#primalliving

Heart disease, obesity, and so many types of cancer we’re running out of ribbon colors. It’s finally starting to hit us—we weren’t built to live like this. As the negative effects of our modern, sedentary lifestyles catch up to us, it begs the question: did our prehistoric ancestors have it right? The medical world is still arguing about it, but the surge in popularity of the Paleo diet, barefoot running, and Crossfit tell us one thing for sure: primal living is hot right now.

“This mismatch between our ancient physiology and the western diet and lifestyle underlies many so-called diseases of civilization, including coronary heart disease, obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, epithelial cell cancers, autoimmune disease, and osteoporosis, which are rare or virtually absent in hunter-gatherers and other non-western populations” (Research Reports in Clinical Cardiology).

“The caveman lifestyle… involves eating large quantities of meat and then fasting between meals to approximate the lean times that his distant ancestors faced between hunts. 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” (New York Times).

“As we subsist on more sugar, grains, and chemicals, we move less and spend more time hunched over steering wheels, computer screens, and smartphones. Those who exercise often jump on a treadmill or weight machine, training their bodies and isolating muscles in unnatural ways. Few of us have the muscle mass, lung capacity, or reaction time to sprint up uneven hills, duck branches, hop boulders, and pull ourselves up a ledge to avoid a bear. But that’s how the paleo crowd thinks we should move” (Men’s Journal).

IMPLICATION

How can we help these new cavemen traverse the modern world?
image via brophyworld