According to food expert Michael Pollan, author of "Omnivore's Dilemma" and an advocate of returning to eating the way our ancestors ate, there is something very valuable about understanding traditional diets. In a 2007 "New York Times" article, he called attention to the fact that if traditional diets have survived the test of time, it's because the diets were doing something right to enable the people who preferred them to thrive and survive until the present time. Just as Pollan encourages Americans to return to traditional diets for better health, Americans can also look to traditional and ancient diets for more information on how to get down to a lower weight.
Ancient Instincts in a Modern World
Nutrition researchers in the 1990s noticed that Australian Aborigines, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans from the Pima and Tohono O'odham tribes in the state of Arizona all faced similar struggles with rapid weight gain and high rates of diabetes. The researchers noticed the correlation between these patterns of overweight and the modern American diet's emphasis on quickly-digestible sugary sodas, corn products, and treats such as ice cream and hamburgers high in saturated fat. Researchers concluded that people from these cultures were naturally able to quickly store calories as body fat because of past cycles of "feast and famine," when weather patterns and other factors shifted to now and then and food was scarce, which favored survival of those who could store energy for later.
Ancient Solutions for Modern Problems
Nutritionists studied what these groups of people--especially those from the Pima and Tohono tribes--had eaten decades and centuries earlier, when they had been naturally much lighter. The researchers found that the ancient diets had been rich in beans, corn, grains, greens and other low-fat-high-fiber foods that had the effect of "normalizing blood sugar, suppressing hunger between meals and fostering weight loss." Volunteers who were at risk for diabetes experimented with returning to these traditional foods, and to other foods found naturally in the area, such as mesquite beans, prickly pear cactus fruit, tepary beans, chia seeds and live oak acorns. They saw promising results.
Implications
Researchers theorized that another reason these foods had helped control weight and diabetes incidence in many of the volunteers was that the foods that were more traditional all had a high content of soluble fiber that formed edible gels, gums, mucilages and a type of starch called amylose that's digested very slowly. Because of how slowly these foods are digested, researchers said, the absorption of the foods doesn't cause wide swings in blood sugar and delays the return of hunger--useful information to know for someone looking to control an insatiable appetite. The researchers also said the same benefits can be found in today's oat bran and okra.
Okinawan Success Story
A well-known story among researchers who study the impacts of lifetime nutrition on longevity and health is the case of the Okinawan centenarians. More than 900 people living in Okinawa, Japan, who were 100 years old or higher were interviewed for a study, called the Okinawa Centenarian Study, which tried to analyze what some of the common threads had been among those who had out-survived most of their peers from different countries. One finding centered around the Okinawans' traditional habit of eating only until they were 80 percent full. This practice had meant that Okinawans remained extremely lean, with an average body mass of 18 to 22. Perhaps helping them struggle less with this practice was the fact that they habitually consumed high quantities of fiber-rich vegetables and fruits, which help you feel full faster.
More Fiber Secrets
Other statistics from this survey of the world's highest known concentration of centenarians for any country or state also revealed that Okinawans generally had extremely healthy dietary practices that likely helped them keep their weight in check. For example, they mostly had moderate levels of alcohol use and had higher intake of good fats such as omega-3's and monounsaturated fats as well as higher intakes of other fiber-rich foods.
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