We should be feeding the starving lions in Africa our politicians.

My mom grew up in an agrarian village in rural Greece, so i know what my ancestors had been eating for hundreds (or thousands) of years. My mom's family ate one chicken from the flock per week. They foraged herbs and leafy greens. They had potatoes, olive oil, and goat cheese year around. They only slaughtered goats as the herd size allowed. So not often. They had fruiting trees too. Almonds, figs, citrus, and of course olives. They did not have cane sugar. "Dessert" was a fig with an almond in it.

Q: What did our ancestors eat? A: Whatever they could get their fooking hands on.

Don't have to look back 10,000 years, I am 71 and can remember that in my childhood everyone prepared food for themselves, home style cooking, lot's of veggies, little meat, fish on Fridays, mostly apples were the fruits then, in summer berries, Oranges for Christmas.. Bananas, Pineapples and other exotic fruits like Kiwi were unknown, mostly we drank water from the tap, coke was a no, no, in Summer home made Ice Tea... and nobody did miss anything, neither did I and still don't and XXL clothing was unknown too - what a boon time !!!

I did a sort of keto for 7 months. I avoided processed food and drink and tried to keep carbs less than 25g per day. My only Achilles heel was alcohol. I switched to vodka soda from my go to rum and Coke. I did minimal exercise but did walk for at least 3000 steps per day. Sometimes 3000, sometimes 10k or 20k per day (made and effort to move around a lot more). I didn’t specifically exercise or do a lot of cardio. I ate almost exclusively what grew in the ground or what came from an animal (tried to stick to organic meats, not ones pumped full of steroids). I completely cut out anything with high fructose corn syrup in it. I lost around 75 lbs in those 7 months, and after I was done with that “experiment,” whenever I ate anything processed like fast food it made me feel extremely ill and was a guaranteed trip to the toilet. That was 4 years ago and I’ve kept all but 8 lbs of it off. I still enjoy food a lot and did during that entire time, just not processed garbage. It changed my life, honestly, and I feel much better today.

I am leaving this comment here so that after some hours, days, weeks, months or years when someone likes or comment on it, I will be reminded to watch this video again

10,000 Years Ago We Stopped Eating...What, exactly? "This" is not a food.

as a frenchman, I apologise for transfats, that is : margerine. it was invented to ensure that napoléons troops had their butter..

28:25 The word 'Diet' means 'the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.' It is NOT reserved for restricting consumption.

Archeologist here! The Paleo "Diet" really focuses on muscle meat and while Proteins are essential for physiological needs, what is often overlooked is how much organ meat was eaten at any given time. Only in the last 40 something years we stopped eating organ meats and bone marrow in favor of muscle meats. Also the nutrient density and fibre content in modern vegetables and fruit are VASTLY different than in the paleolithic era. So the Paleo Diet is just another trend that is followed. But i love your take on the Mediterranean Diet !

Fermented foods are another really good source of B12. Early humans may have eaten partially fermenting fruits after we became upright and no longer arboreal, as we would have picked up fallen fruit. That's likely when we began developing alcohol tolerance, too.

20 minutes in and I still don't know what we stopped eating 10000 years ago

There is a big issue with lack of minerals in foods that are supposed to have said minerals. Many of the soils upon which our foods are grown are depleted. Farms replenish some of them through different methods, but minerals such as magnesium and zinc are not being replenished. You can grow whichever vegies are supposed to be rich in these, but if the soil lacks them the vegies do not produce them out of thin air. I believe magnesium is currently one of the minerals soils are most deficient off, and thus lacking as a nutrient in our diets.

I feel like when we started agriculture, we kinda found an unintended glitch/exploit and steered off the path ever since that.

Obesity was EXTREMELY rare globally… prior to world war 2. You can track an increase in obesity, heart attacks, strokes and diabetes with the progressive increase in sugar production and consumption. I eliminated sugar and alcohol and went on the Keto diet which I occasionally switch with the carnivore diet and went from 350 pounds down to 190 pounds in a 2 year period.

This is perhaps the most comprehensive and best explained presentation on nutrition that I've seen in a long time.

As soon as you mentioned the plague of processed food I got an advert for Pepsi popping up lol

I recently made a change to my daily diet. And lost 25 pounds! Previously, my typical breakfast included a raisin bran muffin or something similar, coffee, a small orange juice, yogurt, and some fruit such as pineapple, a banana, and peaches. While I was still working (I am retired now), I usually had a sandwich with cold meat and cheese on whole wheat bread for lunch. My dinner varied among beef, chicken and fish, with either pasta, rice, or potatoes and some kind of vegetables. And I usually drank milk with lunch and dinner. I had slowly gained weight over the past 20 + years, and even though I stopped having lunch after retiring, I continued to gain weight with most of the fat gain around my middle torso. So I decided to make a change to skipping the muffins, being high in carbohydrates, and changing to a breakfast of stir-fried onion, peppers and mushrooms, with some ham, and then cracked a couple of eggs on top, going with more protein. I also changed to Greek yogurt with no added sugar. Dinner stayed mostly the same. After two weeks, I lost three pounds. I then extended the list and cut out desserts, and milk, after I realized I was drinking it out of habit with dessert. I continued to lose weight and over five or six months lost 25 pounds. I didn't increase my level of exercise during this time, but continued the fairly active life I always have been. At the same time I started to log my calories. It's hard to say that it played a part because I don't know what my old calorie count was, but it did give me a sense of control over what I was eating. I am inclined to say cutting out the extra carbs made all the difference. And the effects were seen almost right away.

My diet varies by mood and season, but if I'm craving something in particular, I generally NEED it. If I crave a steak, my iron levels are low. If I crave citrus fruit, I need vitamin C. If I crave pineapple, I'm usually having digestive issues. I've found that these cravings feel distinctly different than cravings for carbs or sugar. The latter are generally less specific and more fleeting. If I ignore them, they go away. If I ignore a nutritional craving, it only gets stronger until it's satisfied. If I find myself saying "I would kill for a steak", then I need to listen... and get a steak, because I'm not going to feel good until I do.

Ancestors didn't have apeel coatings, bromine sprayed on our grains to keep them from sticking together (bromine is toxic), seed oils, sugar alcohols and plastic and pfas in our bodies and water (and the air we breathe).

Perhaps the hunter gatherers got more exercise hunting and gathering?

I read an article in a science magazine probably 30 years ago written about an area studied by archeologists where people had lived continuously as hunter gatherers and then transitioned into agriculture. What they found studying their bones was that the hunter gatherers were healthier than the people who lived after agriculture. The agriculture bodies had more cavities and more signs of arthritis, and their bones were weaker.

Carbs are not “essential” the liver can make all the glucose you need “gluconeogenesis”, anyone who understands the Randell cycle can tell you why. The body tries to use any sugars/carbs’ first not because they are better than fats but because they are toxic to cells. Excess carbs drives insulin production to drive it into the cells leading ultimately to T2DM. A low carb (high) fat diet is a metabolically flexible diet which isn’t toxic as the cells best adapted to it. As you mention stomach acid and gut suggests we are also well adapted to meat consumption, more so than the average omnivore sitting us somewhere between a dog (carnivore) and a pig that is a true omnivore.

Not too bad in the end, but one big problem early on. It is really easy to name all the essential carbohydrates. There are NONE. Fats are the primary energy source for the human body. Carbs are so dangerous they have to be eliminated quickly, or else result in metabolic syndrome/diabetes. They have no other use, so in a case of use it or lose it, the body has to use them first. Fats are energy-dense, easily stored, and provide most of the energy. Proteins can be used for energy, but are more valuable as building blocks for the body.

I was having a conversation with a woman I didn't know when I mentioned Kinder Eggs. The moment I said, "eggs" she became righteously indignant and told me that she was vegan and that eating eggs was wrong. I tried to explain to her that Kinder Eggs were just egg shaped chocolate. The moment I said, "chocolate" she yelled, "That's worse than alcohol." Um . . . I have a question . . . Does lack of b12 cause insanity? Edit: I really don't care whether anyone chooses to be vegan or not. This is not about veganism. This is about the fact that this woman went off on an insane tangent just like many of you are doing.

The other impact of agriculture: About ten times per century, the crops in any given location fail, leading in pre-modern times to famine and mass starvation. It was such a common occurrence that only the worse famines were recorded by historians.

Unlike fats and protein, your body can make all the carbohydrates your body needs. Carbs are an entirely optional part of a human diet. There are numerous examples of people who have thrived for decades on near zero carb diets.

What a great thought provoking video. Really enjoyed it. Roughly speaking, prior to 10,000 BC, large scale agriculture was not possible because it was an ice age. But it wasn’t the cold that prevented agriculture, totally, it was the lack of precipitation, due to so much of the Earth’s water being locked up in ice. Man developed agriculture at roughly the same time that the average global temperature rose to 56 degrees. This also allowed the diversity of crops to flourish, as well, with longer growing seasons (corn vs wheat). Everyone would still be eating Paleo without this change. It gave us food choices. And life expectancy also rose most significantly, almost 50% higher from the late 1800’s, with the development of modern plumbing and the elimination of water-borne diseases, like cholers, not just medicines. We should all thank a plumber. It was because of this extended lifespan that pushed medicine into dealing with cancers, heart disease, and other old age maladies. Prior to a person’s mid-40’s, they will likely die of an accident. It’s after this, in your 50’s and beyond that you’ll likely die of disease, thus the massive expansion of the medical fields in the last 70-80 years. That, and the technology that allows better diagnosis of diseases and methods to deal with them.

Our ancestor's diet depended more on the season than our current diets. We have access to food that is grown thousands of miles away at its peak of freshness or packaged to last months. Also the produce today probably looked, tasted, and differed in nutrition than what we have today. We have made Brussel sprouts more palatable within the last 20 years alone. Our ancestors probably didn't eat three square meals a day. More likely they feasted whenever there was food and went longer periods without food than the average citizens of the world today.

I think the reason our ancestors switched from hunter-gatherers to farmers wasn't because they wanted bread, but because they wanted beer. "Was alcohol the reason for civilization?" searched under one's preferred search engine turns up some interesting results.

Cool beans! Great content and a wonderful host! Thank you Thoughty2 for your insights in to many things! Appreciate the straight forward opinions you share. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for your content! Always interesting, informative, and fun to watch.

Just a small info to add here: Mediterranean diet is also the main diet of Morocco, Lebanon, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and France. The Mediterranean region has 2 blue zones not only one. Apart from Sardinia, you also has the island of Ikaria in Greece.

Seems like the advent of farming and consuming more bread & grain-based gruel was about the same time we invented wealth, power, land ownership, people ownership and the wealthy elite who needed large numbers of peasant laborers and soldiers. Did we start eating more bread & gruel because we liked it, or because that was the cheapest easiest way to feed our peasants?

Got to be one of the best videos I've seen in a long time! Been searching for this clear, no-nonsense info for ages. Thank you.

Thank you, Aaron. This was both entertaining and informative. You rock

DIETARY carbohydrate intake is NOT essential. The liver can manufacture all the glucose needed for the few cells that are obligatory glucose users. The minimum dietary intake of carbs that is compatible with good health is ... zero

The use of fire thing has me imagining a scenario of how it developed. After a field or forest cought fire from lightening food became scarce in the area and while looking for something to eat a group came upon the burned carcass of some animal and dug in looking to see if any good parts were left and ate cooked meat finding that it tasted good. They also found over the next week that burned meat lasted longer, so they were able to forage in the buned out area longer and survived by eating the burned meat. As an aside they later saw some other animals come back and start digging in the ground to find food and found out that some roots were eatable too, especially when cooked from the heat of the fire. After that they started looking for fires and even captured some to use regularly.

Delightful & informative! Thanks! Well done!

Awesome video! Thanks for the thorough breakdown

Diet is about 2/3rds of the solution. The other third is lifestyle choices. Get outside, walk instead of drive, get some sunlight and reduce screen and sitting time. This and a good diet will change your life

You summarized everything I, as a biologist, think about what we should eat. One more things - habits are important. If we eat something different sporadically, even if it's not healthy, it's OK., as long as by habit, we eat well most of the time.

I would agree to most of this, but. Carbs are NOT essential to us, we make glucose from fatty acids if not eaten. But over all, good research done here!

This is a very well done and informative presentation ...thank you so much.

IT'S ABOUT TIME they started to study this. I've been begging for this for years. I know I react differently to foods AND medications but I can't get anyone to really believe me. I'm so excited people will finally be heard.

"Scavenged Meat" sounds like a great Heavy Metal Band name. "Lucy & The Scavenged Meat!"

So happy I found you! Great presentation ❤

Very informative. Enjoyed it immensely. Thank you.

it was really brave of you to tackle this topic. Talking about nutrition tends to end up as palatable (pun intended) as a discussion of politics or religion at any social get together with absolute strangers. Well done!!

Whew those blue zones man, mostly everyone wakes up at the crack of dawn and start work, stop working after 12pm, have lunch and then take their naps, Wake up at like 2-4 pm then hang out with family/friends until dinner time. Man that sounds wholesome 😊.

thank you for this, i was able to pay attention to this stuff when i normally would not be. you've improved my life. liked and sub'd

Great video. nicely presented. reinforces what most dietry experts recommend, and what i try to base my own eating pattern on- many thanks😎💪👍

Chimps hunt. It's absurd to believe humans didn't begin hunting before 2M years ago.

Carbohydrates are NOT essential for our energy needs. Thanks to Shawn Baker, we now know better.

What a great video! IMO It's comprehensive, thorough, clear and correct. I learned a lot including what my next steps are. I hope everyone will learn to eat better for their own benefit, but for the benefit of all.

Thank you for creating such informative video content 🙏

Proteins not only do the things mentioned here, but they are also needed in order for our body to construct DNA and RNA. A cell dies. Another cell divides. It needs to duplicate the DNA that is in its nucleus. First it has to construct nucleic acids. To do that it needs amino acids, which come from the breakdown of proteins.

My eating habits changed during the pandemic...I did a loose version of keto/ paleo... drank water at every turn... sometimes every 20 minutes to every hour. I just craved more water all the time. Less than five months, I lost weight but I didn't know, I just thought my clothes were worn out... until people started asking about it. I finally got on the scale...60 pounds lighter! I had a new rule: for every soda I had, I had to drink two waters..and so on. Before the end of the year, I lost a 100 pounds. Still going.

This is an excellent informative video Arran, top marks !

Thanks for sharing this fascinating video, found it very informative!

8 months, only meat. Pure carnivore. Diabetes cured, high blood pressure normalized, all aches and pains gone, sleep like a rock, anxiety gone, and on and on... Oh, and 40 lbs gone in first 3 months then stable for 5 more months.

AI still can't draw hands properly. 😂 EDIT: this was related to the first thumbnail, he changed it in the meantime.

Great informative video! Subscribed.

This is fabulous!! Thank you. I'm sharing with friends.

The industrial bred animals people eat also don't get B12 naturally, which is from the soil, but is supplementet through their foodsource.

In 2021 the onset of an autoimmune condition diabled me. Over the next 6 months I gained 60 lbs. I went carnivore and dropped 40lbs immediately. Then I plateaud and couldn't lose anymore weight for a year. I increased my healthy carbs and decreased the saturated fats in meats by switching more to fish. Also, increased my cardio. The weight has started dropping again. Thanks for posting. The animation was great and you have a way of speaking that makes everything understandable.

Thank you,you have one of the best channels in youtube. Very entertaining and highly educational.

The reason I stopped eating meat in the first place is because it doesn't make sense to me (or Albert Einstein): We use all this land to house (and essentially torture) these animals. Then we use a whole bunch more land to grow crappier versions of the food we eat in order to feed those animals when we could just use all that land to grow healthy vegetables. Now I understand that manure is an import part of the ecosystem here so we need to keep animals around which is why I'd change the way we farm in the US to be more sustainable and not at all reliant on other industries. I want to see industry involvement lessened in the food supply chain. Farmers shouldn't be using resources plowing fields and spraying crops when they can let nature do the work and focus on sustainable harvesting methods. When the animals fertilizing the garden grow in number to the point where it's negatively affecting their own well-being, then you can thin the herd for the benefit of the animals and eat meat in a healthy and sane way. But until we get there, I vote with my dollar and I don't want to fund industrialized rape or murder so I don't buy those products. And in fact, any time an animal product is commoditized, animals suffer. I agree we did evolve to eat more meat, but are you saying you believe that was the right direction to go in as a species? My argument as a vegan is that I can survive without eating any meat and I think that's a much better way of living as a society. I felt like I had more energy when I stopped eating meat, but that might be different for someone else. I understand there are other dietary concerns where doctors recommend eating meat, but I've never had any of those problems because of my body type and keeping a healthy gut biome. The way to get B12 without using up all your intrinsic factor is with a healthy gut biome. The amount of B12 we can absorb orally is limited by the amount of intrinsic factor we can produce in our stomachs since B12 (being the most complex vitamin) is easily destroyed in our upper intestines and only absorbed in our lower intestines. So the fact that your food has more B12 in it isn't as impressive as it might sound. Also, nutritional yeast is a great (and tasty) vegan source of B12. I agree that we made mistakes with the way we implemented agriculture during the period you described. The fact that plants grow from seeds is something anything with a lifespan longer than a few years will likely figure out so the fact that we never organized large-scale agriculture until a certain point doesn't mean it didn't exist at smaller scales prior to that time. I think that personal forest gardens are the way to go. It's not entirely practical for people in large cities, but innovations in technology could see the emergence of "live pantries" where we have a room in our house for growing our food. The other point about agriculture is that agriculture was advantageous to sedentary peoples, whereas nomadic peoples had a harder time traveling long distances where biomes changed from what they learned to survive in. Animal husbandry is what facilitated expansion because it allowed people to keep a heard of goats with them and travel long distances over many years. But again, that's no longer a worry for modern humans. Do I have delusions of a future where no one is eating meat? No. No matter what we do there will ALWAYS be that guy(or gal)... Do I think the meat and dairy industries shove their products down our throats? Yes. If their products are so good then why do they need to advertise? When was the last time you saw a billboard for broccoli? "Eat more Kale" was a response to that thinking but was not likely funded by an industry. I digress... I would argue that the mistakes we made are: Over-cooking(cooking too much, not too long) our food - because we wanted to eat the tubers and probably discovered that we could eat other meats that made us sick at this point. Over-sanitizing our food, - we don't have enough going on in our guts and pickled food tastes great. Over-processing our food - having a salad is OK, but having salad dressing (other than basic oil and vinegar) usually isn't. A healthy vegan diet (not Oreos and french fries) Proteins: Beans/pulses (core) Whole grain brown rice (core) Mushrooms Pretty much everything has some Carbs: Tubers Grains Fats: Oils (cold-pressed) Seeds Nuts Micronutrients: Fruits Vegetables Pretty much everything else in a vegan diet

This has got to be one of the most important and influential videos you’ve ever made. I was thinking of my sister who is a nutritionist, and what I was brought up eating as an Italian. I am so glad that those two things have influenced what I eat today to live a healthy lifestyle. Fantastic video!

The Nº1 Rule of Nutrition: There is no such thing as an "essencial carbohidrate"

Thank you so much 🤗💕 Excellent Information

Good presentation. Thanks, Thoughty2.

Congratulations. A really good sensible, no nonsense video on food for health. Excellent summary of current understanding of "diet".

They should seriously be showing this video in public schools

There's also a strong link between the proliferation of unhealthy, processed foods and the monetary kickbacks to the FDA and government officials who accept the kickbacks and endorse such foods, letting them run rampant in the food supply.

Best Made Video! I've never been able or paid so much attention to a 30 minute KZfaq video ever! I've eaten frozen processed food for so long that it might be too late for me.

Agriculture is not just about grains. Pulses, herd animals, greens, tallow, milk, butter, fruits and tubers provide the nutrients that grains don't. Look at the hunzas and the people Weston A. Price studied.

The only bad thing about this video is it isn't still translated to lots of languages, because if so it would reach more people. Thanks, dude.

Loved the info! I'll be using it in the next grocery order!

This video was actually well done. Keep up the quality.

I've never felt or looked healthier than now, aged 32, having had three kids. I've cut out gluten, oats, dairy, refined sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. I avoid seed oils but they are in everything. My weight is great, I've got a 27inch waist, my menstrual cycle massively improved after cutting dairy, and my mental state has also hugely improved. I eat meat, fish, veg, fruit, some legumes, some rice, rice noodles, potatoes, some gluten free pasta, nuts, seeds, olive oil, coconut products, avocado oil, and maple syrup. I fast most days for between 14 and 20 hours, always skipping breakfast, and I try to get enough sleep. Thanks for making this video! The world of ancestral eating is fascinating.

Absolutely....just over a year in, Have lost almost 80 pounds, Everything has improved from breathing ,vision , darkening grey hair,less anxiety and more mental clarity. Thank you Dr Ken Berry. You've saved my life and have improved my quality of life Tremendously

Thank you! Excellent video. I enjoyed your presentation style too.

I love this video! I studied nutrition and really appreciate this video that simplifies health for everyone!

Switched to full carnivore after 40yrs of eating like a normal person. Took a while but I feel way better. Gained muscle and lost internal and external fat. I don't need deodorant anymore either, no gas or bloated feelings like on regular foods. My hair got darker as well... Anyway. Also should add that I have some American Indian heritage so maybe that has something to do with me being more sensitive to grains and dairy.

There are no Essential carbohydrates. Liver makes glucose for all carb needs. Fatty acids and amino acids ARE essential.

Very informative. Thanks!

Thank You so much for your precious work! It helps many people to become more healthy!

What a video!.... never seen somebody cover this highly sensible topic (nowadays) in a more professional way than you just did. Thanks!

Love this. Been research this for years for a hobby. Also it is believed first grain farming was not only to consume grain but fermented grains. So beer came before bread. Great work very well explain and totally agree with everything explained in this video. Keep up the great work on this amazing channel.

What a pleasant and informative presentation. Thank you Sir. Hello from Dallas Texas.

Well done and explained. Thank you. Jan from Belgium

The answer is: whatever fits in our mouths, is tasty, and won't kill us the following week.

Well, let's hope we develop a way to digest man-made plastics soon... Sure would be quite the miracle.

Very well Done! Best of all your many videos!

Amazing work as always

Once I started making real money. I moved to an upper-middle to upper-class area in the city. Not only did I have money to buy good food, I also had walking access to several stores like Whole Foods and a few others. I stopped looking at food prices and just bought what I felt like eating. Without any knowledge of trendy diets, I ended up basically on a strict paleo diet, but with dairy products. I can eat filet mignon and arugula drenched in olive oil, various fruits for desert with wine, for days at a time without getting board. In fact I ate that same diet for two months without a break.

Only one issue i Have with this Video. The Vitamin K. Theres actually a vitamin K2 that we require much more than the K1 found in leafy greens that arent actually bioavailable and full of pesticides( these leafy greens are on the dirty dosen list). Vitamin K2 is found in RED MEAT and fermented vegetables as well as in some dairy. The K2 deficiency is now believed to be one of the major causes of arterial plaque build up. The K2 is required to control Calcium placement in the bones and teeth but since we lack it. Calcium ends up building up in micro lessions in the arteries walls caused by inflamation.

An excellent and informative presentation. A great contribution to improved health in so many.

I like these educational videos. Thank you :).