Is it possible we still have, basically, a Stone Age body that cannot process modern foods without becoming ill? Does our modern lifestyle (sedentary) also add to our diseases – like high blood pressure? Is there really a natural high blood pressure cure that doesn’t involve pills?
Dr. Max Bircher-Benner – a German doctor practicing in Europe in the late 19th century – was known for his ground-breaking work with raw food nutritional therapy. His physician son, Dr. Ralph Bircher, published studies in the 1960s about certain widespread modern eating habits that caused high blood pressure. Today, There’s an entire body of scientific work that claims hypertension is your body’s natural and smart response to modern eating habits.
The Cave Man Diet (aka The Paleo Diet) was first popularized by Dr. Walter Voegtlin in his book, “The Stone Age Diet: Based on In-Depth Studies of Human Ecology and the Diet of Man”. His book was originally published in 1975! Dr. Voegtlin, a gastroenterologist, believed that modern human genetics had barely changed since the Agriculture Age, some 10,000 years ago. In other words, our bodies haven’t adapted to modern culture very much since the Stone Age. The evidence to back up his philosophy exists in plain sight to this day.
There are races of people who are all slim, who are stronger and faster than we are. They all have straight teeth and perfect eyesight. Arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, schizophrenia and cancer are absolute rarities for them. These people are the last 84 tribes of hunter-gatherers in the world. They share a secret that is over 2 million years old. Their secret is their diet: a diet that has changed little from that of the first humans 2 million years ago, and their predecessors up to 7 million years ago. Theirs is the diet that man evolved on, the diet that is coded for in our genes. It has some major differences to the diet of “civilization”. You are in for a few big surprises.
The diet is usually referred to as the “Paleolithic Diet” (referring to the Paleolithic or Stone Age era). It is also referred to as the “Cave Man Diet.”
The “Cave Man Diet” turns our modern diet on its head by mimicking the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It’s based on the premise that our digestive systems have evolved little in the last 10,000 years since farming began. An important part of a natural blood pressure remedy is the food we eat.
Our ancestors ate a lot of lean meat and fish, along with other natural foods like berries and nuts. Many scientists believe that diet is the key to avoiding the illnesses and premature death associated with our excessive consumption of refined sugar and carbohydrates.
Paleolithic people were hunter-gatherers. All their food came from what they could hunt and find around them. During this period, most of the cultures tended to be nomadic, following food sources. Writers espousing Paleolithic diets point to evidence regarding both prehistoric people and more recent hunter-gatherer populations that agriculture increased chronic diseases such as heart disease (hypertension?) in these populations.
A basic principle of this style of eating is that if it can’t be eaten raw, don’t eat it (though this doesn’t mean that it must be eaten raw, only that it should be able to be eaten raw).
Take a close look at the “Cave Man Diet” and see if you can add it to your lifestyle.
By: David J. Webb
