Other than keeping an evolutionary/ancestral framework in the back of my mind - I don't really care that much what so-and-so ate 20kya or 2.5mya. Wide variety of eating - and there is no basis to say that what they ate was optimal - just perhaps not as poisonous as the toxic crap at 7-11.

I lean much more toward looking at the current science (realizing that that is inadaquate as well) and doing my best to figure out what is right/what works for me. And then changing my bad habits the best I can manage. I'm such a mutt anyways... And my kids even moreso. It just seems like speculation that is not going to be all that useful (at least to me).

My two cents. And sorry to be such a Debbie Downer! (Why is it a penny for your thoughts and people keep throwing their two cents in?)

Assuming no disparities between two individuals with regard to past deficiencies etc., I would guess that the actual nutrient requirements would be almost the same for any two humans. I could see certain illnesses (like Crohn's for example) requiring more of one thing or another due to reduced absorptive abilities, but I'd be willing to bet that two random, healthy humans who are age/gender/size-matched would have pretty much the same requirements no matter what the populations are you're drawing them from. There'd be obvious differences in things like vitamin D requirements if there is a difference in melanin content in the skin, but most things should be the same.

In fact, I'd go out on a limb (of our family tree) and say that a different species of hominid like H. neanderthalensis would have pretty much the same requirements as an H. sapiens individual matched in the same way. The differences between individuals would be in what sort of toxins they have adapted to, not what foods they should eat. We may see variation between individuals with how well they tolerate the SAD, but that isn't real food. Discarding Holocene food "advancements" would probably result in little difference between groups.

If my ancestors focused on megatheres and yours focused on aurochs, I don't think that means that I have to eat 3-toed sloths and you have to eat beef. That'd be one helluva raw deal.

I like the paleo philosophy but I do occasionally eat homemade beans and corn tortillas for bike riding and running fuel. I also like roti. My recent ancestors grew up eating that stuff. My mother is West Indian and father is Sicilian. I do better with a modest amount of meat, lots of green and some fruit. I'd go insane without some nice apples of my tree. Eat good and pray over the rest I say.

Well my ancestors mostly eat camel meat, cow meat and drank Milk or water as the only available beverage. (Milk being more prominent.)

Kind of OT: I'm starting the Paleo tomorrow. And I expect I will fair well with the absence of starches and grains. I look forward to finally eating and knowing that what I am eating is actually gonna be healthy for me. Instead of feeding myself pizzas, pastas ( doesn't help that my mother raised me on pastas)- and breads.

I am a skinny person. But I do have somewhat of a huge belly. It's horrific. So, I am hoping this will change my body chemistry enough for it to live off of this supply of stored fat all over my body. Hoping to go into ketosis and finally feed myself some proteins, vitamins and minerals

I had been thinking about this and for curiosity's sake, I tried looking up what vegetables were native to my family's little corner of the globe. I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time tracking them down. Most of them seem to be introduced later on.

But what I did find out is that I totally need to eat some reindeer. I'm game! (... and so are they! groan haha)

That, and I totally need to buy that book. Awesome.

You'd be surprised a) how much your ancestors have moved around in the last 12,000 years, b) how much local climate zones and flora and fauna have changed in that time even if they stayed in one spot (New York state was COVERED BY GLACIERS 12,000 years ago. The Sahara was wet and green with lakes and inland seas!) and c) how fast we adapt to diet. East Africans and Middle Easterners, for example, have developed better metabolism of alkaloids through mutations in the CYP450 enzymes, and those dietary changes are the result of adopting "weird" seasonings (weird to the rest of us) probably just in the last 2-3,000 years.

Long story short, trying to figure out what your ancestors in the Upper Paleo ate is probably a losing proposition, and personalized genetics will probably eventually (not right now) do a much better job. Especially because so many of us, esp. in North America, are mixed.

But, how do you know if those ancestors ate their most optimal diet? Maybe they just ate what was available to them...

BTW, could someone explain what the code "N=1" means? I saw it on several places but have no clue how to decipher it. ;-)

I've read about this and there are companies that will tell you where you came from and what your ancestors ate, but it is, for the most part meaningless.

The effects of diet usually affect the person after they are able to have children and often times don't affect them until their grandchildren are old enough to have children. So, in 100,000 years, people will probably not be adapted to eat wheat and fructose.

The things that get bred out of a population are the things that prevent children in the first place.

Without paying me, I can tell you that your ancestors from around 25,000 years ago ate meat, insets, plants, fish, and crustaceans. They did not drink milk, eat refined sugar, fruit all year round, nor did they eat grain. Basically, they ate a pretty standard paleo diet.

Its just a framework. Not the specific set of rules. You are supposed to customize it. It makes sense to consider as starting grounds the details of the environment we evolved in. The problem is not if this is good strategy, but if current findings we base our starting template are correct. For instance, most people think milk is not paleo, but there is some evidence that people are utilizing goat milk for far longer time then thought.

Even if we know for sure the facts of paleolitic dietary habits, epigenetics tells us that genetic changes are faster then we originally thought so adaptations to specific foods are expected, even in short time span.

I hope this is true...if it is I get to eat a lot of cheese! Dutch.