Dr. Brett Hill - Eat Think Move Chiropractic

Have you ever stopped to think about what our bodies are really designed to consume? Does it make sense to you that the latest highly processed, packaged, powdered weight loss product you bought can actually be good for you?

What we eat has changed dramatically in the last 5-10,000 years. Before that time our ancestors' diet was composed wholly of what I like to call ‘real foods': fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, healthy meats and water. The only processing that our food went through was a little bit of heat and maybe some mixing. Nothing was added, nothing was removed. This diet provided exactly what the human body needed. Why? Because we had evolved that way. Over millions of years our bodies had adapted to be perfectly suited to our environment, including what we ate.

So what has changed? Well in terms of our bodies, not much. In fact our genes have changed very little in the last 100,000 years. But in terms of our environment, everything has changed. Our diet now often contains little that would be recognisable to our ancestors. Everything has been packaged, processed, refined, added to and chemically altered to the point where it is detrimental to our health - whether it be junk food, MSG, added sugars, refined grains or mercury-filled fish. In fact, even our meats have been changed by virtue of the altered living conditions and feeds of our commercial livestock compared to wild game.

So what is the answer? I mean, it gets very confusing when we are told one thing one week and then the rules seem to change the next. How do we keep track? Well here is a simple rule for you. If a food would be recognisable to your hunter gatherer ancestors, it is healthy. If it would not be, it probably isn't. Try it out next time you are at the supermarket. You will find that there is one small section that contains real food and the rest is all processed, packaged, unnatural junk.

So when it comes to your food choices, keep it simple - so simple that it would make sense to a caveman - and you will be giving your body exactly what it has evolved to require: fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, healthy meats and water.

Good luck cavemen (and women) and in the words of Tarzan: Aiyiyiyiyi!