A Little Lesson in Genetics

Have you ever heard the saying that vegans and vegetarians make, “Look at what Chimpanzees eat, they only eat plants, this means humans weren’t made to eat meat!” People, this is why it’s good to have a basic understanding in genetics and evolution, and from that, you can learn a little something about one of my passions, nutrition. Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees; they are our cousins, not our ancestors. So what does this mean? This means our diet should NOT be similar to chimpanzees. However, our diet should be similar to our ancestors, in short, the people we actually evolved from.

What did our ancestors eat? They ate lots and lots of meat, eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Certain other foods are good as well, such as olive oil, hemp oil, and fish oil. Our ancestors didn’t drink milk, and more and more modern research is showing that humans are not made to consume dairy. Other things that humans are not evolved to eat are grains, breads, starches, potatoes, or any carbohydrate/sugar source in high amounts. Mostly we should be eating things like greens when it comes to carbohydrate sources. This is called the Paleolithic Diet. This diet is specifically built around how our ancestors used to eat before modern civilization, and our genetic material is still mostly the same than even 40,000 years ago, we haven’t changed, and neither should our diets.

One of the main arguments I hear people say when trying to prove that humans are not made to eat meats is that we don’t have the digestive ability. However, all this “proves” as that they are not taking in enough fiber, which most Americans are low in. I am personally currently taking in 3 lbs of meat, 6 eggs, 12-16 ounces of greens, 4 ounces of nuts, 2 ounces of seeds, about 16 ounces of LOW GI fruit, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, and 16 grams of fish oil (keep in mind that part of the reason I eat like this is because I powerlift and recently started working long hours in a metal shop). How can I digest all this food, especially with such a large amount of meat and eggs? It’s simple; I eat a lot of fiber, most of it coming from greens. There are people out there who eat a lot more meat than me, most professional bodybuilders eat around 10 lbs of meat (these are people with amazing genetic digestion ability). And although this is also largely due to genetic ability, I believe most people would have absolutely no trouble taking in 2 lbs of meat daily, but the simple fact is people have bad digestion because of their poor dieting skills. So the answer shouldn’t in turn be that we, humans, aren’t made to eat meat, but the answer is, eat more fiber. I have TWO bowel movements every day. A healthy tip for you, if you don’t have at least one bowel movement daily, you have bad digestion, plain and simple.

MEAT, it’s the staple of the human diet, EAT IT! (And by that I don’t mean burgers and hotdogs, but steak, chicken, beef, fish, turkey, ham, you know, the real stuff). Also, drink your water people, fuck soft drinks!