I’m an Omnivore

Many people that get introduced to the Paleo diet dismiss it immediately as nonsense. They attempt to find quick ways to disregard the entire idea, so they can go on believing that their diet is just fine.

Understanding Evolution
One of the primary reasons that the Paleo diet hasn’t become more popular is because of people underestimating, misunderstanding, or completely rejecting the theory of evolution. Unfortunately, the latter case appears to be very prevalent here in America (where we also enjoy the highest obesity rate in the world):

Belief in Evolution by country (United States second to last in countries surveyed)

Obesity by Country (United States has highest rate)

Charles Darwin proposed the term “natural selection” in his work “The Origin of Species.” I’ll give the summary of his theory shown on wikipedia instead of giving a rambling explanation in my own words:

1. Species have great fertility. They have more offspring than can grow to adulthood.
2. Populations remain roughly the same size, with small changes.
3. Food resources are limited, but are relatively stable over time.
4. An implicit struggle for survival ensues.
5. In sexually reproducing species, generally no two individuals are identical.
6. Some of these variations directly impact the ability of an individual to survive in a given environment.
7. Much of this variation is inheritable.
8. Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce, while individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce.
9. The individuals that survive are most likely to leave their inheritable traits to future generations.
10. This slowly effected process results in populations that adapt to the environment over time, and ultimately, after interminable generations, the creations of new varieties, and ultimately, new species.

Two of these central observations are critical here, #6 and #10:

6. “Some of these variations directly impact the ability of an individual to survive in a given environment.”

10. “This slowly effected process results in populations that adapt to the environment over time, and ultimately, after interminable generations, the creations of new varieties, and ultimately, new species.”

Species adapt to their environment more and more over time. It is a gradual process, but it keeps happening as long as the environment remains the same and the variations still have an impact. We had millions of years of years to adapt to our environment. And one of the most pivotal parts of that environment would be the food sources. That is the central reasoning behind the Paleo diet. We became adapted to eat the food that was available during that time, the Paleolithic Era. Then something unexpected happened: civilization.

Natural Selection Grinds to a Halt
The truth is that natural selection is slow. It takes a really long time. When humans developed civilization and agriculture, we changed our own food sources. We started eating grains and dairy, but we didn’t have a long time to adapt. Civilization has only been around for about 10,000 years, a blink of the eye on the evolutionary scale. And for a large part of that time, we’ve had the technology to prevent natural selection from occuring (by keeping almost everyone alive).

Certainly, we have made very, very small adaptations since civilization started, but nothing approaching full adaptation to a new food source. For the most part, we are genetically identitical to our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago.

What does adaptation mean to me?
It means that your body is optimized to run on a certain kind of fuel. It means every function your body performs that is affected by nutrition (virtually all of them), could be performed better if you receieved that fuel.

This is why the Paleo diet doesn’t involve eating foods introduced in the last 10,000 years. Even if there are animals that are adapted to eat these foods, it doesn’t mean we are. Take cow’s milk. Cow’s milk has tons of nutrients. It is a perfect food… for baby cows.

Handling food is a difficult process for the human body. It has to digest the food, harvest the nutrients, process toxins, and dispose of waste. There are hundreds of ways this could go wrong. It’s a mind-bogglingly complex design process, but one that evolution is able to handle. That is if our bodies had sufficient time for adaptation to take place.

Thought experiments
There is certainly an abundance of evidence to support evolution by natural selection, but the great thing about this theory is that it is so simple and inherently understandable because it was formed on observations of nature. Yes, the evidence is there, but you can perform what a professor of mine called a “thought experiment” (talking about a completely different topic) and see that indeed this mechanism could work.

And in the same way, since the Paleo diet is based on the evolution of humans, you can see that it makes a lot of sense. Yes, the studies that have been conducted show nothing but good things about the diet, and my own experience has been great, but you can immediately understand why it works. How many other diets can you say that about?

We are stuck with our genetic material. So, if you want to have the healthiest diet possible, you have two choices:

• Genetically-Engineer yourself a new body.
• Eat foods that you are adapted to eat.

How to go on eating things that aren’t good for you.
And now, a series of pictures to help you convince yourself to continue eating garbage if you so choose:

1. Cover your ears, sing “la la la la”, and reject evolution.

2. Dismiss the idea of adaptation. Haven’t you always wanted a penguin as a pet?

3. Consume foods based only on their nutritional content; completely ignore toxins, nutrient absorbability, and digestability: