A little while back I wrote a post entitled “Feet on ground.” It was meant as a reminder, mostly to myself, about not getting caught by the paleo hype, if such a hype exists.
My experience and observations of the people around me, is that many (by this I mean more than one would think, but it’s not a great number) people who live non-paleo lives, who eat lots of grains and low fat products, still seem perfectly fine.
As some commenters suggested, this might be just an illusion. The effects of far from optimal diets become increasingly pronounced with increasing age. However, I must still admit that there are several people I know, that surprises me with regards to their health, even old people.
Admittedly, Norway is far from being the worst when it comes to diet and health. We are in general grain based, but we are still far from USA or UK, where things are truly bad.
But, I’m rambling. What I wanted to say, was that I’ve found a very subjective and entertaining way of getting a feel of how deteriorating a modern western lifestyle can be. This thought experiment can be done anywhere, but it might be easiest where people wear little clothes.
When in a place where there are lots of ordinary people (non paleo people) try to remember all those nature shows (best are from BBC and Human Planet is highly recommended, oh and David Attenborough rules) where you’ve seen human tribes living traditional lives.
The slender yet muscular fit looking people – of the type that climbs high trees and goes through much pain just for some honey, or that hunt lions on foot with a wooden spear – that likely come to mind, are likely nude or at least severely underdressed for a tea party, unless you are thinking of Inuit, Lapps or someone similar. |
| Too much fat, and too little muscle |
The lack of visual muscular fitness, often combined with poor body posture, surprises me more than the overweight.
