Ancestral vs. Vegan Controversy

Dr. Tom Cowan - How (& Why) To Eat More Vegetables 

I just listened to this podcast yesterday and as BGfitness podcast goes, it was chock-ful of information and interesting. They were talking about veggies, fruits nutritional habits and much more, highly recommend it, just click on the link. 

However I was testing myself on the vegan diet for about 7 years, before I switched to a very high fat, still pretty much plant based, but sprinkled with some animal foods, like butter and egg in my morning smoothie, some chicken breast and organ meats and fish here and there. Still very minimal. I am more likely a salad guy with tons of olive oil and avocados, nuts and seeds.

I was always a reader and really like getting deep into the subjects, so during this period I immersed myself into a lot of different plant based philosophies. Yeah, it is the same like in the paleo world, if you didn't know it. Raw vegan, cooked vegan, grain based vegan, no-grain vegan, high fat vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, frugivore or frutarian and all kind of other stuff. Some vegans self restrain from stimulants like coffee, chocolate, tea and all herbs, others do drink enormous amount of fruit juices throughout the day, while many eat only 2 to 3 times and consume water only inbetween. 

In this episode Dr Tom Cowan talks about vegetable consumption. How high quality vegetables and vegetable powders are good for you, how you can increase your vitality, by eating about 85% vegetables and 15% fruits and also about eating 15 different varieties every day. Ha also talks about cooked vs. raw and how some are better cooking than raw and more bioavailable. 

He doesn't really state that this is paleo or ancestral, but kind of and he gives talks during Weston A Price events so it shows where he is coming from.

We all know that eating vegetables are good for you. 15 varieties and cooked or raw ? Do we really know it ? 

On the other hand if you read for instance the 80 10 10 from Douglas Graham, his statements are also really catchy and eye opening. I don't talk about: how an apple fits perfectly into your hand kind of stuff.

More likely about the best food for the human body and how it is obtainable. A fresh, raw, ripe, organic, in-season, local fruit cannot be bad for you, can it. Add the word wild in, and sure it is not bad for you. A fruit even wants you to eat it, with it's eye catching colours and forms, the odour and taste and fantastic texture. In the tropics, every single season, there are fruits blossoming. There are 1 to 2 months, when avocados, nuts and shoots are pushing. You might eat more fat than usual with some greens at this time, but still there are superbly accessible, sweet and tasty wild fruits around too.

Eat when you are hungry, till you are full. Food has a function, but it is best when it is easily accessible, tasty and quality, so we can turn our energy into play, fun, sports and anything it interests us, not necessarily to look for more food. 

When our ancestors were hunting for example in the heat of the jungle and they spotted a fruit tree full of mangoes, do you think they continued to hunt ? I mean, what for ? You can eat 15 mangoes slowly chewing in one sitting, feel full and in 4 - 5 hours , you can do it again. When you have those mangoes, would you start looking for fresh green shoots or digging for underground starches ? Hell no !

Did you ever eat wild cucumbers ? They are growing in the jungle, choking small trees and bushes, giving 1kg or even bigger fruits. As an ancestral hunter, if you ate it, it filled you up enormously, cause it is like 1.5kg of a cucumber, but you were staying unsatisfied and hungry cause it needs more energy to get processed than the calories it provides, would you eat that again, or you would go back to that mango tree, stay there and eat until it gives you fruits. 

When having an energy bomb freely overhanging you, would you even think about digging up a manioc, sweet potato or yam ? 

Of course, this kind of thinking are only applicable for the jungle human. Probably to wonder away from the equator, not necessarily our needs, but our possibilities were much limited, so this is when probably starches, grains and seeds, greens and hunting really came into the picture. 

The question is, that did our physiology really change away from that fruit eating monkey like human , that now we need to consume, meat, fats and oils, more vegetables than fruits, fish, nuts and seeds every day while the season is max 2 months long for the hard-shells. Another catchy phrase about wondering away from the equator. When you put a lion into the zoo, do you start feeding it with grass and wheat ? Sorry lion, you got to adapt. Or the giraffe in the zoo of Norway, would you feed it with fish, cause there is no weeds available ?

Also the consumption of at least 15 different veggies a day. Probably in the presence of oils, fruits, fats, meats and fish and many other stuff. Is it good for us, are we really adapted ? We are the only single animal ever who eats a variety like this. No other animal does this ever. When you arrived to a wild papaya tree after a non-successful jungle-swine hunt, would you look for some banana-grass to make a fruit salad ? Or even if Grok caught that pig, would he go and look for a sweet potato, wild tomatoes, mint, lemon, salt and pepper, apple to put in the mouth and so ? I don't think so ! My other liked phrase: In nature, there is no sandwich ! We are the only species who do that. Eating more than 3 things at the same time and every time.

(In a BBC reportage Carbs vs FAT, we see twins going on high sugar and high fat diets and actually both are staying relatively healthy. I don't think that they had the best diets on either side with not necessarily the best choices, but it came down to the conclusion, that when you eat fat, eat fat and when you eat sugar, eat sugar. Do not mix to two. Sweat potato, rice and veggies. Fruits. Meat, lard, avocado, olives and greens. ) 

While I understand and can pull out the necessary information for my heath and also to satisfy my curiosity, for the general public, this kind of information mess is superbly confusing. 

There are in addition excellent examples in sport and vibrant health on both sides. 

However, surely I cannot see long term high performance, from long term vegan athletes. Even Scott Jurek's performance was dropping during his career and he is only 42. I mean, in ultra endurance this would be the time to pick it up, no ? Real men's age, starts at 40 !