Carnivorous habits are natural to our species, the evolutionary eaters say, and should be guiltlessly
According to the evolutionary dieting mantra, meats, fruits, vegetables and nuts are good; dairy,
Ray Audette, the author of "Neanderthin," says he formed the guidelines of his diet with one
Mr. Audette claims that sticking to this formula cured him of rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, rid
But evolutionary diet books such as his represent more than just a way to lose weight. They promote
"I am the anti-vegetarian," says Mr. Audette, who is not an anthropologist or a trained nutritionist, but
"As I've been doing this I've been becoming more and more of an uncivilized man," he said. "I'm no
But becoming one with your inner hunter-gatherer means, according to these plans, giving up foods
Because, say the evolutionary eaters, harvesting grain and baking it into bread represented a
It was the transition from a hunting-and-gathering lifestyle to farming, cooking and permanent
"A lot of problems that humans have are because we're trying to adapt a hunter-gatherer to live in a
New research has shown that Neanderthals — early Paleolithic-era humans who lived in the Neander
They couldn't afford to be too particular about their cut of meat, either — everything from organ meats
"When you look at what's available to eat on the steppe tundra, you can't walk a mile without tripping
To get as close as possible to a Paleolithic diet, "Neanderthin" does recommend eating the more
"I'm all for organ meats, but don't eat more of them than you'd normally eat," Mr. Audette said. With
The "Neanderthin" diet does allow some cooking, in order to make it palatable to more than a select
"There are a few purists out there, the raw food people," Mr. Audette says. "But as long as you're
Understandably, few doctors and dietitians are throwing out their USDA food pyramid charts in favor
Kathryn A. Parker, a registered dietitian in Gainesville, Fla., sees "Neanderthin" as just a quirky
"High-protein foods rid the body of calcium," she said. "I don't think [the Neanderthals] lived long
"The other part of the picture is that we're lazy," she says. "If I had to catch my food, I'd be a lot
Another argument against evolutionary eating is that all this concern with the old ways is
Mr. Audette responds: "We're talking about 10,000 years, not even 300 generations. It's an eye blink
Not everyone would want to trade professions with a Neanderthal, no matter how low his body-fat
But Mr. Audette's modern-day version of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is sweet indeed, and it has
Mr. Audette long ago learned to ignore the quizzical looks he gets when ordering a hamburger with
"I'm a carnivore, get over it," he shouts back.
No one would dispute that the philosophy of evolutionary eating has infused every part of Mr.
Copyright © 2000 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Evolutionary diet shuns modern food
Evolutionary Diet," which look back to the diets of Paleolithic forebears to determine what humans
should be eating today.
embraced by modern man.
sugar, beans and grains are bad.
question: Could I eat this if I were naked with a sharp stick on the savannah?
him of 25 pounds and gave him more energy — all while allowing him to eat a pound of bacon each
morning.
the virtues of "natural eating," encouraging us to go beyond the merely organic and toward the
technology-free. They push a philosophy akin to Rousseau's, which says man is happiest and healthiest
when eating straight out of nature's stew pot.
has followed and researched his diet plan for 15 years. "It's the most natural way to eat. It's the way to
become most in tune with nature.
longer a spectator of nature, I'm a participant. Philosophically you become one with the hunter-gatherer
within you."
that most people ingest regularly and enjoy, like bread, pasta, cheese, even alcohol. And, some might
ask, why would something as wholesome as 12-grain bread be bad for us?
departure from Paleolithic ways, and thus introduced new, manmade products into a fairly consistent
diet of meat, nuts and berries.
settlements that brought about obesity and disease, including cancer, heart disease and depression, the
evolutionary eaters claim.
world dominated by crop species. [Early humans] didn't have the problems we have, because they didn't
have the world we have," Mr. Audette says wistfully. "All these problems come up with agrarian
cultures."
Valley in the Rhine Province, Germany — did in fact eat a lot of red meat. Their diet was similar to that
of wolves and lions, and they probably hunted woolly mammoths.
to "sweetbreads," tongues and ears was consumed.
over something that's just died," says Mr. Audette. "When you look at what makes a human a human,
it's these red meat adaptations for living on the grasslands. It's what distinguishes humans from other
primates."
unusual cuts of meat, but only if the dieter can stomach them.
woolly mammoth meat being scarce these days, beef, lamb, and pork make fine substitutions.
few.
picking from normal primate foods, the effects of cooking are minimal."
of the evolutionary eating guides.
variation of the protein diets that countless Hollywood stars have followed.
enough to get osteoporosis. We're living a long time, we need to build the bone, and we're not going to
do that with high-protein foods.
thinner."
unnecessary; the human body has adapted since Paleolithic times, making people more able to process
sugars and grains and dairy milk.
in terms of evolutionary time. No one has adapted evolutionarily to a vegan diet, or to a high-carb diet."
ratio was. Life for these early humans was cutthroat, dangerous and short. Their remains, which have
been analyzed to determine their eating habits, frequently show evidence of trauma and lesions.
extended to other areas besides the dinner table. He's chucked his old office career in favor of more time
in the great outdoors. He has grown a beard. And he has taken up falconry.
Needless to say, the falcon's prey is not wasted.
no bun, and shrugs off insults like "caveman."
Audette's life. "When people ask me what I do for a living, I say I eat," he says.
