Homo sapiens emerged out of Africa in several waves 60,000 - 200,000 years ago. Their subsequent diets in various geographic zones weren't different enough to produce big changes in the gut (all humans have a stomach, small intestines and large intestines that function exactly the same). Small differences in stomach size and intestine length do exist in various populations -- as well as epigenetic adaptations like lactose tolerance into adulthood -- due probably to variations in available food sources. As for insects ever being a "very large percentage of the human diet", I call bullshit on that one. It's simply too hard to collect enough insects in the wild to regularly rely on them as a food staple. More likely they were the paleolithic equivalent of a snack or energy boost.
I disagree, berryblue -- there is a rather sizable portion of anthropologists that agree with that contention: http://theweek.com/article/index/257208/the-benefits-of-eating-bugs http://pages.nycep.org/rothman/InsectReview.pdf Given the unassailable fact that entomophagy is widespread in non-human primates, I think it's rather hubristic to assert that this practice did not extend into early hominoids, hominids and humans. In terms of your first point, it is not necessary for there to be sufficient time for morphological changes to the digestive system -- it is widely accepted that the gut microbiota varies widely in dispersed geographic populations of humans.
The paper you reference states that no large (over 1kg) modern nonhuman primate obtains a large portion of its diet from insects although they all eat insects to some extent. Certainly early humans ate insects but there is no evidence they were the single largest source of protein and fats. It's possible, and even probable, in some early human populations (just like it is today) but especially as humans migrated to colder climates there is no way no how their diets were primarily insect based. As for gut bacteria, I may have misunderstood your point. The microbial composition of the human gut changes with diet (sometimes in as little as a few weeks), which is one of the reasons why humans and other omnivorous mammals have been able to thrive in diverse ecosystems.
There was a recent National Geographic article where they looked at the hunter-gatherer diets of various "primitive" populations intact today, like a tribe based in the Amazon, a culture somewhere in the Pacific that lives in huts on the ocean and lives almost entirely on fish, and a population somewhere way up north on the ice where plants don't grow, so they eat fish and meat entirely, and I think they also mentioned a population that eats a large amount of insects and a vegetarian population in India, etc.. So, interesting the huge variety of diets that humans are able to adapt to. One of the points they mentioned is that there is some adaptation involved here, and so maybe better than "you are what you eat" is "you are what your ancestors ate".
The Sunday NY Times had an explanatory article on the Paleo diet and lifestyle as a hot trend. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/fashion/the-paleo-lifestyle-the-way-way-way-back.html
It kind of reminds me of the controversy over Prey Model Raw diets for dogs and cats. I have a 2 year old Doberman that gets fed "like a wolf" and is the pinnacle of health among all the dogs we know. He is older than some of the dogs in the neighborhood, but he still hasn't rounded out like his kibble fed friends. There's a lot of good lessons learned from these primal diets. I have a friend getting married this weekend who went full keto for the last 6 months and is in the best shape of his life. Like me, he was in the Marines and never developed a physique anywhere close to what he has now. To top it off, his doctor did his blood work and told him he never saw better readings in his career. His doc couldn't believe it. Likewise, my vet says the same thing about my Dobe
A 2 year old dog should be a "pinnacle of health". We have dogs on both raw and kibble and it's just a matter of monitoring the amounts of what they eat to keep them in good shape, and to provide adequate exercise.
Granted, but even our vet is surprised at his level of health especially him being a Doberman. No skin or allergy problems, bright white teeth, no stomach roundness, excellent muscle tone, etc. He's going on his third year and has never needed any medication. The same can't be said about his peers even the ones with highly scrutinized bloodlines.
As Soccerman94043 pointed out, NY Times posted a recipe for bone broth! And, you can buy a $3.50 cup of bone broth at Belcampo in Palo Alto Town & Country Village! Apparently, bone broth is the new trendiest drink to replace coffee. Old school bone broth: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/d...ves-from-prehistoric-food-to-paleo-drink.html
There's really nothing wrong with coffee for people eating paleo and primal. For people who really like bone broth, just using it as a drink is fine. But I suspect most people prefer to use it to create any number of wonderful soup creations. But back to coffee....the problem can be mold. But if you source one that's organic and low in mold, and like it, enjoy.
Kobe swears by bone broth. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...tes--to-his-nba-sustainability-212739911.html So yeah, it is a hot trend.
Good for the Lakers and their players if they realize you need all 3 of health, fitness, and sport-specific skill if you actually want to play and not be always out "injured." The Quakes won't catch on. There goals are just to not interfere w/ the Galaxy winning trophies.
WSJ describes how baseball teams struggle with player fatigue in a 162-game season. It was less of a problem before 2006, because players routinely took amphetamines. Now the teams are addressing diet, custom jets, and constant roster rotation. http://www.wsj.com/articles/baseballs-fight-with-fatigue-1424710560 "There used to be a phrase in baseball: Never go out there alone,” said former major-league pitcher Ron Darling. “That referred to amphetamines. It was an elixir or a friend that could take away all those insecurities you had from being fatigued.”
I possibly tore a high hamstring, so after going to PAMF to see the doc, I finally made it to Belcampo in Palo Alto Town & Country Village to try their bone broth. It was uh, disappointing. It was just a very salty and peppery beef broth, and it cost $3.50 for about 5 oz. They serve it in a coffee cup that is only half-full. Besides being a butcher shop, they also sell hot food to go, so I had an all-beef polish sausage and very greasy fries. After eating that, I was waiting to have a heart attack from all the animal fat and salt they use.
Such are the exquisite joys of training for the pub league. Those MLS guys don't know what they're missing.
Make it yourself if you don't like their recipe. Make it into soup. I'd say most people prefer it that way because plain it's "mineral" tasting and we're not used to that. That's an acquired taste for many, like organ meats. You don't dive in loving it. The salt and pepper they would have added? The only thing in your meal that would likely contribute to a heart attack was the fries. Absent those the diet-heart hypothesis of saturated fat has been disproven. There was never good science for it--it was popularized politically, not with science. (Ancel Keyes has killed a lot of people with bad science.) What causes vessel disease and leads to heart attacks is inflammation. And the pro-inflammatory food there is the fries because of the carbs. Now if they weren't fried in tallow and were fried in a vegetable oil, particularly one that's been reheated a number of times damaging it even more than processing does, then that fat would be pro-inflammatory too. Sorry about your hamstring.
It's not hard to make, but it is tedious. If you have a crock pot, a freezer, some decent freezer zip lock bags, then you only need to pick up the habit of putting chicken, pork or beef bones from meals in the freezer bags and then when the bag is full, put it in the crock pot, along with some celery or onion, cover with water, add a quarter cup of vinegar and set the thing on low. It needs about 12 hours at least and check it once in a while to make sure nothing pokes above the surface, add a little water if needed. It's done when the bones look like they are starting to dissolve. Strain and put it in glass or plastic containers to freeze. Use it for soup stock or cook rice with it... You just paid for someone else's time. You won't get a heart attack from the animal fat. You'll get it from the circulatory system inflammation caused by the potatoes and the bun the polish sausage came with... (yeh, I know, the rice suggestion probably is not going to help with the inflammation either) (Edit: should have checked, KMJVet already commented)
Thx dotmpp & kmjvet, I must have missed it earlier - I hadn't thought that it's carbs, not saturated fat, that causes inflammation. Have some trouble accepting that, so will have to research on my own... Also, thx for the crockpot bone broth recipe - I will try that someday. Of course, since my kids left, I only cook dinner about once a week... A half-cup of broth didn't do anything for me, but 400 mg of Celebrex helps! (I know it has cardiac side effects, and I can only tolerate it for a week anyhow. But it was that, or don't walk.)
Bone broth is in large measure toward prevention of musculoskeletal injury. But it should help you with healing faster. And I think it has to be consistent, day in and day out. But that's a good aspect of it--make it on the weekend in the crock pot and eat it all week. I don't expect it would have any effect on pain though. That's going to take time. Curcumin, boswellia and acupuncture may help.