• The Hunter-Gatherer Diet: Overview and Spiritual Implications

    edited by Alexander Becker on October 12, 2006 | Link

    [Jump directly to the outline of a hunter-gatherer diet.]

    Following a vegan diet, I consciously decide what to eat and why. The primary reason to eat vegetarian and consequently vegan is -- for me -- a matter of health. Avoiding the killing of animals to feed me was at best a secondary consideration, yet not unwelcome at all. Eating vegan is an ongoing experiment, as long as it lasts and as long as there are no superior alternatives. Whatever is beneficial to health and well-being, short-, mid-, and long term, I'll consider it and give it a try.

    I am aware of the spiritual implications and prescriptions regarding the adherence to a vegetarian, herbivore diet and the explicit advice against eating carnivorous.

    Vegetarianism: A Spiritual Imperative? Vegetarianism is a spiritual imperative for Jews today because of the many ways in which the realities of animal-based diets and agriculture sharply deviate from Jewish values, teachings, and mandates.

    And --

    Vegetarianism and Religion: Some adherents of Eastern religions, such as Mahatma Gandhi, claim that spiritual awareness and experiences are greatly enhanced on a vegetarian diet. [...] vegetarianism helps an individual to explore deeper levels of consciousness, find inner peace and establish a connection with the Divine, through such practices as meditation, yoga or whirling.

    But then again, consider this --

    The Ethics of Eating Meat: A Radical View by Charles Eisenstein: To live with integrity as a killer of animals and plants, it is necessary for me in my own life to live rightly and well, even and especially when such decisions seem to jeopardize my comfort, security, and rational self-interest, even if, someday, to live rightly is to risk death. Not just for animals, but for me too, there is a time to live and a time to die. I'm saying: What is good enough for any living creature is good enough for me. Eating meat need not be an act of arrogant species-ism, but consistent with a humble submission to the tides of life and death.

    Now, based on my ongoing research and studies of various ways of eating and the results of followers of many of them, I am not convinced anymore that a vegan diet is the optimal choice regarding health and nutrition. It may still be the optimal diet for peacefulness, compassion, and achieving advanced spiritual realms although I am going to explore this topic as well. I am certainly not giving up my levels of consciousness and awareness only to indulge in meat. I do not even crave meat. I am open to eventually concede either outcome.

    The question is whether the carnivore has a different experience consciousness-wise than the herbivore. The carnivore is a predator to be sure. The carnivore is a potential hunter and has to make decisions that an all but vegetarian eater doesn't face. Does hunting and ultimately eating meat and animal produce negatively influence my state of consciousness?

    I feel attracted to the eating habits and style of the hunter-gatherer tribes. It is basically pre-agricultural eating with everything being cultivated and domesticated afterwards left off the diet. The proponents of hunter-gathering state that these post-agricultural foods are the cause of many of our civilization's diseases and pains --

    On the Benefits of Ancient Diets: For a typical Westerner at least 70% of calories are provided by foods that were practically unavailable during human evolution, namely dairy products, oils, margarine, refined sugar and cereals. These typical western foods are low in minerals, vitamins and soluble fibre but high in fat and salt. There is much evidence indicating that some of these dietary factors are important causes of common western disorders like Coronary Heart Disease, Stroke and Diabetes which furthermore appear absent or rare in populations pursuing a traditional subsistence lifestyle.

    My objective is mimicking the hunter-gatherer diet in a sensible way, I am not intending nor do I recommend to copy habits and behaviors that are obsolete from a modern nutritional point of view or that have only marginal effects on overall well-being. The challenge is to combine the best of both worlds, archaic habits and decisions on one side and modern technology and civilization on the other side.

    I am particularly interested in the archaic, the warrior's and the hunter's freedoms and advantages all within the context of our evolved cultures and high-tech civilization. The basic assumption is that modern civilization could possibly benefit from adopting some of the hunter's eating habits. After very positive experiences with the Warrior Diet, a diet which also focuses on an ancient habit, eating only once a day, it seems only natural to look at what and how is eaten in hunter-gatherer tribes.

    Outline of a hunter-gatherer diet:

    Before agriculture and domestication took over, there were --

    • no excessive starches in the diet, no potatoes, no rice, no grains, no flour, thus no dough and no bread nor pasta, no legumes either;
    • no sugar, especially no refined sugars;
    • no dairy or dairy products.

    Also, everything that was eaten could theoretically be eaten in its raw state, which doesn't mean that cooking is not allowed, it is merely a simple way to determine the edibility of a given food: If you need to process it in order to make it edible, you wouldn't eat it altogether.

    This leaves you, and me for that matter, with --

    • fruits and vegetables, berries as well as nuts and seeds;
    • fish, meat, and eggs;
    • honey.

    Oils, spices and seasonings are available and should be part of the diet. Instead of listing every conceivable exception, I'd like -- for the time being -- to allow common sense to decide whether something counts as hunted or gathered or not.

    This is an ongoing experience and while I am sure that the plan is not set in stone and definitely will evolve over time, the above outlined way of eating is, revised or not, a superior alternative to the standard western or American diet.

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