The Perfect Human Diet

What was never discussed in this documentary was that although early man killed animals for food, how long did they live for, and what chronic diseases did they suffer from as a result of eating meat? Humans may have been eating meat for a very long time, but we have always had afflictions like cancer and coronary heart disease following along. We are also destroying the planet, and animal agriculture is accelerating this. That in itself doesn't make us the most intelligent creature to have walked the earth. Food for thought?

Sadly, because this documentary is only of average quality which, of course, speaks to how bad documentary making has become in terms of objective reporting. Nonetheless, the production of this (as most other) documentaries is quite good. There is nothing amateurish about the effort. It has plenty of eye-candy and moves along well.

Content-wise, it is unnecessarily reactionary. This, in my opinion, is the biggest flaw of the documentary. Framing the narrative around a rejection of vegetarian principles only serves to elicit responses like that of the other commenter, responses that misconstrue the message and get lost in delusional, inane diatribes around fantasy subjects like "everything meat" and "meat versus vegetable". If your brain is plugged in while watching, you will find that traditional diets are, by necessity, far more balanced and rational. An interesting topic on its own.

For those that don't consider nutrition to be a religious issue, it is a good introduction to evolutionary diets. If interested, read more on the subject (e.g. Weston Price is a good lead).

I've watched a lot of documentaries on health and eating habits and can I just say what a relief it is to finally have one with actual scientists and doctors. I have always been a heavy meat eater and I personally know many vegetarians with much worse health than I. My doctors are always amazed at how healthy I am with little exercise and a diet which includes meat in every meal. I have always avoided sugars my whole life. It was never a personal decision, I just have never enjoyed deserts and candy. My wife thought I was so odd when she met me and found I don't enjoy desert after dinner. My friends wonder why I'm not a thousand pounds and attribute it to genes. Carnivore for life.

This is not an exaggerated doc. It shows what we ate for millions of years and who it helped us thrive.

The doc spends most of the time talking to scientists who actively study this, not people of opinion or ideological preferences (like a vegan). That's what I found most compelling.

Some individuals will say how can this be a good diet when the lifespan was so short. Well science has also shown that life expectancy was not really affected by what our ancestors ate but how they did not know about hygiene which is the single most important element on how life expectancy is so high today, then you have medicine for injuries (and they lived in much harsher environments), as well you have death from childbirth which along with hygiene really kill a a life expectancy ratio.

The movie itself is excellent. It points out the problems in our modern diets, and gives a method of being healthy that has been nothing short of a miracle for me and my family.

To address some issues others have had:

It is true that life was hard during earlier times, meaning that only those that could survive in such harsh conditions could survive. This shaped us, but says nothing of our lifestyles today. If anything, this could help explain why intermittent fasting is so beneficial.

Many insects/bugs are anything but unhealthy. You can think they're disgusting as an effect of the culture of your upbringing, sure, but to claim they're all unhealthy is just untrue.

You can't conflate diet with hygiene. I don't counter vegetarians with "if all you want to do is eat plants in small meals, why don't you just take off all your clothes, ruminate, and forget about toilets?"

If you don't think hunting, gathering, walking everywhere, crafting, and everything else that comes along with living as our ancestors did constitutes exercise, I can't imagine what would. Take a look at the physical fitness of modern H/G tribes and tell me they don't exercise.

Humans are the most versatile species ever. We live and have lived everywhere from below sea level to the tops of mountains, from desert to jungle, eating every plant or animal that didn't kill us. To claim that a majority of humans throughout our evolution were primarily fishers is nonsense. At the very least, humans have been hunting for two _million_ years. More than enough to help shape us.

Look at native populations all over the world. The Anbarra, Arnhem, Ache, Nukak, Hiwi, !Kung, and Hazda tribes. All eating the historical diets of their people, and all in good enough shape to live many long years in incredibly difficult environments.

"Many long years?", you say? "But I thought they only lived to 40!" You might want to read the paper "Longevity Among Hunter-Gatherers: A Cross- Cultural Examination." Hunter/Gatherers live to be 80. Want to know something even better? Many H/Gs get 70-80% of their calories from meat, and they have no atherosclerosis (per other papers by Kaplan, et al.).

As for grains, while the heritage strains of wheat that we have been farming for the last 10k years might be fine, the fact is that the wheat we eat today is nothing even close. It should be considered an entirely new food type. Not to say that humans haven't found a new food and thrived on it before, of course, just that pointing out how long we've been eating it is irrelevant when it's been completely overhauled.

In summary, the movie does an excellent job pointing out the problems of a modern diet, and offers an alternative that has proved to be hugely beneficial to those that try it. Humans function best when we eat what humans have eaten throughout our entire evolution: real food. Given our long evolutionary history of eating everything with a pulse, that should definitely include animals--meat, offal, marrow and all.