Nutrition : Become a 21st century hunter-gatherer

The Aspire Club, always on the lookout for effective weight management methods is presenting you a diet that will turn your world and your refrigerator upside down.

Most people are very ill-informed about what their diet should look like or how they should shop to get healthier. Instead of using chemical-saturated MRP’s, shakes and so-called healthy pills, let’s turn the clock back a couple hundred of thousands of years and take a look at how our ancestors actually fed themselves.

Back then, mills and processing plants didn’t exist so the food that cavemen ate was ultra-fresh and 100% unprocessed. This guaranteed that important nutrients such as minerals and vitamins were still present at the time of ingestion and that in turn these men were healthy and strong as an ox.

They literally had to fight for their food. They jumped, ducked and ran for cover when sabre-tooth tigers tried to steal their shopping carts. Their diet revolved around nuts (such as almonds, walnuts, or cashews), fresh plants, and from time to time, when they were lucky, some meat and fish. Without knowing it, they pioneered parkour and bootcamps! Research shows that they walked and ran 5 to 10 miles daily to find their sustenance. Today, it’s more like 5 to 10 meters….

Refined is not fine

I really stress that they ate animal protein from time to time only, not because they didn’t like the taste of a barbecue sirloin, but simply because it was hard and dangerous to find. Most, if not all the calories came from vegetables, nuts and plants.

Processed carbs like bread, pasta or even rice weren’t available at the time an it did a lot of good on their waistlines.

Becoming a modern-day hunter-gatherer is quite easy and affordable, especially in Bangkok, where fresh fruits, vegetables and quality protein like fish or poultry are rampant. Instead of shopping in big supermarkets like Carrefour or Tesco, why don’t you try to go out and shop with a hunter-gatherer mindset. Shoot for one of the many fresh markets in BKK.

Your typical shopping list should look a bit like this :

– plenty of LOCAL fresh fruits (mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, etc…)

– ditto for the vegetables

– peanuts, cashews, walnuts

– chicken, turkey, crustaceans, sea fish

– go easy on the carbs, try to look around and get some gabba rice: it’s whole grain, unprocessed rice with its husk. Very good because of the slow and steady energy release.

There you have it, a simple, almost primitive approach to nutrition. Going back to the basics will not only prove salutary for your weight but in the long run, you’ll become a healthier and happier person (happier? yes, happier! bad food bog your spirits down, we’ll talk about it soon) as well.

What’s your take on this ? Please share your thoughts on twitter and reach us @fitcorpasia