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Cromagnon regime |
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We talk a lot about the Paleolithic mode and his important virtues for health. II is true that genetically we are men of Paleolithic, our potential did not evolve since these ancestral times, our metabolisms have same settings like 10 000 years ago. Does the evolution of the man in his everyday life have a negative or positive influence on health and the good being? To answer these questions in an objective way, it is necessary to trace the broad outline of the Paleolithic mode.
Paleolithic regime
through the studies of famous paleontologists, it is possible to better visualize the food habit of Cro-Magnon (Homo sapiens sapiens) from- 35000 years to - 9000 years: a quasi-identity on the osteological level, slimming 1,70 to 1,80 m, taller than us and much more taller than our grand parents, a brain of 1400 ml, short lifespan (related to the infections of banal germs ), can reach 50 years.
Homo sapiens are omnivores, they are eating animal food origin for 35 % and vegetable food origin for 65 %. But this proportion between these two food sources is not constant.
With Paleolithic the line of the edible plants is very broad (Leroi-Gourhan 1945), more limited choice of the crop plants today by the farmers and they are often richer in proteins. The green plants (stems and leaves) and the fleshy plants (tubers, roots, fruits and large seeds) are consumed everywhere (raw, boiled, and roasted) and gives reserves for the winter.
In the daily ration, abundance, the number and the variety of the consumed plants are a function of the climatic conditions, but also of a certain cultural choice. The distribution of the macronutrients necessary to the manufacture of energy and the construction of the body is as follows :
• Protein 33%
• Carbohydrates 46%
• Lipid 21%
Proteins with abundance but from time to time.
In the regime bringing 35 % of game and 65 % of plants, the proteic ration represents 251,1 G including 190,7 G of animal origin and 60,4 G of vegetable origin. The Paleolithic ones do not know the two disadvantages which have for us the animal proteins :
• their association with a high percentage of lipids in the livestock,
• their price cost (we needs 10 kg of proteins plants to manufacture 1 kg of animal proteins).
The composition even of game and fish is not very rich in lipids.
The energy average energy expenditure is 3500 kcal at least and corresponds to the number of calories necessary to mitigate the statute of hunter, fisherman, and gatherer of the time.
The distribution of the fatty acids of the lipids is qualitative and approaches the recommendations of the current experts. There are 23,7 of saturated fatty acids (greases of the meats inter alia), 42 % of unsaturated mono fatty acids (current, acid oleic of the olive oil) and 37% of fatty acids poly unsaturated (Omega 3 and Omega 6).
The contributions in vitamins and minerals are important with different distributions. For calcium the daily quantity is 1500 Mg and for the sodium 690 Mg. The Paleolithic man consumes a lot of fibers, about 100 to 150 G per day.
With Paleolithic we are in the presence of human having a balanced food, balanced at the same time with the energy and the respect of the essential element with the life which our food must give us; contributions of omega 3, fibers, good vitamins... In fact the food with Paleolithic appears adapted to the mankind.
Evolution of Cro-Magnon from 1900
The end of the nomadism with its perpetual search for zones to game and the arrival of sedentarity for 9 000 years have led the human population to change food mode. The size of the men which is a parameter of good food varied schematically in three times :
• an increase in stature 1 m at our origins 1.80 m in Cro-magnon
• a decrease with the Neolithic era of 10 % approximately
• a staturale recovery since a few decades
The size in the Neolithic era would be due to various factors :
• appearance of cereals as basic food
• reduction in the protein contribution
• nutritional aggressions (food shortages and famines related to the climatic risks on the mono cultures)
• epidemic diseases
• reduction in the contribution and the absorption of calcium. Cereals, breeding, dairy products, sugars are the large food upheavals of this time. But this evolution is nothing compared to the food revolution which we underwent since 1900.
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Supplementary food
