Stone Age Diet - this is a diet which we all should follow

From DoctorMyhill

Our gut evolved in harmony with the environment

Human beings evolved over millions of years eating particular foods. Neanderthal man was a carnivore and only ever ate meat, fish and shell fish. More recently Paleolithic man expanded the diet to include root vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds which he could scavenge from the wild. It is only in the last few thousand years since the Persians, Egyptians and Romans that we began farming, and grains and dairy products were introduced into the human diet. A few thousand years from an evolutionary point of view is almost negligible. Many people have simply failed to adapt to cope with grains and dairy products and it is very likely that these foods cause a range of health problems in susceptible people.

Modern studies on ancient tribes who continue to eat a Stone Age (paleolithic) diet show that these people do not suffer from diabetes, obesity, heart disease or cancer. If they can survive the ravages of infectious diseases, childbirth and war wounds, then these people live healthily to a great age.

I am coming to the view that whatever your medical problem may be, or even if you simply want to stay well, we should all move towards eating a Stone Age diet based on vegetables, nuts, seeds, meat, fish and eggs. Recent Western diets get 70% of their calories from wheat, dairy products, sugar and potato and it is no surprise that these are the major causes of modern ill health such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and degenerative disorders.

Traditional Chinese diets have no dairy products, no gluten grains, no alcohol and no fruit.

The principles and the practice of the Stone Age diet

There are five aspects of modern Western diet and gut function which commonly cause symptoms from irritable bowel syndrome to fatigue. These are:

High carbohydrate intake - this is probably the largest single cause of modern diseases such as hypertension, obesity, syndrome X, heart disease and cancer
Food allergy
Toxins in the diet (lectins naturally present in foods; artificial additives, colourings, flavourings; artificial sweeteners; pesticide residues, plasticiser residues, etc) social chemicals (alcohol, caffeine, tobacco etc)
Fermentation of food instead of digestion - see Fermentation in the gut and CFS
Poor digestion of food due to low stomach acid - see Hypochlorhydria and poor pancreatic enzyme production - see Pancreatic exocrine function

The Stone Age diet tries to address the top three problems at the same time, since they often co-exist in the same patient. This is the diet I like all my patients (including me) to eat long term. This is because it is the evolutionarily correct diet and by eating this we can avoid long term health problems and postpone degenerative conditions. I would settle for getting my Parkinson's disease when I am 120!

As a general principle it is important to remember that:

Carbohydrates (CHO) tend to cause fatigue, even in "normal" people. We should be eating protein and fat in the day and saving carbohydrate (CHO) until the evening, when it helps sleep. At present Western diets are completely upside down because we eat cereals and toast at breakfast, sandwiches at lunch and meat in the evening - it makes you feel tired in the day and wakes you up at night!
Food allergy is a common cause of many symptoms such as irritable bowel, asthma, mood swings, headache, arthritis, allergic muscles and of course fatigue. The commonest offenders are grains, dairy, yeast and toxins in the diet.
Chemicals in the diet inhibit enzyme systems and slow up metabolism - this applies to drugs as well as food additives and pesticide residues, hormone residues, antibiotic residues etc.. Inshore seafish can be expected to have a mercury load. Avoid additives, colourings, flavourings etc, avoid plastic wrappings (especially if heated!) on food and try to switch to organic foods wherever possible.
Gut dysbiosis and poor digestion of foods, whereby foods are fermented instead of being digested, can also cause these symptoms.

This diet, therefore, has foods of low glycaemic index (GI) in the day and moderate GI index in the evening, it avoids the common allergens, avoids mouldy foods and foods of high fermentable substrate and is as free from chemicals as possible. Actually, in the long term I see this as a diet for life. My view is that we should be mimicking Stone Age principles. The following is the evolutionarily correct diet. Once the diet is established, we do not have to follow it slavishly, but it should make up our staple diet and ultimately the forbidden foods should become treat foods and not staple foods.

Allowed foods

The following foods are allowed both in the day and the evening

Any meats: choose from chicken, beef, lamb, pork, turkey, duck, 'game' meats such as venison, pheasant, goose etc. Bacon and ham. Salami. Liver, kidney and offal are fine too.
Eggs - an excellent source of lecithin (eat soft yolks).
Any fish: salmon, mackerel, cod, haddock (care with smoked fish which often contains dyes). Tinned fish in brine or olive oil is fine. Tinned shrimps, prawns, mussels, cockles etc.
Any green vegetables
All salads: avocado, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, celery, peppers, onion, cress, bamboo shoots etc.
French dressing: make your own from olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, mustard.
Any low CHO fruit: apple, pear, orange, grapefruit (no sugar!). Berries are excellent.
Seeds: sunflower, poppy, sesame.
Nuts: peanut, brazil, hazel, cashew, pistachio, walnut etc.; nut butter spreads, tahini (sesame seed spread).
Use cold pressed nut and seed oils liberally such as sunflower, olive, sesame, grapeseed, hemp. linseed, rape and so on.
Soya products
Oats and oatcakes - but do not eat for breakfast as likely to cause CHO craving
Spices and herbs: chilli, cumin, ginger, coriander, pepper, cloves etc
Herbs, salt (ideally Solo - a sodium reduced sea salt), olives, pork scratchings

Allowed drinks in the day

Bottled or filtered water
Herbal teas: redbush ("rooibosch", "11 0'clock tea"), rosehip tea.

In the evening you can eat all of the above, plus modest amounts of higher GI foods:

Rice and potato e.g. rice cakes or puffed rice from health food shops.
Root vegetables - carrots, parsnip, turnip, celeriac
Specific grains: millet, buckwheat, sago, quinoa.
Small portion of high carbohydrate fruit: banana, grapes, melon.
Dried fruit: sultana, apricot, prune, raisin, fig, date, etc.
Pulses: lentil, butter beans, chick peas, flagolets etc
Mixture of nuts, seeds, dried fruits
Arrowroot flour: for thickening gravies
Diluted fruit juice: Grape juice, pineapple juice, apple juice, tomato juice - best drunk diluted.

Be careful with fruit! Fruit is high in sugar in the form of fructose. In some people this interferes with the mechanism by which the liver corrects low blood sugar thereby making this problem very much worse. See Hypoglycaemia - the full story and fructose intolerance.

Most foods from packets and tins will have hidden additives, so avoid these. Be careful with sausage which contains rusk.

ALL OTHER FOODS ARE FORBIDDEN!!! - this means no tap water, tea, coffee, chocolate, alcohol, wheat (bread, biscuit, cake, pasta, pastry), rye (Ryvita), corn, dairy products (milk, butter, cheese, yoghurt, dried milk), vinegar and sugar. Try to avoid drugs and medicines, many of which contain fillers of corn, lactose, colourings etc.

Getting Worse on the Diet

This is almost to be expected. The reasons for worsening are as follows:

Hypoglycaemia - this is the commonest reason for worsening and may take weeks to settle. There are some nutritional interventions which help greatly (see Hypoglycaemia)
Caffeine withdrawal - again common. Usually results in headache which clears in four days.
Food allergy withdrawal may cause many different symptoms. Some people report feeling 'flu like. Typically this last four days, but symptoms like eczema, arthritis, allergic muscles and fatigue can take weeks to clear. One patient with prostatism took 4 months to clear!

Meal suggestions

Breakfast

Bacon, eggs, fried tomato.
Smoked fish (kippers, mackeral with lemon juice).
Nuts and seeds with soya yoghurt (see Probiotics)

Lunch

Cold meat, fish (tinned fish in olive oil is fine), prawns, salami, smoked fish, rusk free sausage (ie 100% meat), avocado
Salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, celery, peppers etc), French dressing.
Green vegetables with nut/seed oils
Home-made soup (made from meat stock, not cubes, only with allowed vegetables).
Nuts and seeds with soya yoghurt
Oatcakes

Supper

Meat, fish or eggs, potato or rice, any vegetable.
Fruit, soya yoghurt.
Muesli made from rice flakes, millet flakes, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, fresh fruit etc (some health food shops do "gluten free" muesli with the above ingredients). Use soya milk or fruit juice to wet the dry cereal.
Puffed rice or rice cakes with soya margarine, nut butter. Oatcakes.
Buckwheat flakes.

Always remember: Breakfast like an Emperor, lunch like a King and supper like a pauper!

What to do if you are no better on the diet

Stick with it! This is the evolutionarily correct diet and greatly reduces your risk of heart disease, cancer and degenerative conditions! The three common reasons for not improving are:

Because of multiple allergies to foods (so that there is something on the diet that you continue to react to). In this case consider a rotation diet, or starting on desensitisation. See Enzyme Potentiated Desensitisation (EPD)
Because of a gut dysbiosis - i.e. the wrong bugs in the gut. Consider a gut fermentation test or Comprehensive Digestive Stool analysis to look for parasites, bacterial overgrowth or yeast overgrowth. See Fermentation in the gut and CFS
Poor digestion of foods - see Hypochlorhydria, Pancreatic exocrine function

More reasons why not to eat wheat and dairy

Problems with eating wheat

Refined wheat (i.e. white flour used to make white bread, biscuits, cake, pasta, etc) is quickly digested and has a high glycaemic index. This means that blood sugar levels will run high after eating wheat, which in the long term causes obesity, diabetes, syndrome X and heart disease. Running a high blood sugar stimulates release of insulin which is a growth promoter and is undesirable if you wish to avoid cancer.
Wheat contains gluten. This small tough molecule, especially in a person with inefficient digestion, gets into the bloodstream, where it acts as an endogenous opiate. This means that it has morphine like qualities and so in susceptible individuals will be addictive. This may cause problems such as:
Gluten endogenous opiate like activity may be a cause of symptoms in autism
Wheat may be addictive for some people and cause psychiatric problems
Endogenous opiates switch off natural killer cell activity, which may reduce resistance to viral infections and cancer.
Wheat bran for some people is directly irritating to the gut and can be a cause of diarrhoea.
Wheat contains toxic substances called lectins, which in susceptible individuals can cause haemolysis of the blood and other such damage. Indeed coeliac disease may be due to lectin damage.
Wheat allergy is extremely common. It is estimated that 40% of the population are allergic and wheat allergy may cause headaches, migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression and fatigue. Wheat allergy in the gut can also present as coeliac disease. Undiagnosed coeliac disease is a major risk factor for stomach lymphoma (a cancer)
Wheat has high levels of phytic acid. This chelates minerals, thereby preventing their absorption and puts one at risk of mineral deficiency syndromes such as anaemia and osteoporosis.
Wheat protein, gluten, is a tough molecule and readily passes from the gut into the bloodstream without having been properly digested. In some individuals this will elicit an antibody response and if it just so happens that those antibodies fit one's own antigens, then this is the basis of autoimmunity. Indeed, eating wheat has been associated with autoimmune disorders such as underactive thyroid, pernicious anaemia, Addison's disease and so on.

Problems with eating dairy products

Dairy products are foods meant for growing calves. Nature did not mean them to be consumed by humans, or even worse adult humans. Whilst dairy products are promoted for their nutritional content, such as B vitamins and calcium, actually there are great problems associated with eating dairy products:

Fresh milk contains lactose, which requires an enzyme lactase for its digestion. Only 10% of the world's population carry this enzyme and so the vast majority of people will be unable to digest lactose. Lactose intolerance can present with irritable bowel syndrome, wind, gas, pain and diarrhoea. Following gasteroenteritis, even those people who can digest lactose will develop a temporary lactose intolerance. With any gut upset, all sufferers should avoid eating dairy products for at least one week.
Milk proteins are very allergenic and allergy to milk is common. The common symptoms are catarrhal problems, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, anxiety and chronic fatigue, but allergy is the great mimic and sensitivity to dairy products can cause almost any symptom. Milk passes readily from the gut into breast milk, where it may cause colic and projectile vomiting in the baby.
Dairy allergy is the commonest allergy in children, often presenting with hyperactivity, catarrhal conditions, asthma, recurrent tonsillitis and sore throats, sinusitis, migraine and later on, premenstrual tension.
. 30% of the population make antibodies to whey protein which cross react with platelets to make them more sticky. Eating dairy products, therefore, causes sticky blood, which is a major risk factor for arterial disease.
The ratio of calcium to magnesium in dairy products is 10:1, whereas our physiological requirements are for 2 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium. Since calcium and magnesium compete for absorption, taking dairy products induces a relative magnesium deficiency. Magnesium deficiency is common in heart disease, arthritis, chronic fatigue and osteoporosis.
Milk is generally believed to be a good source of vitamin D. This is untrue. The worst cases of Rickett's occur in Asian inner city children, who avoid sunshine but have a high consumption of dairy products. Dairy products are a poor source of vitamin D. We should all be taking 2,000 i.u. vitamin D daily - see Nutritional Supplements.
Dairy products are meant for young growing calves. From an evolutionary point of view calves had to grow very quickly in order to avoid being eaten by a sabre toothed tiger and therefore dairy products contain growth promoters. This is undesirable in anybody who wishes to avoid, or indeed has cancer. In China, where there are no dairy products consumed because everybody is allergic to them, there is a very low incidence of breast cancer and prostate cancer. Anyone who is in doubt about this, I recommend that they purchase "Your Life in Your Hands" by Professor Jane Plant, who cured herself from breast cancer simply by avoiding dairy products.

If you wish also to lose weight

As a general principle I don't like my CFS patients dieting because cutting calories makes you tired, cold and depressed and you can do without those things! However, if you are extremely strict with CHO, the body switches into a state of ketosis. To burn fats in the body is a two stage process - the first stage is conversion of fats to ketones, the next is ketones to carbon dioxide and water. Both stages release energy for the body to use. However, the second stage requires some CHO - if there is none then ketones are excreted in the breath and in the urine - one literally pees out calories. This is very good for morale when every time you pee you lose calories and weight! To do this diet properly you really need to get the book "Dr Atkins Diet Revolution", which goes into detail of exactly which foods you need. Also I can supply ketostix which measure ketones in the urine and tell you if you are doing the diet correctly. Atkins permits dairy products but I recommend avoiding these. He also permits various artificial sweeteners which should be avoided. I recommend the use of Stevia, an extract of a South American plant. Also see Being overweight and how to go about losing it!

Some more principles of a healthy diet for all

Correct minerals in soil. In addition to choosing the right foods to eat, one can further improve their nourishing value. The first is that ideally these foods should be grown from a soil in which the mineral content has been corrected. Modern farming simply applies three elements, namely NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), resulting in soils which are grossly out of balance. There is a net loss of minerals such as selenium, zinc, magnesium, cobalt, copper, manganese (to name but a few) from the soil into plants, animals and humans, and out of this natural cycle.

Free from toxins. Foods must also be as free from toxins as possible, such as pesticide residues, hormone residues, antibiotic residues etc. To achieve this, buy organic as much as possible. One of the criticisms I have against organic farming, however, is they do not routinely treat the soil and correct mineral levels.

Inshore seafish can be expected to have a mercury load.

Fresh foods, unprocessed. Food which tastes good is likely to be good food. Taste is a sense which is trace element sensitive - i.e. foods which are deficient in trace elements don't taste so good. Furthermore zinc is necessary for taste buds to work and so food for the zinc deficient is tasteless. These people tend to go for salty, sweet or spicy foods to compensate and end up eating junk, thereby worsening the zinc deficiency. Most people can tell you the difference between home grown fresh vegetables and 3 day old shop vegetables. The true free range chicken is a rare beast but quite different in taste from the factory bird. This "food vitality" may be difficult to quantify but it makes it no less real!
Locally grown foods in season. As soon as food is stored, it starts to rot and loses quality. Eat fresh, whilst in season. Varying the diet with the seasons protects against developing allergies and a varied diet makes it less likely to become deficient in any one micronutrient.
Healthy fats. As a Nation we have been brainwashed into believing that fat is bad for you. This suits the food manufacturers well because fats are expensive and it is difficult to profit from them except cooking oil and margarine, which they have erroneously convinced us have health benefits.

Carbohydrates, however, can be bought cheap and sold expensive -potatoes can be bought for £100 per ton and sold for £10,000 per ton as crisps. Fat is good for you - it is a case of eating the right sort of fats.

For example, margarine is bad for you. It is artificially prepared by heating oils to high temperatures. This causes formation of trans fatty acids, which are poorly metabolised in the body. Use best quality "cold pressed, virgin" olive oil for cooking and salads. Other oils have often been heated and therefore denatured. The mono-unsaturated fats are thought to be best in protecting against heart disease.

Our Western diet is relatively deficient in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids - eat oily fish twice weekly and use a variety of cold pressed organic nut, seed and vegetable oils.

Meat. Vegetarianism is not necessarily more healthy. In fact, I encourage CFS patients not to be vegetarians - vegetarian diets are artificially restricted and so people risk picking up food allergies. It is also quite hard work to prepare and eat the right foods for optimum balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates and essential micronutrients. Proteins are essential in a diet, especially for someone who is ill or stressed. The problem with meat appears to be how we cook it (primitive man would have eaten his meat raw!). Burned fats are oxidised fats, which are full of free radicals which are damaging to arteries and possibly carcinogenic. If you do have highly cooked meats (eg roasts and barbeques), make sure you have something with it to "neutralise" the free radicals, for example, lots of vegetables. Meat which is boiled (stews, soups) does not contain oxidised fats.
Water. Drink good quality water. Spring water (direct or bottled) is undoubtedly the best. Some people with severe allergies can only tolerate water in glass bottles. Second best is filtered water (water filters should be changed regularly), with tap water a poor third. Many drinks (tea, coffee, cocao alcohol, pop) contain substances which are diuretic and make you pee out minerals. Tea is the main cause of iron deficiency anaemia in the country. Tea is high in tannin which binds minerals into insoluble tannates which cannot be absorbed. It is better to drink these beverages between meals and not with food. Instead, fruit juice (not fruit "drink") will enhance absorption of trace elements because of its vitamin C content, so drink this at mealtimes, but it must be diluted otherwise this will present a high sugar load.
Variety. Have as varied a diet as possible - everything in moderation is the key. Eat at least 8 oz of green vegetables daily. Don't forget nuts and seeds - these are one of the richest sources of trace elements and vitamins.

Four white devils

Sugar has no nutritional value but is highly addictive. Avoid it. (Read more under "Hypoglycaemia"). Avoid refined flours - for example, white flour has been stripped of the outer layer which contains most of the nutrients and fibre.
Excessive salt in prepared foods is too high - too great a proportion of one kinds of mineral (i.e. sodium) can cause deficiencies in others. Use Solo, which is sea salt for which the sodium content has been reduced and so is much closer to our physiological requirements than table salt (sodium chloride).
Avoid dairy products. Our physiological requirements of calcium:magnesium is in the ratio 2:1. Dairy products contain them in the ratio of 10:1 and since these two elements compete for absorption, excessive consumption of dairy will result in a relative magnesium deficiency. They are also highly allergenic and contain growth promoters. They are a likely cause of type I childhood diabetes. (Read more under Cow's milk allergy - a common cause of problems in children and adults.)
Avoid Preserved foods. As soon as something "dies", the decay process begins and it and loses it's goodness. So avoid such "dead" foods as those in tins and packets. Buy fresh, "alive" foods. However, high quality frozen produce is probably a close second. Help maintain what's there by cooking foods lightly. Vegetables which are boiled to death lose most of their trace elements in the water. Or if you like your vegetables done this way then you should drink the cooking water (or use it in the gravy). Eat foods as unprepared as possible - raw foods are excellent.

Choose food which has "had a life". Eat meat which has "had a life". The fatty acid content of factory farmed fish, pork and poultry reflects that of the food it eats - i.e. poor quality. Eat free range - lamb and beef probably offer the best value in this country. There is a myth that chicken is a healthy meat - if one could see the conditions under which chickens are kept and the quality of food they eat one would understand why chicken is a low quality food.

Make breakfast a substantial meal. As a general principle, proteins and fats are more sustaining, carbohydrates are stupifying. I recommend eating protein and fats at breakfast and carbohydrates in the evening. Breakfast like an emperor, lunch like a king, supper like a pauper! This is especially important for people suffering from fatigue.

In Brief

Breakfast: protein/fat (eggs, meat, nuts, seeds, fish, soya kefir)
Lunch: meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts.
Supper: lots of vegetables, some carbohydrates (potato, root vegetables, pulses) and nuts, seeds, low GI, fruit, dried fruit etc
Eat meals at regular times.
Take time over eating.
Chew food properly.
Drink water or herbal teas with meals.

Related Tests

Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis with parasitology

References

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