What to eat

What should we humans eat?

This tweet unexpectedly blew up.

As can be expected, plenty of strong opinions were shared about what we should and shouldn’t eat.

Over the years I’ve given diet a lot of thought.

Should we eat whatever we want in moderation? Should we not eat meat? Eat NO animal products? Eat like a cave man? Should we follow the diet of whatever people group live the longest?

Do other animals sit around debating what to put in their mouths? Do beavers sit around asking each other if they should have black bean burgers or steak tonight? No, they happily munch on bark day after day.

So, why can’t humans figure it out?

Practically speaking humans can eat anything. This served us well as we spread across the planet. Different environments with different food sources meant needing to be adaptable.

Today with a global food market, our choices are less about our surroundings and more a product of culture and marketing. That means eating anything from apples and almonds to Mountain Dew and Fruity Pebbles.

For the last 100 years or so we’ve been experimenting with and industrial revolution in food. Manufactured foods are everywhere. They are engineered to be delicious and addictive, not nourishing and restorative. Most everyone will tell you to avoid highly processed foods.

But what about everything else?

Back to that tweet.

The loudest voices online today say you should eat like a carnivore. Eat almost exclusively meat. Anecdotes about changed lives abound. They say meat is what we are best suited to eat. But are we?

Thinking of it from an evolutionary biology perspective the answer is clearly no. Look at the teeth of a carnivore: a lion, shark or your own house cat. Their teeth look nothing like ours. We have a couple of dull canines. They have flesh piercing, cutting, slicing, don’t-stick-your-finger-in-there-or you-will-regret-it teeth.

So, we are omnivores right? That means I should still eat a ton of meat? Not so fast. Your dog is an omnivore, so are grizzly bears. We don’t much resemble them either. According to evolutionary theory we are most closely related to chimpanzees. Chimps are frugivores, meaning they eat primarily fruit, other plants and extremely small amounts of meat.

Here’s a break down.

It is clear to me that we are not natural carnivores.

“But Daniel, I don’t believe in all that evolution B.S. Surely God made man in His meat eating image?”

Ok, let’s take a look at that.

In Genesis 1 after God makes humans He says

It wasn’t until after the flood that God allowed humans to eat animals (see Genesis 9:3).

So, a carnivore diet isn’t biblical either.

I’m not in the business of shaming people for eating meat but it is clear that carnivore is just the latest in a series of fad diets.

The best diet has a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and other foods to fuel the body.