genetics

I’m not advicating stereotypeing but suggesting this- Can a person’s ancestry have an effect on body composition and natural diet? I’ve been recently studying a little anthropolgy and human biology and realized that different diets may work for different people because of what kind of people they are. I’m of Northern Europian decent. People who lived in this area would have had to alter their diet to be more like Neandertal’s diet. Meaning they may have had to eat more protein, though not exclusively protein like Neandertal is believed to have eaten. Most likely they ate a lot of fish, small game, and green cold weather vegetables. This diet seems to have a postive effect on me and correlates with what I’m getting at. Now Northern Europians are not the only peoples who may have had a diet like this, I think Eskimos and cold islanders like the Japanese benefit from similar diets. Am I way off base? Does anyone have any information supporting or debaseing my theory?

Many people have specualted that. In fact there are several books on the subject. One of which is eat right for your type. The problem is most Americans cannot trace their lineage. It is as simple as my peps are from x therefor I eat y. There are also other genetic stuff that enters into that equasion as well. If you hav found something that works for you then you are set. If not keep looking till you do. Peace, k

I see what you are getting at, but there is one problem, people are mutts. So how do you decide what diet you should use if you have a little of this and a little of that in you. I know what you mean though. Fortunately for me I am full blooded Italian born and raised in Rome. I use a cleaned up version of the Mediterranean Diet but high protein. I dont eat pasta nearly as much. This works very well for me and I have the chest hair and greasy look to prove it

Yes you are correct. It is hard to determine which diet is best for you though when you are a typical mixed breed american but there are indicators

I fully understand your “mutt” point. I’m a Northern Europian mutt though so I don’t have too much variation. I also believe that humans don’t have that much genetic variation and what is good for one of us is most likely good for all of us. But, I do believe that the staples in our diet can be specific for our lineage. Basically I think that if we are not so much mutts then we may benefit from a higher abundance of certain foods. I’ve noticed fish as a source of protein is probably favorable for most human beings. I’m beginning to beleive it may have been one of the number one sources for all human types.

“The Metabolic Diet” has a lot of the info that you’re looking for in it.


However, just to balance the discussion out a bit, you can find examples of people who have eaten their own “ethnic” diet and not done very well on it - the classic example being the Japanese. They ate their fish & rice for centuries and remained small with bad teeth. Then after the war the Occupation made it a rule to have a bottle of milk in the school lunch and they started getting taller and suffering from less osteoporosis, etc. Things have continued to progress since then with the introduction of more beef and fruit from abroad. So at least in this case getting away from the traditional eating patterns has resulted in marked benefits.