Food as we know it today has undergone so many changes since the beginning of mankind. What people eat in all places and times depends upon who they are (religion/ethnicity), where they lived (city, urban, rural, countryside), and how much money they had (the wealthy folks generally had more choices than the poor). In primitive days, food evolved and matured naturally with all their nutrients and flavors still intact but today most of the foods we eat are chemically enhanced with artificial flavors.
Food in the early days were free of chemical preservatives and colors, they were grown in the outdoor and exposed to the sun which made them richer and healthier. It is also interesting to note that a lot of the food back then was eaten raw for thousands of years. The food enzymes and nutrients were unharmed but at some point, cooking was discovered and food historians generally believe that the first cooking method was roasting over an open fire. One of the positive effects of the use of heat back in the days was that heat helps to release protein and carbohydrate as well as break down fibre. Cooking increases the nutritive value of many foods and makes edible some that would otherwise be inedible. Improved health must certainly have been one result of the discovery of cooking.
The use of fire in food preparation made many parts of plants that were inedible easily digestible and this resulted in a great increase of plant food supply. All of the major domesticated plant foods, such as wheat, barley, rice, millet, rye, and potatoes, require cooking before they are suitable for human consumption. In fact, in a raw state, many plants contain toxic or indigestible substances or anti-nutrients. But after cooking, many of these undesirable substances are deactivated, neutralized, reduced, or released; and starch and other nutrients in the plants are rendered absorbable by the digestive tract.
The earliest method of getting food was through hunting wild animals and gathering food from wild plants and the healthiness of the diet was very different compared to what we have in today’s world. Recent research suggests our ancestors may have lived well into their 70's because they were eating healthy diets high in fruits, vegetables, lean protein and healthy fats. In any case, they didn’t even have any alternative because this was all that was available. More so, they hardly suffered from the diet-related chronic illnesses that are common today. African hunters and gatherers ate mainly wild vegetables (roots and leaves), with some meat and fish and seafood and eggs. However, as the climate changed and the Sahara Desert gradually took over the grasslands, it got harder to get food and so some African people began to farm some of their food.
Although, the hunter-gathering way of getting food was easy, it could not be sustained for a long time. As the climate began to change, a shortage of wild food sources began to threaten this well know and widely accepted method of getting food. Increase in population also brought about the demand for more food that could not be harvested in the wild.
With all these changes and development, a new way of acquiring food needed to be created or the very existence of the human race would face the devastating problem of starvation. There had to be an innovation in food harvesting and processing. The gradual transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle toward cultivating crops and animals for food led to the shift to agriculture. Agriculture may have required more time and energy than hunting and gathering, it undoubtedly provided a more stable and abundant food supply.
Due to the arrival of technology and other economical and geographical factors, the process of growing and preserving food has been greatly compromised in our present day. In the early days of agriculture, the process of farming was not manipulated by homogenization or pasteurization. Animals were not bred to grow faster and cheaper and plants were harvested fresh so their full nutrient and value was maintained. Foods were stored by way of drying or fermentation that increased good gut bacteria.
Back then you didn’t have to worry whether food was organic or inorganic because they didn’t use synthetics to produce the finished food products and they were not shipped for long distances and stored repeatedly. Today, a lot of what we consume today as food has been refined and processed. We now have High fructose corn syrup in the majority of processed foods and sodas. We consume food with High glycemic effect (refined starch raises blood sugar fast) and at least 20 times as much Omega 6 as Omega 3. (Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are essential to the body to maintain certain functions and to aid in keeping us healthy. Most sources of omega-6 fatty acids can be found in the food we eat in our daily diets, while omega-3 fatty acids may be taken as a supplement. Certain research says that too much omega-6 may lead to or increase the problems of certain medical conditions, along with depression. Omega-3 plays an important role in reducing different types of inflammation, while Omega-6 can often cause the inflammation to become even worse).
Before the introduction of the modern technologies that is used in the cultivation and preservation of foods, any sweet food like root vegetable) provided nourishment but today, artificial sweeteners are added to some of the things we eat everyday which upsets our metabolism and seem to alter gut bacteria. Naturally-occurring vitamins, absorbable minerals were the characteristics of the kinds of food that was eaten in the days of our ancestors. The state of what we consume today has become so harmful to our health that even the word “Enriched” that is greatly advertised as part of a food component can mean that a few synthetic vitamins and cheap minerals have been added into it.
Also, the only beverages that was available then were water and herb tea but today, besides milk: coffee, sweetened coffee drinks, sodas, sweet juices, alcohol and energy drinks has become part of the food consumption of most people. Even water that is perceived as the safest of all and was once free of manmade chemicals has not been left out of this compromise and downfall. Water supplies now carry chlorine, pesticides, industrial chemicals and even medications; an example is the Flint water.
The health problem that has arisen due to all these changes, additions and subtractions to the food we consume is innumerous and devastating. The human body is so unique that whenever we consumer something that is not right for us, our immune system works to remove this foreign and dangerous substance from our body. The more we consume these substances and the less we take in those things that should actually benefit and nourish our body, the greater danger and health problems we spell. There is a limit to how much dangerous elements our bodies can take and fight against. When we develop a lifestyle and culture of eating wrong, the fighting agents in our body will begin to weaken which will inevitable create all kinds of sickness and diseases.
It is evident that the standard of the food we eat today has fallen very short of the standard of the primitive days. Today, what we have is a very dark shadow compared to what was obtainable back in those days. This downfall has only worsened our state of health and the more we follow this path, the greater problems we will face ahead, problems that may be incurable. The only way I perceive this can be avoided is by taking a moment to learn what worked back in the beginning and adapt it to our present day. Some of those things may be impracticable today but there might be one or two that could be useful and lifesaving.
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