The Origin Diet
Once again, due to my penchant for shopping used, I'm reviewing an older book. This one is The Origin Diet, which I found at the used book clearance sale at my beloved Monroe County Public Library. By Elizabeth Somer, MA, RD, and subtitled "How Eating Line Our Stone Age Ancestors Will Maximize Your Health," it looked promising, especially at a sale where all hardcovers were running a big 50c.
The start of the book is promising, with an explanation that all of us have hunter-gatherer roots, with ancestors who lived on meat, fruits and vegetables. She explains that meat was vital to our evolution, because the huge human brain consumes so much energy we needed a far denser source of energy than the leaves and fruits our primate ancestors favored. She also points out the robust good health those hunter-gatherers enjoyed, that they were tall and strong, with far better teeth than most of us enjoy today, and that if they managed to avoid acute infection and trauma, they enjoyed a good long lifespan.
Ms. Somer then limns the beginnings of agriculture, and the dramatic narrowing of the human nutritional window that came with it. She lists the deficiency diseases that came with it:
*Vitamin A deficiency, causing blindness and skin problems
* Pellagra, beriberi, and other B deficiency diseases
* Protein and mineral deficiencies
* Suppressed immune systems, which, combined with the population densities brought about by burgeoning agricultural centers, lead to epidemics
* Tooth decay and loss, osteoporosis, poor skeletal growth and a drop in stature, poor wound healing
* A dramatic reduction in brain size; our brains are still about 11% smaller than those of our pre-agricultural ancestors, Somer asserts.
Somer also goes into food processing, and the loss of vitamins and minerals that results.
All well and good. But what does Somer's eating plan look like? She's pushing low fat meats such as skinless turkey and chicken breast, fish and shellfish; she recommends "extra lean red meat" be limited to once a week, calling it "alien to our bodies". Apparently dark meat poultry is also "alien." All of the dairy her program allows is fat free -- and she actually recommends replacing milk with soy milk, one of the most highly processed foods there is. She also pushes tofu and other soy products. She wants you to eat three starchy vegetables, and at least six servings of whole grains -- you know, the same grains she said screwed up our ancestors' health -- every day. Oh, and she limits eggs, and recommends that people with heart disease or diabetes (italics mine) use egg substitutes or egg whites instead.
She has a list headed "Looking for Healthful Alternatives?" There follows a two-column list of "Typical Foods" and "Stone Age Alternatives." Some of the choices include fat free or soy cheese instead of regular cheese, skinless poultry breast, tofu, and soy products in place of beef, pork or lamb, calcium-fortified soy milk in place of milk, skinless chicken in place of chicken with the skin. Huh? Cave people threw away the skins of the animals they killed? Heck, they threw away any edible part? They didn't eat red meat? They had soy foods?!
Believe it or not, Somer's ideas grow even wilder. She states outright "It's the saturated fat that's alien to our bodies..." What?
She does go on to recommend exercise, plenty of sleep, and strong social connections, and that's all well and good. But it's very hard to see how anyone can look at soy milk, tofu, six servings per day of whole grains, fat free dairy, and only the leanest of muscle meats, with no skin, organ meats, fat, marrow, etc, and call it a "stone age diet."
