The Perfect Human Diet (2012)
"In Search of the Perfect Human Diet" (original title)

A global quest for a solution to the current obesity epidemic. It explores modern dietary science, previous historical findings, ancestral native diets and the emerging field of human dietary evolution.

Director:

C.J. Hunt

Writer:

C.J. Hunt

Stars:

C.J. Hunt, Susan Loraine Anderson, Loren Cordain

Cast

Credited cast:
C.J. Hunt	...	Himself - Host
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Susan Loraine Anderson	...	Runner
Loren Cordain	...	Himself - Expert
Michael R. Eades	...	Himself - Expert
David J. Getoff	...	Himself - Expert
Benjamin Lamm	...	Young C.J. (as Ben Lamm)
Lane Sebring	...	Himself - Expert
Gary Taubes	...	Himself - Expert
Robb Wolf	...	Himself - Expert

Storyline

"The Perfect Human Diet" is an unprecedented global exploration to find a solution to our epidemic of overweight obesity and diet-related disease - the #1 killer in America. The film bypasses current dietary group-think by exploring modern dietary science, previous historical findings, ancestral native diets and the emerging field of human dietary evolution; revealing for the first time, the authentic human diet. Film audiences finally have the opportunity to see what our species really needs for optimal health and are introduced to a practical template based on these breakthrough scientific facts.

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Plot Keywords:

diet | obesity | epidemic | health | overweight | 

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Taglines:

An unprecedented global exploration for a solution to America's #1 killer.

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Genres:

Documentary | History

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 December 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Perfect Human Diet

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hunt Thompson Media, ECG Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

User Reviews

Misguided and Flawed - Goes from one extreme to another extreme

The entire documentary is all built on flawed logic, flawed assumptions and flawed conjectures.

basic gist is, since evolution and history says that for 99.9% of human history we humans have been hunter gatherers, our diet should be like that.

But that is a very flawed way of thinking. Just because our ancestors were meat eaters doesn't mean meat is better than vegetables for us. Our ancestors were not exactly optimizing their potential, just because they were living like animals.

Evolution does not create perfect scenarios and perfect species of perfect health, that is a fallacy this documentary is based on. It assumes our ancestors were eating a diet, that they had perfectly evolved into. Which is not the case.

While i agree with half the documentary (the half condemning modern diet of processed foods), the other half of it is a load of pile of false truths and false logics.

I present here some of these flaws the documentary ignores.

1) Our ancestors no doubt starved many months, many weeks, many days of the year, through winter, when they could not find hunt food to the point where many no doubt died. This documentary completely ignores this fact when promoting this high meat diet theory.

2) Our ancestors also ate insects, larvae, and other unhealthy and disgusting things, at no point do they start promoting a diet of insects. Which again is another example of picking and choosing history.

3) Our ancestors also didn't bath or clean themselves at all. No one would say poor hygiene and living and eating like a wild dog is better for us, just because our ancestors did it for millions of years. So why use the same premise for dieting?

4) another example since our ancestors never exercised and only exerted themselves when hunting, optimal health means we should not exercise unless chasing a deer. Which they probably only did once a month for a few minutes and only in large groups.

5) historically human societies have been fishermen rather than hunters. This a fact the video ignores, as game food was not guaranteed whist fish from the ocean or rivers largely was. Thus most civilizations were situated on coastlines and near rivers.

Ultimately the point is, our ancestors did not have an optimal best perfect diet, trying to mimic them is like trying to copy a C student in an exam, you are not going to better a better grade.

This is the poor logic used in this DVD, which is flawed.

If you look at native aborigine populations in south America, Australia who are following very much our ancestors diet, and look at the athletes from the Olympics, anyone with half a brain can tell that the athletes in the Olympics are healthier and better. Whilst the aborigine population are sickly and poorly malformed, malnourished, etc.

Our ancestors also rarely lived beyond 40, average lifespan was probably around in the late 30's. so evolution hasn't engineered the paleo-primal diet to exactly keep our body ship shape beyond 40 (going by their own logic).

So that's another flaw in using the logic of our ancestors diet is evolutionary wise the best for us. Frankly documentary is a load of baloney.

But they are right in that the paleo-primal diet is a million times better than the modern processed sugar, salt, spices, oils artificial chemical diet we have in the 21st century.

But they need to De-emphasise the meat intake, as our ancestors if anything like normal hunter gatherers would most likely have not had much meat in their diet as consistently as modern lifestyles or the paleo-primal diet likes to infer. As you can't exactly catch and cook a deer with a spear 3 times a day.

Even lions eat only once a week in the wild, sometimes once a month periodically, and even starve when the herd migrates. As hunting eating food isn't exactly on the dot, breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner time like we have made nowadays.

Saying completely no to wheat is a fallacy as no doubt our ancestors must have eaten wild grain, in order for them to become farmers of the stuff. So it was part of their diet, which documentary ignores.