Man, Hunter Gatherer
Anthropological and medical anthropology, has confirmed that early man was a "hunter gatherer" lived frugally on wild game, which often required sustained physical effort and performance to achieve a "kill".

In the earlier pre-tool age they would have eaten the vital organs rather than the steaks for which he lacked appropriate butchering tools. They grubbed for roots, tubers, gathered wild berries, fruits, herbs and seeds. It is almost certain that foods were eaten one at a time; that is, as single foods.

Can you imagine our prehistoric ancestors cutting off a roast of meat and taking it back to the cave where the women cooked it with roasted potato, pumpkin, carrot or onion and then served it with a green vegetable, all liberally covered with gravy, to be placed one, two or three ingredients at a time on the fork and shoveled into the mouth, then to be washed down with a glass of good red?

Is not that how many of us dine today?
And as a consequence of this, and many other nutritional errors exacerbated by living within an industrialized environment, we now live in a society which boasts a chronic illness average of 70% of the population, increasing at something like 10% per decadeand more:

These include, in particular, the killer diseases of heart, stroke, cancer, liver and obesity. The less fatal, but severely debilitating diseases including: osteoporosis, arthritis, asthma, Parkinson's disease, Hodgkin's disease, Addison's disease, digestive disorders and musculoskeletal disorders.

Then we have the latter day exotics, which our grandparents had never heard of. These include multiple sclerosis, leaky gut, chronic fatigue, Alzheimer’s, twentieth century syndrome, myeloencephalopathy, and many, many more.

In my country (Australia) the first national health survey (1947) recorded chronic illness conditions averaging 42% of the population

The 2001 survey recorded the average as over 70% of the population.

Diseases Of The Affluent
If we look at the documented research of anthropology and more particularly medical anthropology and go back in time to the Paleolithic period which existed about 40,000 years ago, we find that the people living in that period did not suffer the killer diseases or many of the chronic conditions which exist in our society today. Arteriosclerosis, stroke, cancer, obesity, liver cirrhosis, hypertension and diabetes did not exist.

In fact, coming forward to 1940, research shows that diabetes did not exist in the Native Americans whereas today, among certain tribes such as the Pima Indian, the incidence of diabetes mellitus is higher than for any other society or race. Also rare among the hunter-gatherers was and is still is, osteoporosis, hearing loss and dental caries.

We may, of course, discuss some of our latter day diseases. Arthritis did occur as Osteoarthritis, probably some asthma but not on the scale as we know it today. Most of the other chronic conditions were yet to come. Of course there were some birth defects, some mental disease and so on but not on an epidemic scale. As against this they did suffer life threatening and life-taking infections, which rather developed over the millennia.

What is important is that these chronic diseases of western society are still rare in primitive and even what we call semi-advanced third world countries, where the problem is more one of famine and consequential starvation. Many other factors may of course contribute to our current life-style that were non-existent 40,000 or even one hundred years back including atmospheric pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, and even the measurement of time by watches and clocks, which contribute to our mental stressors, but this chapter is about diet so:

Man The Adaptive Animal
Let us now skip briefly to genetics; it is very probable, and well acknowledged, that there have been no changes in the genes of humankind over the past 30,000 years. We do know that changes in gene frequency result from mutation, which is an extremely slow process, or from selection and genetic drift leading to redistribution of the genes that already exist. Changes due to this process of selection can be very rapid indeed.

Through anthropological research, we can be sure that our skeletons have not altered much at all since Cro-Magnon man who lived some 30,000 years ago, to the present day.

The exception is that Cro-Magnon mankind had much larger bone mass than modern man. It has been established that the Paleolithic diet probably offered on a daily basis a calcium intake of some 1,800mg. And a vitamin C intake of about 475m

Since the advent of agriculture only 10,000 years past, and more particularly, since the establishment in the last 500 years of cities to house the people necessary to operate the industrial machinery, we have been exposed to a great many changes in both diet and life-style.

Because, prior to industrialization, our ancestors habitually lived in a rural environment.

Medical Anthropology
Scientists in the field of human nutrition and medical anthropology seem to agree that if the conditions of life of an animal deviate from those which prevailed in the environment in which the species evolved "there is a distinct likelihood that the animal so affected will be less well suited to the new conditions than to those to which it has become genetically adapted through natural selection, and consequently, some signs of maladjustment may be anticipated." Without doubt, such a principal will have a bearing on both the physical and the mental processes and health of the individual.

This can be seen today by those old enough and astute enough to make the observation in the difference in the physical build of both sexes (youth) in our society compared with the physical appearance of youth during the poverty stricken years of the 1920's and 30's.

The boys of today are considerably taller and weigh more whilst the girls mature sexually, at an earlier age than perhaps their parents or certainly, their grandparents did.

 However, a price has been paid. Antisocial  behaviour, which was practised by an occasional individual or rarely, street gang, in the pre 1940's, has today, become a major problem in our society. Asthma has increased to epidemic proportions as a price for our gradual adaptation to living in polluted urban environments.

Mental and emotional illness and behavioural problems abound. Chronic disease conditions now afflict the majority 70% of the 15 to 24 year age group. In 1986 this was 66%

In terms of foods commonly consumed, and available we have undergone extremely rapid changes in the past 50 years or so. The result of these changes in diet, environment and social pressures may affect both physical and mental function including behaviour.

Maladaptive Addiction
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had no cereal grains, no milk or milk bi-products, other than human milk, which was available at frequent intervals to the infant for the first three years, and few vegetables, as we know them today. Meat of the wild game variety, fish, and some wild berries, and fruit were the main fare of the day augmented by roots, leaves, tubers and vine fruits.

Recommended Dietary Intake
Today's balanced diet should supply meat or fish, cereal grains, mainly as bread and breakfast cereals, milk and milk products and fruit and vegetables usually in abundant supply. We are urged by health authorities to consume several portions from each group daily.

In fact, for many people things are somewhat different. There are currently in excess of 3000 manufactured or processed foods on the supermarket shelf available to today's consumer. And consumed they are. It has also been estimated that the average diet may contain as much as 2 kilos of additional chemicals, per annum, that is added by the producer, and/or the manufacturer.

These include pesticides, rodenticides, herbicides, preservatives, coloring agents, fungicides, antibiotics, emulsifiers and thousands more. Even our drinking water, once obtained clean from a stream or well, is treated with chlorine and other toxic substances in addition to being contaminated by many and varied hazardous chemicals and heavy metals.

For instance studies to date show that a minimum temperature of 120°C is needed to start formation of acrylamide in foods, although 140°C to 180°C is optimal. "The hotter and longer you bake or fry, the more carcinogen forms," 

In a test conducted by the English Food Standards Agency, scientists found a 10-fold difference between normal and overcooked chips, which experts say is good news, because it means levels can be limited. The carcinogen tends to attack the thyroid gland, female mammary gland, male testes, and mouth.
 
The experts concluded too little was known about the formation of acrylamides to issue specific guidelines, but recommended a diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
(Extract from BMJ. July 2002)

Few would be aware that cotton seed oil, commonly used for deep frying and a component of prepackaged spring  rolls, etc is highly toxic, especially to the lungs. To follow: