I supplemented omega 3s all through pregnancy and bf and still do for depression. Women are sometimes advised to avoid fish, an easy source of omega 3s, in US culture during pregnancy. I’m stuck now with a toddler who doesn’t like fish and is no longer drinking breast milk. I also question how much omega 3 actually got into the breast milk. I’m sneaking in flax into baked goods and omega enriched fancy $$ milk, but like the struggle is real in modern diets to find enough omega 3s.
Also, as gentle note, you over-privilege African hunter gatherers in your background research bc of its evolutionary implications but should include more Asian, Australian, and Latin American examples. Hadza are incredibly extreme example of HG and have been pushed to fringe envts by colonialism. Human evolution occurred across the continent of Africa, in diverse and changing ecosystems. The human diet evolved to be incredibly flexible and diverse and that’s part of our success as species and our evolutionary story.
Thanks for the thoughts. It's true that my research focuses on equatorial, immediate-return hunter-gatherers because they are thought to more closely represent our shared evolutionary past, especially in terms social structure, and so I use them more frequently as an example, simply because it's where by expertise lies. And I don't necessarily agree that Hadza are an extreme example because they have been pushed out "more" than other HGs. In all likelihood, they have been eating the same diet for 100,000+ years! But you're right that humans are extremely adaptable and flexible when it comes to diet, and there is no ONE Paleolithic diet.
It’s tough with human evo bc for most of human history, HGs would have been located in the cushiest and most stable spots on the coasts or near fresh water, but those have largely been taken over by AgriP over 10kya. Hadza do have Bantu expansion genetic ancestry along with much earlier expansions. The fact they’ve maintained their life ways for so long suggests that they are crazy flexible with their movement and ability to skirt around and coexist with pastoralists and farmers (to a point), particularly Bantu expansion and Iron Age deforestation in e. Africa. Larger complex HG might actually be a major influence on human evo, but that’s not the examples that bioanths like to research because they’re no longer extant. I just think you have large, engaged audience and the Hadza example needs a bit for context bc it’s a good example but they aren’t frozen in time.
As much as I know “nutrition” is a massive industry, I still think we really downplay and fail to understand just how critical nutrition is and how profoundly lacking our modern western diet is. I worry so much about our family’s nutrition and my kids’ well-being. We are farmers and we eat loads of nutritionally dense food. We also live in context, and we all, especially the kids, eat so much empty processed food, especially at school.
It’s a major point of frustration for my husband and I. Packed lunches always end up with loads of waste and are a lot to manage with four young kids, so we’ve decided to let it go and do the free school lunch. BUT it’s disgusting really that we give kids the lowest quality food possible.
My teeth also degraded after each pregnancy. I got a filling after every baby. My diet when the kids were young was terrible - ironically when I most needed nutritious food. Mainly because I couldn't prepare anything with more than two or three processes involved (eg, 1. get packet out of fridge, 2. open packet, 3. put packet in oven) and even then I couldn't sit down to eat it. Years later, when I finally got the time to make myself a delicious salad, it almost felt self-indulgent. I could never understand how mothers with young kids could have the bandwidth needed to do things like baking.
I have a bit of a hard time with this one in some ways. The Hadza have a pretty low life expectancy. I’m wondering how you reconcile that fact while presenting them as nutritionally ideal? Is that not what you are saying?
This has been the ultimate criticism of the Paleo Diet for a long time. Melvin Konner addresses it at length in The Paleolithic Cure. First of all, the Hadza have a low average life expectancy because of high child mortality, mainly due to disease and accidents. Those that survive to adulthood often live into their 70s and never suffer from any of the debilitating chronic diseases that are so common in the West. When you combine that with evidence of how, say, increasing Omega 3 intake (to be in line with Hunter gatherer diets) has a major positive impact on many health outcomes, I feel the data is very compelling to suggest that their diet is indeed better. Omega 3 being just one example.
I supplemented omega 3s all through pregnancy and bf and still do for depression. Women are sometimes advised to avoid fish, an easy source of omega 3s, in US culture during pregnancy. I’m stuck now with a toddler who doesn’t like fish and is no longer drinking breast milk. I also question how much omega 3 actually got into the breast milk. I’m sneaking in flax into baked goods and omega enriched fancy $$ milk, but like the struggle is real in modern diets to find enough omega 3s.
Also, as gentle note, you over-privilege African hunter gatherers in your background research bc of its evolutionary implications but should include more Asian, Australian, and Latin American examples. Hadza are incredibly extreme example of HG and have been pushed to fringe envts by colonialism. Human evolution occurred across the continent of Africa, in diverse and changing ecosystems. The human diet evolved to be incredibly flexible and diverse and that’s part of our success as species and our evolutionary story.
Thanks for the thoughts. It's true that my research focuses on equatorial, immediate-return hunter-gatherers because they are thought to more closely represent our shared evolutionary past, especially in terms social structure, and so I use them more frequently as an example, simply because it's where by expertise lies. And I don't necessarily agree that Hadza are an extreme example because they have been pushed out "more" than other HGs. In all likelihood, they have been eating the same diet for 100,000+ years! But you're right that humans are extremely adaptable and flexible when it comes to diet, and there is no ONE Paleolithic diet.
It’s tough with human evo bc for most of human history, HGs would have been located in the cushiest and most stable spots on the coasts or near fresh water, but those have largely been taken over by AgriP over 10kya. Hadza do have Bantu expansion genetic ancestry along with much earlier expansions. The fact they’ve maintained their life ways for so long suggests that they are crazy flexible with their movement and ability to skirt around and coexist with pastoralists and farmers (to a point), particularly Bantu expansion and Iron Age deforestation in e. Africa. Larger complex HG might actually be a major influence on human evo, but that’s not the examples that bioanths like to research because they’re no longer extant. I just think you have large, engaged audience and the Hadza example needs a bit for context bc it’s a good example but they aren’t frozen in time.
As much as I know “nutrition” is a massive industry, I still think we really downplay and fail to understand just how critical nutrition is and how profoundly lacking our modern western diet is. I worry so much about our family’s nutrition and my kids’ well-being. We are farmers and we eat loads of nutritionally dense food. We also live in context, and we all, especially the kids, eat so much empty processed food, especially at school.
Don’t get me started on school lunches. Of course, my son loves them, but I can’t believe what we feed kids in this country.
It’s a major point of frustration for my husband and I. Packed lunches always end up with loads of waste and are a lot to manage with four young kids, so we’ve decided to let it go and do the free school lunch. BUT it’s disgusting really that we give kids the lowest quality food possible.
My teeth also degraded after each pregnancy. I got a filling after every baby. My diet when the kids were young was terrible - ironically when I most needed nutritious food. Mainly because I couldn't prepare anything with more than two or three processes involved (eg, 1. get packet out of fridge, 2. open packet, 3. put packet in oven) and even then I couldn't sit down to eat it. Years later, when I finally got the time to make myself a delicious salad, it almost felt self-indulgent. I could never understand how mothers with young kids could have the bandwidth needed to do things like baking.
I have a bit of a hard time with this one in some ways. The Hadza have a pretty low life expectancy. I’m wondering how you reconcile that fact while presenting them as nutritionally ideal? Is that not what you are saying?
This has been the ultimate criticism of the Paleo Diet for a long time. Melvin Konner addresses it at length in The Paleolithic Cure. First of all, the Hadza have a low average life expectancy because of high child mortality, mainly due to disease and accidents. Those that survive to adulthood often live into their 70s and never suffer from any of the debilitating chronic diseases that are so common in the West. When you combine that with evidence of how, say, increasing Omega 3 intake (to be in line with Hunter gatherer diets) has a major positive impact on many health outcomes, I feel the data is very compelling to suggest that their diet is indeed better. Omega 3 being just one example.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Elena.