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the following is an excerpt of Your code Paleo Personal Chris Kresser published December 31, 2013 (Little, Brown and Company).
Agriculture: The worst mistake in human history
Like it or not, humans are animals. And like all other animals, we are biologically adapted to a diet "in appropriate species" and lifestyle.
When animals eat and live in accordance with the environment to which they are suited, they . thrive cats, with their sharp and short tract teeth have evolved to be carnivores, so when we kibble rich cereals infants, they develop kidney problems and other ailments cows naturally graze on grass. when they eat too much grain, harmful bacteria proliferate and make them sick. We humans face a similar shift. Our biology and genes adapted to a particular environment. While the environment has changed much faster than we could adapt -with some important exceptions which I will cover later in this chapter. the result?
for most of our existence, we humans lived as hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic, living off of the meat we hunted we caught fish and vegetables, fruits and tubers we made the move. The agricultural revolution dramatically changed our food supply and lifestyles. We learned to stay put, planting crops and domesticating animals such as cows, sheep, goats and pigs. The first farmers were given foods than their predecessors of hunter-gatherers do not eat, such as cereals, milk and meat from domestic animals, legumes and other crops.
MORE: The Craze Paleo Diet: What is good and evil About eat like a Caveman
While scientists have argued that these developments we allowed to flourish socially and intellectually, the consequences of the passage of a Paleolithic to agricultural food and lifestyle have been disastrous for human health. In evolutionary terms, 11,000 years is a wink, not long enough for humans to fully adapt to this new way of eating. That is why the scientific and influential author Jared Diamond called agriculture "the worst mistake in human history." He argued that hunter-gatherers "practiced the most successful lifestyle and most durable of human history" and were all but guaranteed a healthy diet because of the diversity and density of food nutrients they consume. Once we changed diet and became more sedentary, our naturally robust health began to decline.
Our Paleo ancestors Did not die young?
A common question I hear from skeptics Paleo is something along the lines of "Why should I eat Paleo? Did not the stone age die before their thirtieth birthday?"
It is true that, on average, our ancestors died Paleo younger. However, these averages do not include the largely absent challenges of our modern lives: high infant mortality, violence and accidents, infectious diseases and lack of modern medical care. Hunter-gatherers had infant mortality rate about 30 times higher than those of the United States early childhood mortality rates more than 100 times higher today. These infant mortality and childhood higher rates were caused by accidents, trauma, exposure to the elements, violence, war, and acute infectious disease issues which, fortunately, few of us face today. These premature deaths have had the net effect of dragging down the average life expectancy. If 10 people, three died in infancy, two died during childhood exposure to the elements and two died in adolescence in the war, although the other three lived a long life, good health, the average life span in this hypothetical group would be even shorter.
Recent research that had high infant mortality rates of our Paleolithic ancestors into account suggests that if they survived childhood, they had an average life span roughly equivalent to those living in industrialized societies, with a range from 68 to 78 years. More importantly, they have reached that age without any signs or symptoms of chronic, inflammatory and degenerative diseases that we consider "normal" in developed countries - including obesity, type 2 diabetes, gout, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Of course, those of us living in modern industrialized societies could live a little longer than average acculturated hunter-gatherers. But most of our elderly people suffer from painful and debilitating diseases, take multiple medications daily, and a reduced quality of life.
Fortunately, we do not have to choose between eating like our ancestors or reap the benefits of modern medicine. We can combine them to get the best of both worlds and enjoy long life without degenerative diseases that are so common in the industrialized world.
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