The things that one puts into one’s body is, in my opinion, a matter that is taken all too lightly by many, many people. Even those who are conscious of the importance of knowing what they eat are often not aware of the ingredients that compose their food when they eat at restaurants, or when they purchase packaged food at a grocery store.
Considering that most Americans have no qualms about ingesting products that contain artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives, it is no wonder that America is faced with a large number of children with behavior “disorders” (or so they are diagnosed), as well as adults with multitudinous problems, from overweightness to road rage. It is unlikely that we know about even a small percentage of the mental and physical consequences people suffer as a result of their intake choices. To be fair, though, these consequences surely are not solely the result of dietary decisions, and the other principle factor, bodily activity, will be addressed later in this blog.
It is the responsibility of the individual to be aware of the ingredients he or she puts into his or her body, but it is also the responsibility of the food suppliers to present access to this information. It is fortunate that U.S. law dictates that nutritional information be available for all purchased food items, but nonetheless, there are undoubtedly many ingredients that slip through the loopholes. For example, if a cookie’s final ingredient is “other flavoring,” the consumer has no idea whatsoever what this means. Presumably, the manufacturer is allowed to state this ingredient as a means of protecting its recipe. If you care to take notice on your next visit to the grocery store, you will be astounded at the number of products that list ambiguous ingredients.
But then the consumer is faced with a dilemma. If a person wants to make dietary choices that do not involve so-called artificial or synthetic ingredients, what guidelines can be employed to ensure that this is the case? Based on bone samples retrieved from archeological digs, it has been determined that the nutritional constituency (and by “constituency” I mean “diversity,” which implies a sample of the many essential and beneficial ingredients of the many foods out there) of human dietary intake incurred a dramatic decline at the moment of the agricultural revolution, and has more or less been declining ever since. This is to say that with respect to diet, humans have never been healthier since the age of hunter-gatherers.
This conclusion makes sense. When humans began to develop agriculture, it allowed for an enormous reliance on the specific foods that they grew, which was undoubtedly more limited in diversity than what the hunter-gatherers ate. Hunter-gatherers, depending on their geographic location, were frequent eaters of fruits, vegetables, nuts, roots, fish, other seafood, and land animals. This dietary diversity allowed many nutrients to be taken in that became absent from the diets of the agriculturalists in the following some-thousand years.
So to answer the question of what guidelines may be employed to ensure a healthier diet, humans must make a conscious choice to return to a hunter-gatherer diet. This movement is dubbed MOHUGA, which is an acronym composed of the first two letters of three words: MOdern HUnter-GAtherer.
MOHUGA does not recommend that people return completely to the hunter-gatherer diet, as we have become accustomed to foods that are culinarily interesting and that suit our taste buds for a variety of purposes and occasions. This is where the “modern” comes in. The idea behind MOHUGA is that every ingredient consumed must have been acquirable by a hunter-gatherer with premium worldly access. This is to say the ingredients may be native to any part of the world. If this restriction is satisfied, then the Modern Hunter-Gatherer can do anything that he or she wants with the ingredients with regard to preparation. They key to MOHUGA is that ingredients, and only the ingredients, must have been accessible to hunter-gatherers.
You might be surprised at the number of everyday foods that are not discounted by MOHUGA. Olive oil, for example. Would hunter-gatherers have had access to olives? Yes. Would they have had access to a mechanical expeller that is used to make olive oil? No. But this doesn’t matter. As long the ingredients that go into the olive oil would have been accessible, then this food is acceptable under MOHUGA. Would they have had access to wheat? Yes. Would they have had access to the technology required to convert wheat into flour? Actually yes, but modern mechanics has made the job a whole lot easier and more efficient, and has also allowed the production of various grades of flour “fineness.” But in any case, it doesn’t matter because the wheat would have been obtainable to hunter-gatherers.
However: flour available today is often bleached and enriched. When flour ages after it has been milled, it turns white by natural oxidation, and this is referred to as bleaching. The problem for modern flour manufacturers is that the bleaching process, if done naturally, takes several weeks, which is far too long for most flour makers to wait. So, they typically speed up the bleaching process using potassium bromate and chlorine dioxide gas. Would hunter-gatherers have had access to these gaseous chemicals? No. Second, chemical bleaching such as this destroys flour’s natural vitamin E, which is replaced by a process called enriching. Would hunter-gatherers have had access to bleached flour minus vitamin E with vitamin E added? No. After all, this is not the same ingredient as bleached flour that retains its original vitamin E. So the Modern Hunter-Gatherer should take care to use unbleached, nonenriched flour, unless he or she knows that the bleaching was done naturally.
Would dairy products have been available to hunter-gatherers? Kind of. It is pretty unlikely that any hunter-gatherers in fact consumed dairy products, and this is probably because they hadn’t domesticated milk-producing animals. But does this mean that if a hunter-gatherer were driven (for whatever reason) to get some milk, that it would have been impossible? No. The problem would be finding an animal that would allow someone to milk it (which might be very, very challenging and probably extremely dangerous, but not impossible). After milk is acquired, just about any dairy product can be made from it in a totally natural way, including cheese and yoghurt, and even different milk “percentages.”
But thanks to U.S. law (I don’t mean that sarcastically), nearly every dairy product that you purchase in America has been pasteurized (assuming the manufacturer complies with legal pasteurization requirements). Pasteurization is a process of heating milk to a specific temperature (usually between 130 and 160 degrees F) in order to kill certain viruses, bacteria, molds, yeasts, etc. that can be very harmful (in fact deadly) to humans. At the same time, pasteurization kills all sorts of beneficial enzymes and bacteria, but to be on the safe side, it is probably wiser to use pasteurized dairy products. But obviously, since this process destroys certain natural elements, raw milk and pasteurized milk are not the same ingredient. Would hunter-gatherers have had access to pasteurized milk? Sure! All they’d have to do is risk their life to get the milk in the first place, pour it inside of a hollow animal horn or bowl-shaped rock, and boil it over the fire for an hour or so. So, in principle, a hunter-gatherer would have been able to acquire pasteurized dairy products.
With all this in mind, a Modern Hunter-Gatherer would have no problem eating pizza. He or she would either have to make the dough by hand using unbleached, nonenriched flour, or buy pre-made pizza crust that conformed to these standards. Top it with some tomato puree, natural cheese, olive oil, and any vegetables and meats that weren’t grown or raised with chemicals, and you’ve got yourself a delicious meal that is totally acceptable under MOHUGA. You could even wash it down with a nice wine or beer, as long the ingredients are MOHUGA-friendly (sulfites, by the way, occur naturally in most wines, and bottles sold in the US only have to say that they have sulfites if they contain more than 10 parts per million).
Why should anyone bother to do all this extra work? It all comes down to values, I guess. If you don’t value your health enough to seriously consider what you put into your body, that’s your problem (and the problem of your kids and their kids and so on, and also the problem of our public health system, and the problem of every tax payer in the country...). And this brings up the second crucial part of MOHUGA. It is not simply a diet. Hunter-gatherers did not have amazing health based only their meals. They also exercised all the time. Not for 10 minutes a day or 30 minutes three times a week. They walked, they ran, they climbed...everywhere.
Obviously, modern humans cannot walk or run everywhere they go. For most of us, it would take half a day or more just to get to work in the morning. But very few people have the mentality of driving as little as possible, although this is the healthiest mentality that we can have when it comes to transportation. We are faced with decisions all the time that would allow us to get exercise, but very rarely do most people opt for that. Take the stairs (two at a time), walk to the store, run to your friend’s house. All the time. It’s cold out? Wear more layers. It takes too long? Run. It’s raining? Wear a rain coat (or strip naked, if you can get away with it). People fall too easily into a mode of laziness that they disguise with excuses. Again, it comes down to values. If you value your health, then start being honest with yourself and start MOHUGA.
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