Would Stone Age Diet Keep Us Healthier?

The 2 million - year - old hunter-gatherer diet is healthier than the Mediterranean diet, according to a new study.

Staffan Lindeberg’s research team from Lund University in Sweden, have noted a remarkable absence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes among the traditional population of Kitava, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, where modern agrarian-based food is unavailable.

Before the advent of agriculture, during 2.5 million years of human evolution, our ancestors were consuming fruit, vegetables, nuts, lean meat and fish. They did not have access to processed foods high in carbohydrates. In contrast, cereals, dairy products, refined fat and sugar, which now provide most of the calories for modern humans, have been staple foods for a relatively short time.

In a clinical study in Sweden, the research group compared 14 patients who were advised to consume an ‘ancient’ (Paleolithic, ‘Old stone Age’) diet for three months with 15 patients who were recommended to follow a Mediterranean-like prudent diet with whole-grain cereals, low-fat dairy products, fruit, vegetables and refined fats generally considered healthy. All patients had pre-diabetes, and most of them had overt diabetes type 2. In addition, all had been diagnosed with coronary heart disease. Patients in the Paleolithic group were recommended to eat lean meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, root vegetables and nuts, and to avoid grains, dairy foods and salt.

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The main difference between the groups was a much lower intake of grains and dairy products and a higher fruit intake in the Paleolithic group. Substances in grains and dairy products have been shown to interfere with the metabolism of carbohydrates and fat in various studies.

Patients who ate lean meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, yogurt and pasta for three months saw their blood sugar levels improve 7 percent, the study found. Those who adopted that regimen and excluded dairy and grains, what the researchers called the Stone Age diet, fared even better. They had a sugar improvement of 26 percent.

The results of the study maybe applicable to healthy people as well, since people with diabetes are advised to go on the same kind of diet as a non-diabetic.

This is the first controlled study of a Paleolithic diet in humans. And it demonstrates that diet low in processed foods has a positive impact on how the food is used for energy in human body.

The study will be published later this year in the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’s journal “Diabetologia”.

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Dr. Rasa Kazlauskaite

Rasa Kazlauskaite, MD, MS, FACE received her training as a specialist in diabetes and endocrinology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD. She is a Fellow of American College of Endocrinology. She also earned a masters degree in clinical research from Rush University (Chicago, IL), where she currently is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, and works as an Endocrinologist at the Stroger Hospital of Cook County (Chicago, IL). She studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University (Lithuania). | All articles by Dr. Rasa Kazlauskaite.

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