Ancestral Diets: Anyone Trying To Incorporate?

[thisoldtown1978]

I got some results from 23andme recently. Apparently I'm 65% British/Irish, 12% French/German, and 20% Broadly Northwestern European.

It got me thinking - until very recently, my family line would have likely never seen many of the foods I now try to include in my diet. This got me reading about ancestral diets, and I recalled Peat's quotes on gut flora.

Of course, I don't know how quickly diet can become ingrained and for how long.

My great-grandfather lived to be 96, trim, with a head of thick black hair. He smoked, drank, apparently ate an ordinary British diet (meat, potatoes, bread, some boiled veg), and always like having a packet of boiled sweets to munch on.

What's your opinion on ancestral diets? From some quick googling, mine looks like meat, diary, honey, and bread (heirloom grains, most likely).

 

[thisoldtown1978]

IMPORTANT NOTE: I don't mean a generic Paleo variant when I say ancestral. I'm talking location specific, not the "we were all hunter-gatherers" diet.

 

[dfspcc20]

I got some results from 23andme recently. Apparently I'm 65% British/Irish, 12% French/German, and 20% Broadly Northwestern European.

It got me thinking - until very recently, my family line would have likely never seen many of the foods I now try to include in my diet. This got me reading about ancestral diets, and I recalled Peat's quotes on gut flora.

Of course, I don't know how quickly diet can become ingrained and for how long.

My great-grandfather lived to be 96, trim, with a head of thick black hair. He smoked, drank, apparently ate an ordinary British diet (meat, potatoes, bread, some boiled veg), and always like having a packet of boiled sweets to munch on.

What's your opinion on ancestral diets? From some quick googling, mine looks like meat, diary, honey, and bread (heirloom grains, most likely).

It might be a good starting point, but definitely not an end-all-be-all. The appropriate "Peat" answer would be to experiment with the foods and see what impact they have on you.

I'm not sure if it's that helpful for those of us who are more "mixed". Me: Scandinavian, German, southern Italian. My kids: add 50% Filipino to that.

 

[thisoldtown1978]

It might be a good starting point, but definitely not an end-all-be-all. The appropriate "Peat" answer would be to experiment with the foods and see what impact they have on you.

I'm not sure if it's that helpful for those of us who are more "mixed". Me: Scandinavian, German, southern Italian. My kids: add 50% Filipino to that.

As a Scandinavian/European, have you found a diet that you think works well for you? I’ve never been able to sustain high fruit or high fruit juice without digestive issues, but I had a long stint of doing great on full fat unhomogenised milk. And I generally feel better when I eat more meat. But of course my conscience is catching up with me after reading Peat on muscle meats and iron overload.

 

[cyclops]

This makes so much sense to me, that your direct ancestry would have an impact on what foods you do best with. But I think I heard Peat say it doesn't really matter. I was surprised to hear that. I'd guess more mixed people would have a better time eating a wider variety of things.

 

[dfspcc20]

As a Scandinavian/European, have you found a diet that you think works well for you? I’ve never been able to sustain high fruit or high fruit juice without digestive issues, but I had a long stint of doing great on full fat unhomogenised milk. And I generally feel better when I eat more meat. But of course my conscience is catching up with me after reading Peat on muscle meats and iron overload.

I do eat more of a "normal" diet. I avoid the seed oils, nuts/seeds, gums and other additives, industrially-raised meats, whole grains and stuff like that. I eat some non-Peat foods: probably half my carbs come from starch (well-cooked) and I eat plenty of pork and chicken (along with beef and dairy, usually balanced with additional gelatin). I don't do tons of juice, but have a fondness for honey. I guess I could say it works for me, but don't model after it, as I'm definitely not a perfect specimen. :)

I don't think citrus works well for me. Not sure if this is a hereditary/genetic thing or something else. I did get an ALCAT allergy test done 10+ years ago and it showed lemon and orange as foods to definitely avoid. Not sure what the efficacy of ALCAT is. I ignored that when I discovered Peat years later; it took me a while to come to terms that citrus might be causing some digestive and skin issues since then with some trial-and-error.

 

[Blossom]

I got some results from 23andme recently. Apparently I'm 65% British/Irish, 12% French/German, and 20% Broadly Northwestern European.

My 23&me ancestral breakdown was nearly identical to yours. I hadn't really thought about it much but I do generally have meat and starch everyday and feel pretty good eating that way. I also love honey.

 

[Constatine]

Your gut microbiome adapts pretty rapidly to the diet so I don't think hereditary factors play a huge part. Traditional diets tend to be quite healthy though, but I think British diets are one of the less optimal traditional diets (though not terrible).

 

[Blossom]

Maybe there is an ancestral memory or imprinting that can lead some to be drawn to foods that have been part of their family heritage. Or we could just learn to eat a certain way from our family.

 

[tara]

My great-grandfather lived to be 96, trim, with a head of thick black hair. He smoked, drank, apparently ate an ordinary British diet (meat, potatoes, bread, some boiled veg), and always like having a packet of boiled sweets to munch on.

What's your opinion on ancestral diets? From some quick googling, mine looks like meat, diary, honey, and bread (heirloom grains, most likely).

Don't under-estimate the importance of veg + spud that was in your first list but not your second, and remember that the veges you get now may be much poorer quality/mineral-wise than what he got much of his life, especially in the earlier years.

 

[lvysaur]

It doesn't really matter. There will be trends, but none strong enough to guarantee pigeonholing you based on your ancestry alone.

Japanese people are still going to benefit from milk. Europeans will still benefit from sugar.

 

[omnivoracious]

I just submitted my genetic sample for 23 and me so it will be a few weeks until I see the results. I have done the Color DNA kit and I do like being given the potential to better understand certain aspects of your genetic makeup. I do believe we have much better data than our parents had and it makes it a bit easier to follow the perceive, think, act philosophy.

 

[thefutureof]

I recently started taking Cod Liver oil again. It has made a huge difference to my libido, assertiveness and testosterone sort of indicators. (my T was low for my Age at around 500 ) (I will get my T tested again in a few months after running the Cod liver oil for a while). I found a clue that I was Vitamin A deficient after reading a Keritosis Polaris thread. Tried some vitamin A supplements. Felt pretty good so thought id try the cod liver oil, seems to work well. Chris Masterjohn has a great article about Vitamin A on the Weston A price foundation website, worth checking out. Since I was getting such great results from the Cod Liver Oil, I thought id go more ancestral and drop the sugar (or maple syrup) from my morning coffees and lower my carb intake. The lower carb intake made me feel irritable, brain function has not been as good and I generally feel spaced out and less productive. I do web development so I need my brain working at full tilt. Lowering my carbs certainly made me feel irritable and not as productive. Then again my low carb experiment was based on thinking that Northern Europeans of the last 2000 years probably didnt eat as many carbs as today. But I have no proof of that, ( they may well of eaten allot rye bread and honey). For now im going back to what makes me feel good and productive.