As hunters and gatherers weren’t fruits the only source of carbs. Since wheat and rice were only cultivated after the agricultural revolution and we hardly had those (correct me if I am wrong on this point).
It wasn’t only fruits. Early man actually got a considerable portion of his energy via carbs in the form of tubers and starches.
Here’s a recent article from Harvard on it where they looked at the oral microbiome of a 100,000-year-old Neanderthal.
The mere fact that humans can survive to childbearing age on basically any diet means we weren’t “built” for any specific diet, we were built to survive on basically anything.
For what it’s worth, for pretty much all of recorded human history, the majority of calories came from cereals. The dietary health problems we have today are based very largely simply in overconsumption of calories in general.
Human beings are able to thrive on a wide variety of diets. There is a tribe in Africa that gets the majority of its calories from pure honey, and they have zero heart disease, zero obesity, etc.
The modern problems are:
Too many calories too easily available too much of the time.
Not nearly enough activity required to survive on a daily basis.
If we all moved like Hunter-Gatherers and had lean seasons like Hunter-Gatherers, we’d be fine basically no matter what we ate.
I think the real problem is processed and refined carbs, not just carbs in general.
Although I do think the average American eats too many carbs for their level of activity. There is nothing wrong with carbs as long as they come from primarily whole food sources and the proportion that you are consuming is appropriate for your body composition and activity level.
There are many reasons why this is though. To include false and biased marketing as well as vast miseducation on nutrition.
It’s important to remember that the agricultural revolution was a long time ago. Humans have changed a lot since then.
Think about how much a cow, a pig, a chihuaua, or an ear of corn has changed in 10,000 years. Humans haven’t changed quite that much, but we have adapted to some degree to human-cultivated foods.
I believe your question isn’t correctly phrased. Because what do you consider large amounts of carbs? You probably have got people from all around the world, in this sub, so your question has a different meaning to each of us.
The way you’ve phrased it looks like you’ve got a bias against the consumption of grains. The consumption of whole grains has been proven over and over again to result in a positive health outcome.
Now, if you are speaking about processed food, things change, as the outcome is now inversely related.
As with everything, common sense always prevails, and to consume a large % of your daily calories from any one food is a mistake that in the modern world is easily avoidable with a bit of effort.
My comment is a generalization of course, but unless you’re being seriously anal about it, it should answer your very generic question.
About 5 years ago, I tried to lose weight using the highly-recommended “CICO” method. I ate a 500 calorie per day deficit for about 14 months. I lost weight exactly like all the trackers said I should, but as the months went by, I felt progressively more tired, cold and hungry. I just accepted that as the price for losing weight.
After 14 months, it got so bad… literally the worst I have ever felt, and I didn’t like my weak skinny body anymore than I liked my pudgy dadbod. I found out through several DEXA scans that 1/3rd of the weight that I lost was muscle, and you could tell it by looking at me.
As it turns out, I was not only starving my body of calories, but also nutrition. I totally bought into the “calorie is a calorie” idea, so I didn’t worry to much about what I ate as long as I met my calorie goal for the day. What I was eating was mostly very low nutrient density carbs. I had meat and veggies on occasion, but certainly not on a regular basis. All of this lead to several doctor verified nutrient deficiencies and muscle loss due to inadequate protein intake.
I have since then switched to a diet that maximizes nutrient density. I no longer count calories or track anything. I just eat the most nutrient dense foods that I can find (most of which are NOT carbs), I eat until I’m full, and then I stop. I’ve never been healthier than I am now, my body composition is fantastic, I’m killing it in the gym, and I never feel tired on hungry. My testosterone also doubled.
So… TLDR; your body has a basic need for nutrients, and getting complete nutrition from a mostly-carbohydrate diet is really difficult.
Given how common diabetes and pre-diabetes are today, I kind of doubt it. The rates really exploded after the low-fat/high-carb recommendations came out in the 90’s.
I’ve also noticed that on shows like “Alone” where people have to live as hunter-gathers for a while, there simply are not many carbs available to them. They can find some berries and the occasional tuber but, for the most part, what people can find to eat is vegetables , fish, shellfish and game. It seems like maybe our ancestors didn’t evolve to deal with tons of carbs, except during seasonal spikes. I’m not suggesting carbs are inherently unhealthy but anything taken to far will become unhealthy.
I suspect we’re all eating too many carbs and those carbs are too simple.
As children yes. But over time stress, inflammtion, excessive lipolysis/free fatty acids, and presence of polyunsaturated fatty acids, etc inhibit the ability of the mitochondria to metabolize glucose. This can lead to an inability to deal with high amounts of carbohydrate consumption unless the problems are addressed
its all the calories in the modern diet and i do think there to many carbs in today’s diet because of sugar cut down on the sugar helps a lot i eat 200grams of protein 120 grams of carbs and 120 Grams of good fats and i workout and have found that is more than enough carbs to not feel rundown after workouts
The China Study by T. Colin Campbell is the best, most non biased place to start.
NutritionFact.Org as well
I support any diet that makes you feel healthy and feeling your best. It’s such a personal decision and everyone has a right to choose what they put into their bodies.
Not sure why this got so much hate, but truly, just like wow.
Yes. But we were also built to die at 35-40 years old. You’re supposed to overeat when there is enough fruit to do so, get fat, and burn the fat so you don’t starve in winter. If you aren’t also starving in winter and just stay fat, it’s a problem. This podcast has a pretty awesome evolutionary explanation at 1:17:15
People have been eating grains for a very long time. Remember that these plants exist in the wild and could be harvested and eaten before they were cultivated.
A good example of this is the history of beer. It’s been around for a while. That means people had access to considerable amounts of grain. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/223/beer-in-the-ancient-world/
We are starch machines.
3 million years of evolution has designed us to eat whole plant foods and meat when available.
To this day, there are several indigenous tribes that still rely almost entirely on tubers, berries, and a little meat.
We lost our ability to synthesize our own vitamin c hundreds of thousands of years ago because it was so prevalent in our body. We are also able to make our own cholesterol specifically because it wasn’t very common from ( predictable sources ) in our diet.
Coprolites, or fossilized poop, demonstrates that the average prehistoric human at almost nothing but starch.
Nope. That’s why so many people are fat now. Carbs were hard to come by and great for hard working hunter gatherers that were always in danger of starving. Easy to store as fat. Now we do little work and are surrounded by easy access carbs. High protein/fat diet plus veg is ideal especially now.