100 Million Years of Food, page 25
2. DRINK ALCOHOL MODERATELY
Medical experts are generally conflicted over the merits of drinking alcohol because heavy drinking can harm the liver, increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, and increase the risk of violent death. On the other hand, when intake is moderate—two drinks a day for men, one drink a day for women—the health benefits of alcohol for mitigating heart disease and mortality in general are stronger than any known benefit from any other food item, including vegetables, fruits, and fish. That being said, the benefits of drinking alcohol accrue mainly to people over the age of forty living in developed countries, because infectious diseases rather than heart diseases tend to be the main killers in developing countries, and because for people under the age of forty, heart diseases are not an issue, whereas alcohol can exacerbate the risks that younger people face, such as accidents, homicides, and suicides.
3. EAT LESS MEAT AND DAIRY WHEN YOUNG
The current mainstream nutritional advice on meat is to eat sparing amounts; conversely, advocates of low-carb diets challenge the low-meat paradigm and assert that people should eat a lot of meat for better weight control and overall health, because starches are fattening and dangerous for heart health. Both sides are close to the truth. Younger people should eat less meat and dairy, because meat and dairy promote faster overall growth via hormones like IGF-1, which is a risk factor for certain types of cancers. On the other hand, for people over the age of sixty-five, eating more meat is likely a good thing, because the cancers that are promoted by meat take a long time to develop, whereas the real risk factors for an elderly person in the developed world stem from frailty and wasting, which may be mitigated by eating meat (dairy is more complicated, due to the high concentration of calcium). The common wisdom advises letting youth indulge in food and exercising restraint in later life, but this is exactly wrong; instead, we should advise younger people to eat meat and dairy sparingly, while people over the age of sixty-five should be encouraged to indulge in the pleasures of meat.
4. EAT TRADITIONAL CUISINE
While some food writers like Michael Pollan, Dr. Daphne Miller, and Sally Fallon Morell advocate eating some versions of traditional diets, most mainstream nutritionists are leery of traditional diets, which tend to be moderate in fat, cholesterol, and/or salt. I advocate traditional diets for three reasons: 1) In studies, traditional diets typically do at least as well as nutritionist-approved low-fat, low-salt diets in maintaining health. In part, this is because the functions of dietary fat, cholesterol, and salt throughout the body are numerous, while nutritionists have necessarily devoted their limited time and resources to narrow views on the harmful effects of these substances. 2) Traditional eaters didn’t bother with scientific studies; they cooked and combined food in ways that maximized their health. The older the cuisine, the better: Five-hundred-year-old-cuisines are a good starting point, because at that point industrially processed foods had not yet made significant inroads into people’s diets. 3) Traditional cuisines were moderate in fat, cholesterol, and/or salt and therefore tasted good; thus getting ourselves to stick with these diets is not difficult. The Mediterranean diet (olive oil, bread, nuts, goat cheese, fish, red wine, pasta, vegetables) is perhaps the most widely known and touted traditional cuisine these days, but many other traditional diets, from American southern and Mexican to Japanese, Okinawan (sweet potatoes, fish, vegetables, soybean), and Australian Aboriginal (kangaroo, crocodile, wild plants and fruits, tubers, honey), have been found to be superior to modern diets in mitigating chronic diseases like cancers and type 2 diabetes.
5. EAT WHAT YOUR ANCESTORS ATE
In societies where people lived on particular diets for hundreds or thousands of years, their bodies gradually became adapted to these diets, acquiring enzymes to process starches, in the case of Europeans and East Asians; to process seaweed, in the case of Japanese; and to process milk, in the case of northern Europeans, pastoralist African and Middle East groups, and northern Indians. High levels of calcium may be a risk factor for prostate cancer in populations that had little exposure to dairy. If your ancestors didn’t consume much starch or dairy, neither should you. The take-home message: Eat what your ancestors ate.1
6. EAT SUSTAINABLY
Unfortunately, when we eat meat and fish cheaply, we do so by passing on the environmental costs of pollution and plant-cover degradation to future generations. The best way out of this mess is to eat more of the plants and animals that are adapted to our local environments and decrease our reliance on foreign, poorly adapted plants and animals. In many parts of the world, there is an abundance of plants and animals that people used to eat but later generations became squeamish about. In North America, acorns, deer, bear, moose, beaver, fish, waterfowl, and insects used to provide valuable sustenance, but European immigrants to the region rejected or forgot about these foods; kangaroo presents a similar dilemma for Australians descended from immigrants; insects are rejected in most of the developed world, and even tracts of the developing world. That’s a shame, because wild plants and animals are generally better nutritional choices—for example, the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids is higher in wild foods—and more environmentally sustainable. Moreover, wild animals arguably live happier, more natural lives than their farm compatriots.
In the Americas, insects used to be a huge part of the ancestral diet because there weren’t any big domesticated mammals around; they’re still popular in much of the developing world. Insect protein is palatable. In Thailand, they can’t import enough crickets to satisfy their demand. Pound for pound, insects consume fewer calories than mammal livestock because insects are cold-blooded. They also suck up less water and emit fewer greenhouse gases than livestock. Also, if you’re worried about animal cruelty, the nervous system in an insect is far less developed than in a mammal.
7. GET AS MUCH SUN AS YOUR SKIN TYPE REQUIRES
Our ancestors were continually exposed to the sun. The most obvious manifestation of this is our body’s dependency on skin exposure to sunlight to produce the correct amount of vitamin D. It’s true that skin cancer is an opposing risk, so rather than getting burned on the weekend or hitting a tanning booth, the best thing to do is to spread out your exposure to the sun throughout the year and throughout the week, which allows people with tanning skin types to develop protective natural tanning. At the ends of the skin-type spectrum, people with light skin should be judicious in the intensity of sun exposure (think northern Europe), while people with dark skin should seek as much sun as practical. Solar radiation likely has an effect in reducing the risk of various types of cancers, such as breast cancer. Popping vitamin D pills or eating vitamin-D-rich food is not a great solution because scientists don’t know how much vitamin D is required by the human body, or even if vitamin D is the main benefit from solar exposure; moreover, getting too much vitamin D may boost the risk of certain cancers, including prostate and colon cancer.
A final consideration with respect to sunlight is that in temperate regions of the world, cold weather may increase the risk of dying, independent of sunlight exposure—in other words, temperature is also an important factor in maintaining health.2 Of course, in very warm locales, heat waves can be dangerous as well. In both cases, the elderly are most susceptible to the dangers of extreme temperatures. Thus if you are in your later years of life, want to optimize your health, and have the option of relocating, living somewhere where the temperature is congenial is a major health consideration.
8. GET SAFE GERM/PARASITE EXPOSURE
If you suffer from hay fever, food allergies, or other common immune system disorders, you can likely lay part of the blame on lack of sunlight (see the previous point) and the massive hygiene drive that started roughly one hundred years ago. Because our ancestors evolved with constant exposure to parasites like bacteria, viruses, and scores of tiny invertebrates, our immune systems are dependent upon parasitic exposure to calibrate properly, just as our teeth require hard foods, our feet require solid contact with ground, and our eyes require copious natural sunlight to develop properly. But parasites are no laughing matter, because many kinds of parasites can and will gladly finish us off; malaria, for example, kills 660,000 people worldwide each year, far outgunning the current deadly outbreak of Ebola. The challenge is to get enough exposure to parasites so that our immune systems develop properly, while avoiding mass epidemics due to unvaccinated children and adults. Studies of therapies employing parasites such as pig whipworms are currently undergoing FDA-scrutinized trials in the United States. There is a good case to be made that many antibiotic treatments are unnecessary and deplete the intestinal tract of helpful bacteria, so patients (and parents of children) facing antibiotic treatments should discuss with doctors which antibiotic treatments are necessary. Cesarean births may reduce the transmission of helpful bacteria from mothers to infants via vaginal secretions, so mothers should discuss with doctors the pros and cons of C-section deliveries and consider the use of swabs to apply vaginal smears to newborns.3 Other options include spending more time in rural settings such as farms and traveling to developing countries.
9. COOK AT LOW HEAT
When a side of beef is roasted, a slab of salmon seared, a sliver of bacon fried, or a cube of tofu sautéed, a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction results in delicious browning of the cooked food (similar to caramelization). However, fatty or protein-rich foods cooked under high heat generate AGEs (advanced glycation end products). AGEs are also produced naturally in the body, but the concentration of circulating AGEs can be elevated through intake in industrialized diets. Like teenage pranksters, AGEs wreak havoc by binding to cell receptors, cross-linking and hence changing the shapes and functions of body proteins, and generally promoting oxidation damage and inflammation. Possible adverse health effects of AGEs include hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), anemia, Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, cirrhosis, bone brittleness, muscle stiffness, loss of grip strength, slower walking speed, kidney disease, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and lowered life expectancy.4
Concentrations of AGEs can be altered enormously by different cooking techniques. Raw foods contain the fewest AGEs. Cooking using traditional, low-heat methods (boiling, steaming, stewing) produces slightly elevated levels of AGEs. High-temperature, dry methods of cooking (broiling, roasting, deep-frying, grilling) and food processing rack up the greatest yields of AGEs. Noxious AGEs are also highly prevalent in hamburgers, soft drinks, crackers, cookies, pretzels, doughnuts, pies, Parmesan cheese, pancakes, waffles, and other processed foods.5
10. REMEMBER: FAD DIETS DON’T WORK
Foods are one of the few things that we can easily alter in our lifestyles, and it’s commonly believed that foods comprise the basis of our health—i.e., “You are what you eat.” Not surprisingly, people gravitate toward various kinds of miracle diets and “superfoods” in the hopes of achieving a quick fix to health problems like obesity, diabetes, and cancers. However, eating more meat, or more dairy, or more fruits and vegetables, or more raw food, or less fat, or following any other dietary alteration has rarely provided relief from chronic diseases. There are two reasons for this lack of a quick dietary fix: 1) Our bodies are designed to thrive on a wide variety of foods, in the form of time-tested traditional diets. 2) The major factor underlying chronic disease is disruption in our physical lifestyles, particularly the absence of movement, so adjusting our diets to compensate for the lack of physical activity rarely achieves our desired goals. The final message: Eat good food, keep moving, and let your body take care of the rest.
ENDNOTES
INTRODUCTION: WHAT SHOULD WE EAT AND HOW SHOULD WE LIVE?
1. Khan et al., “Secular Trends in Growth and Nutritional Status of Vietnamese Adults in Rural Red River Delta after 30 Years (1976–2006).”
2. Fontana, “Long-Term Effects of Calorie or Protein Restriction on Serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 Concentration in Humans”; Gunnell et al., “Are Diet–Prostate Cancer Associations Mediated by the IGF Axis?”
THE IRONY OF INSECTS
1. Eizirik, Murphy and O’Brien “Molecular Dating and Biogeography of the Early Placental Mammal Radiation”; Madsen et al., “Parallel Adaptive Radiations in Two Major Clades of Placental Mamals.”
2. For recent views of the debate over the geographical origin of early primates, see, for example, Chaimanee et al., “Late Middle Eocene Primate from Myanmar and the Initial Anthropoid Colonization of Africa”; Perelman et al., “A Molecular Phylogeny of Living Primates”; and Springer et al., “Macroevolutionary Dynamics and Historical Biogeography of Primate Diversification Inferred from a Species Supermatrix.”
3. Oonincx et al., “An Exploration on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Production by Insect Species Suitable for Animal or Human Consumption.”
4. Paoletti et al., “Human Gastric Juice Contains Chitinase That Can Degrade Chitin.”
5. Belluco et al., “Edible Insects in a Food Safety and Nutritional Perspective.”
6. Raubenheimer and Rothman, “Nutritional Ecology of Entomophagy in Humans and Other Primates.”
THE GAMES FRUITS PLAY
1. Robbins et al., “Optimizing Protein Intake as a Foraging Strategy to Maximize Mass Gain in an Omnivore”; Rode and Robbins, “Why Bears Consume Mixed Diets During Fruit Abundance”; Levey and Rio, “It Takes Guts (and More) to Eat Fruit”; Izhaki and Safriel, “Why Are There So Few Exclusively Frugivorous Birds?”
2. Alinia, Hels, and Tetens, “The Potential Association Between Fruit Intake and Body Weight—A Review.”
3. Haupt, “Ashton Kutcher’s Fruitarian Diet.”
4. Duboucher et al., “Pulmonary Lipogranulomatosis Due to Excessive Consumption of Apples.”
5. Drouin, Godin, and Page, “The Genetics of Vitamin C Loss in Vertebrates.”
6. Cui et al., “Recent Loss of Vitamin C Biosynthesis Ability in Bats”; Cui et al., “Progressive Pseudogenization.”
7. Drouin, Godin, and Page, “The Genetics of Vitamin C Loss in Vertebrates.”
8. Siegel, Intoxication; Hopkins, Bourdain, and Freeman, Extreme Cuisine; Whitten et al., The Ecology of Sumatra.
9. Levey et al., “Evolutionary Ecology of Secondary Compounds in Ripe Fruit.”
10. Sadasivam and Thayumanayan, Molecular Host Plant Resistance to Pests.
11. Vissers et al., “Effect of Consumption of Phenols from Olives and Extra Virgin Olive Oil on LDL Oxidizability in Healthy Humans.”
12. Bendini et al., “Phenolic Molecules in Virgin Olive Oils”; Hu, “The Mediterranean Diet and Mortality—Olive Oil and Beyond”; Kapellakis, Tsagarakis, and Crowther, “Olive Oil History, Production and By-Product Management”; Pérez-Jiménez et al., “The Influence of Olive Oil on Human Health”; Vossen, “Olive Oil.”
13. Hu, “The Mediterranean Diet and Mortality—Olive Oil and Beyond”; Trichopoulou et al., “Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet and Survival in a Greek Population.”
14. Steele, “Tannins and Partial Consumption of Acorns”; Altuğ, Introduction to Toxicology and Food; Kenward and Holm, “On the Replacement of the Red Squirrel in Britain: A Phytotoxic Explanation”; Serrano et al., “Tannins.”
15. Heizer and Elsasser, The Natural World of the California Indians.
16. Bainbridge, “The Rise of Agriculture”; Clarke, Edible and Useful Plants of California; Bainbridge, “Use of Acorns for Food in California.”
17. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel.
18. Technically, each breadfruit is a collection of closely packed individual fruitlets that may each bear seed.
19. IICA, CARDI, and MINAG, Seminar on Research and Development of Fruit Trees (Citrus Excluded).; Motley, Zerega, and Cross, Darwin’s Harvest; Wyatt, All Your Gardening Questions Answered.
20. Siler, “‘Food of the Future’ Has One Hitch”; D, Breadfruit.
21. Jones et al., “Isolation and Identification of Mosquito (Aedes aegypti) Biting Deterrent Fatty Acids from Male Inflorescences of Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis [Parkinson] Fosberg).”
22. Taubes, Good Calories, Bad Calories.
23. Mensink et al., “Effects of Dietary Fatty Acids and Carbohydrates on the Ratio of Serum Total to HDL Cholesterol and on Serum Lipids and Apolipoproteins.”
24. Stanhope and Prior, “The Tokelau Island Migrant Study.”
25. Ostbye et al., “Type 2 (Non-Insulin-Dependent) Diabetes Mellitus, Migration and Westernisation.”
26. Siemens et al., “Spider Toxins Activate the Capsaicin Receptor to Produce Inflammatory Pain.”
27. Birds are unfazed by capsaicin. This could mean that chili plants use birds as a unique means of seed dispersal, while avoiding mammals like rodents that may digest the seeds and extinguish the plant’s reproductive prospects.
28. Rozin and Schiller, “The Nature and Acquisition of a Preference for Chili Pepper by Humans.”; Sherman and Billing, “Darwinian Gastronomy”; Billing and Sherman, “Antimicrobial Functions of Spices.”
29. Rozin and Schiller, “The Nature and Acquisition of a Preference for Chili Pepper by Humans.”
30. Solomon, “The Opponent-Process Theory of Acquired Motivation.”
31. Yoshioka et al., “Effects of Red-Pepper Diet on the Energy Metabolism in Men.”
32. Ludy, Moore, and Mattes, “The Effects of Capsaicin and Capsiate on Energy Balance”; Singletary, “Red Pepper.”
