we think of it today, is from years of farming, and cross-pollination methods, grafting from one plant to another, and most fruit was very regional, and since we don't have Fedex, Amazon, or even Walmart, what will we eat?  

Screw This Time Travel, I still want a Salad, let's head home.

As we saw, it kinda sucked "Back in the Day" was there food? sure, was it a plenty? maybe, but not in the verity and in all areas of the World.  But that was not the whole point with our Time Traveling whirlwind tour, the point was to think about this whole notion of eating a Plant-Based Diet, or supplementing our diet with a verity of fruits and veggies.

We have become so consumed with this myopic view of Eating Healthy by eating whole Food, Organic Food, Unprocessed Food, that we have forgotten what real food actually is.  Natural Food is more than a Label that reads, "100% Real", "All Natural", or "Squeezed From The Earth", it is what our Bodies can consume, they are foods we can process Naturally.

Facts are Facts, pesky little bits of information that will not go away because of our feelings, and most plants are cellulose based in structure, what that means is, we as humans are unable to digest cellulose because the appropriate enzymes to breakdown the beta acetal linkages are lacking in our arsenal of enzymes.

Oils squeeze, or "processed" from Nuts is not natural, Milk derived from the utters of Almonds is not Real, and Flour from anything, wheat, coconuts or almonds never existed before we became Agricultural 10,000 years ago.  Because of the ability to Think, and to visualize the Past trough imaginary Time Travel, we can figure out what we need to eat, what is and what is not Natural Food.

It's up to You and I, we can go on with our lives and continue to eat the way we were taught, or learn what food works with our bodies naturally.  Gatherers had to FIND the foods they ate, looking in nests for eggs, not over by the dairy section.  While hunting, or walking to the river to bath, they may find some nuts, or berry's, but never in a 2 pound bag, or on sale, fresh from somewhere else across the planet.

It's about the availability, the quantity, and the season, let's assume that in the area we lived 20,000 years ago, there was fruit, how much could you carry, and if you made a second trip, would it still be there?  Small critters and bugs LOVE fruit, you are on foot, so you walk back to your cave and eat what you brought home, two to three days later you decide, that was good!  Wanting more, you head back to the fruit tree, or bush, but What, What whaaat? were is all that fruit? well either the critters ate it, or your Cave Dwelling neighbors went Gathering as well.

Now you may be tempted to say, "that kind of life would suck, I could never live without my strawberry, banana Smoothie every day", but that's not the point with this Time Travel thought process, is it?  The paleolithic life was not any tougher than our lives will look to humans 10,000 years from now, they found food, and they ate it, just as we do today.  The difference, and the point is that they never ate man-made foods like we have created in our lifetime, hybrid fruits to super tomatoes, 50 variations of lettuce, and more apple types than we can count.

Our new BFF, the Caveman friend we met while Time Traveling, Louie, was the healthiest man alive, he ate organic, unprocessed, natural foods, his fruit was in season, and naturally ripened, his meat was fresh, and his energy was endless.  Louie was on average 6 inches taller than us today, had less tooth loss, and increased bone density, plus he lived well into his 80's, all because he was from a different time.

There were no Doctors, Scientist, Regulators or Health Couches, all he had was sense, common sense, and an ability to know what to eat, if what he ate made his stomach upset, he didn't eat it again.  He didn't have to count calories, figure out Macro's or spend time at the Gym to stay in shape, his work was hunting and gathering.  This simple life was what kept him in shape, the simplicity of his diet was what kept him healthy, and the lack of choices is what made him lucky, Louie was the luckiest man to ever live.