eric tatro dot com

As far as diet goes, I've done a complete one-eighty in terms of beliefs and action. In college, I was a vegan. Now animal meat makes up a large part of my diet, and I can even be found, on occasion, pigging out on organ meats my friends think are absolutely gross.

Part of this change was motivated by my beliefs in how humans evolved. When I was a teenager, I was sure that humans were natural vegans, or close to it, like our great ape relatives. Now I tend to lean toward the belief that humans evolved eating plenty of animals, veggies, and low glycemic index fruits (like berries). I try to avoid wheat for the most part, but cheat from time-to-time and still eat corn and rice.

There is actually a fairly large subculture of people who aim to eat like early humans did, embracing grass-fed beef and wild game, organ meats, fruits and veggies. This diet is commonly called the "Paleo Diet" or a "primal" diet. The New York Times has an interesting profile of a group of "new cavemen" that reside in the Big Apple who attempt to emulate the diet and exercise patterns of their early ancestors. I think they're on to something:

The caveman lifestyle, in Mr. Durant’s interpretation, involves eating large quantities of meat and then fasting between meals to approximate the lean times that his distant ancestors faced between hunts. Vegetables and fruit are fine, but he avoids foods like bread that were unavailable before the invention of agriculture. Mr. Durant believes the human body evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and his goal is to wean himself off what he sees as many millenniums of bad habits.

These urban cavemen also choose exercise routines focused on sprinting and jumping, to replicate how a prehistoric person might have fled from a mastodon.

In a city crowded with vegetarian restaurants and yoga studios, the cavemen defy other people’s ideas of healthy living. There is an indisputable macho component to the lifestyle.

I also found this interesting:

Most of the cavemen at Mr. Durant’s gatherings are lean and well-muscled, and have glowing skin. A few wear trim beards. Some claim that they no longer get sick. Several identify themselves as libertarians.

This isn't an easy diet or lifestyle, but people who embrace it do tend to lose a ton of weight, keep muscle, and generally look awesome. Could this be the start of a trend that flies in the face of 50 years of dietary advice?

Posted via email from Tatrocalypse!