How Our Genes Are Programmed For Nutrition

• Eaton states “That the vast majority of our genes are ancient in origin means that nearly all of our biochemistry and physiology are fine-tuned to conditions of life that existed before 10,000 years ago.”
  
• In other words, 100,000 generations of people were hunter-gatherers, 500 generations have depended on agriculture, only 10 generations have lived before the start of the industrial age, and only 2 generations have grown up with highly processed fast foods.
  
• “The big problem is that our genes don’t know it. They are programming us today in much the same way they have been programming for at least 40,000 years. Genetically, our bodies now are virtually the same as they were then.”
• Early humans obtained about 50% of their calories from carbohydrates, mostly from vegetables and fruits (not as grains like modern man).
• Hunter-gatherers typically consumed more than 100 different species of fruits & vegetables, thus providing them with more than 100 grams of fiber per day, promoting regular bowel movements.
• The fiber in pre-agricultural diets came almost exclusively from fruits, roots, legumes, nuts and other non-cereal plant sources, so it was less associated with phytic acid than fiber from cereal grains. Phytic acid interferes with mineral absorption.
• We now know that our bodies are meant to survive on a much larger variety of foods than what we’ve become accustomed to.
• What we think of as a healthy diet doesn’t compare to that of our  hunter-gatherer ancestors.
• We’re hard pressed to eat even 100 different foods per year, let alone food from 100 different species.