by
Pam Killeen
July 10, 2024
When considering the validity of nutritional information, it is essential to examine the dietary habits of past generations. A healthy diet should demonstrate long-term benefits: fertility in couples, healthy babies, absence of chronic disease and mental disorders, graceful aging, and productive seniors. In other words, the efficacy of a diet must be evaluated through the lens of historical dietary patterns and health outcomes, not short-term trends.
Geneticists suggest that it can take anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 years for our bodies to adapt to significant environmental changes, including diet. For instance, my European ancestors thrived on a diet where approximately 70% of their calories came from animal fat. Knowing this, it’s clear that adopting a low-animal-fat diet was a mistake for me and contributed to the collapse of my health back in the 1980s. Dietary misinformation is a common problem today, as many people are misled into believing that reducing animal fat is healthy, despite our ancestors’ success with high-animal-fat diets.
While it’s human nature to complicate things, complex dietary advice can interfere with good health. Millions of people, especially in North America, are suffering from poor health and deserve simple, effective guidance. Our ancestors didn’t need to overthink their food choices; they relied on generational wisdom by observing what their ancestors ate.
My approach to healthy eating is to simplify things. Mimicking the diets of healthy people, as observed by researchers such as Dr. Weston A. Price, can lead us to better health. Modern nutritional advice often stems from marketing, myths, dogma, and wishful thinking, complicating what should be straightforward. Our ancestors relied on wisdom and tradition to guide their dietary choices. Tragically, in contrast, today’s diets are often influenced by profit-driven lobbyists.
A practical way to embrace an ancestral diet is to revive the tradition of eating “three square meals” a day. Before WWII, Americans followed this pattern and maintained good health without the fears of animal fat, cholesterol, red meat, chicken skin, gravy, dairy, butter, bacon, and eggs. A typical day included a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, a lunch of meat and potatoes, and a similar dinner. [By “potatoes,” I mean a variety of cooked vegetables with butter, and “meat” encompasses all animal foods, including red meat, chicken with skin, fish, lamb, etc.]
In conclusion, eating three square meals a day kept previous generations healthy both mentally and physically. This approach is neither trendy nor flashy, but it is effective. Thus, it seems sensible to return to this simple, proven way of eating.
Pam Killeen is a health coach, author, and advocate for circadian health, with over three decades of experience in the wellness field. Her career has evolved from focusing on nutrition and natural health strategies to integrating the critical principles of circadian biology into her online practice.
She is the author of three books—The Great Bird Flu Hoax (co-authored with Dr. Joseph Mercola); Addiction: The Hidden Epidemic; and Survival of the Unfittest—which highlight her deep interest in nutrition. Reflecting on her work, she wishes she had included information about circadian practices in her writing and consultations but believes it’s never too late to start. Her website is www.pamkilleen.com.