Human Diet

For the majority of humanity's time here on Earth, people have had an eclectic diet. Archaeological evidence as well as the eating patterns of modern day hunter gatherers and chimpanzees provide ample proof that people most likely ate anything they could digest including any land animals, fish, leaves, fruit, honey, mushrooms, birds, nuts, and seeds; in other words, anything they could get their hands on. In the last 12,000 years, people began drastically changing their eating habits by adding grains, soy beans, peanuts, and other foods that require processing into their diets. Not until recently have these foods become a staple of the American diet. The early 1900s brought about the large scale production of cereals, sweets, and breads that have become a large portion of the American diet. Further advances in food science and agriculture have made unhealthy foods such as peanuts, soybeans, and homogenized and pasteurized milk readily available. Because of this, the food industry has had a heavy hand in American government organizations that tell citizens how they should eat in order to stay healthy. For example, the food pyramid developed by the United States Department of Agriculture has followed American trends in food production and now suggests that the majority of calories consumed should come from grains and that the consumption of meat and fats should be kept to a bare minimum. This is contrary to human evolution and detrimental to human health which will be discussed in detail during a later post. To better understand why Americans eat like they do, the flaws in the way we eat, and what should be done, I will discuss in this blog how the American diet has changed over time and how the United States Department of Agriculture's "recommended" diet was developed and how it is adding to the dietary troubles we already face.

Update: Revised for Grammar