Forget the Paleo Diet and Try the Mioscenic Diet

It has only been relatively recently that humanity has changed its diet.

This video was originally published on NutritionFacts.org and republished with permission. NutritionFacts.org

The paleo diet has gained a lot of attention in recent years and is definitely the better choice compared to the current Western diet, but is there an even better option? While it’s true that the paleo diet mimics what our pre-human ancestors ate, it only accounts for the last 2 million of the 20 million years it has taken us to evolve to this point. If we go back further and examine the mioscenic diet of our evolutionary ancestors, we find that we evolved to be a plant eating species.

Oddly enough, one of the biggest clues that we should eat a more vegetarian diet rich in fruits, vegetables and low in (especially animal) fats can be found by looking at the digestive tracts of our hominid cousins – the great apes. It should come as no surprise that because we share a remarkably similar genetic structure, with gorilla DNA being up to 98% the same as human, we have a very similar digestive system. These cousins to humanity ingest almost exclusively on leaves, fruits, seeds and nuts. While they do sometimes eat some meat, it accounts for less than 2% of their diet. This is obviously a far cry from the current Western diet being perpetrated throughout the globe.

In order to test this theory out, researchers placed subjects on a very high fiber, vegetable, fruit and nut diet that equated to about 150 grams of fiber a day. Compared to a high starch diet or a diet that was simply low in fat, the very high fiber diet was not only more satisfying, but after just two weeks on this diet, subjects benefited from a 33% drop in LDL cholesterol, a change that normally would require the use of a statin drug. Clearly, the mioscenic diet is extremely beneficial, but if aligning yourself with your true dietary nature and seeing a drop in cholesterol isn’t enough, consider this: when fed over 100 grams of fiber, not only were there even more health benefits aside from a drop in cholesterol, but some subjects shed as much as two pounds per day on this dietary change.

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