Hello, to all my classmates, schoolmates, family, friends, teachers, staff, visitors, and any former type of the latter If I may, I would like to ask you at least 3 seconds of your time. ^_^ Please like this post of mine, for the sake of my grades, and for the sake of me ^_^ I thank you if you do so, but if no, then its ok. Weve all got reasons Please like this post! ^_< ________________________________________________________________ . total words: 2,008 Bai Armie Zapphria T. Mampen. Mr. Hilarion C. Matavia Jr. G8-Acacia Social Science II PSHS-SRC July 27, 2014 Ancient Trend in a Modern World Who ever knew that a diet could be so complicated? The Paleolithic age, as we know it, is by far the longest, beginning some (circa) two million years ago to coincide with the first evidence of tool-making and ending around 10,000 B.C. to coincide with the end of the last ice age (Pleistocene epoch). It begins with the earliest human-like behaviors of crude stone tool manufacture, and ends Earth has changed and evolved over the past million years. And not only the flora and fauna, the fungi, the other organisms, the differently unique structures, and the surroundings on it changed, but so as well as us, the humans, who inhabit it. It has greatly altered us, not only through the physical adaptations and developments, but also through the agricultural, medical, and technological advancements that happened, and is still happening, until this day. A few days ago, I was searching through social media like YouTube, Google, and Facebook for interesting things to read. I don’t know; anything interesting will have been good to read during that time. It was a Friday night. I was exhausted, and very much in need of good things to read or watch, or even just look at. It was in order for me to stop thinking about too much and to cool down my head just for a bit. “School was strenuous, but I did learn a lot, and it sure was fun!” I thought to myself. Then, through my phone, I stumbled upon a Facebook page called “The New Yorker”. It sounds familiar, and I’ve acquired a exhilarating feeling that tells me to go to that page. And so I did. And yes, my instincts were right. The page was a social page for the magazine, The New Yorker. Then I came to realization: This was the page that our teacher of ours recommended to read. The page was full of many excellently-made articles, such as “Gaza: How Many More Deaths Will It Take?”, “Query: a new board game for the age of Google Autocomplete”, and “A Procrastination Gene?”. But there was this one article that caught my eye. And it was “How the Paleo Diet got Trendy”, written by Elizabeth Kolbert. In the first paragraph of the article; or in other terms the introduction, Elizabeth states that she puts her family on a paleo-diet. And for breakfast, her children get eggs and sausages, and if they want to eat more, they can add up their sausages, but not add the usual cereal-and-toast menu; eating of any of these kinds of food were restricted. This one intrigued me very much, and left me questioning as to what the composition of the paleo-diet truly is. The children did “go with the flow”, and with happy faces as well. And so I continue reading the article. It seems that the Paleolithic diet—or “paleo”, represents a new yet very old form of eating (LOL, the irony) which is confined to the genera of food available in the course of the pre-agricultural days. In short, the diet focuses on food we humans can eat before the days when agriculture was made to existence. I’m guessing that wouldn’t be very much, because that would just consist (according to Sarah Ballantyne, author of the book “Paleo Approach”) meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Yes, it’s very true; there were many food that were not yet available for eating before the invention of agriculture. I can very much agree on that, since many of the foods we eat come from the process of agriculture. According to John Durant, author of “Paleo Manifesto”, human flesh can even be included in the diet (But don’t worry, it’s not recommended or obliged at this point, so you’ll be fine. XD) However, based on my observations, the vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds might not even be considerable in being part of this diet. Aren’t many of them made by agriculture though? Or are the “vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds” that the paleo diet describes the ones that grew without help of agriculture? The list of foods that weren’t paleo, however, were way much longer: it includes wheat, corn, rice, pseudo-cereal grains like amaranth and quinoa, legumes, sugar, most vegetable oils, and anything that has corn syrup, or artificial coloring or flavoring, or preservatives; components of what we humans nowadays usually eat. That is a lot, considering the fact that some of these are needed in our bodies, as much as other paleo-foods are required to be consumed and taken in order to maintain balance of good nutrition. In another part of the article, she mentions that the usual peanut-butter-and-jam-sandwich her children packs for lunch, since it isn’t allowed in the paleo diet, thus, her preparing and changing the lunches of her children. Deciding on what to eat in a paleo diet is very hard, since the people before didn’t leave much evidence on what they eat as of the moment, but using their bones and their fecal matter, we can find out the components of what they eat, and eventually, what they feed onto as well. In my opinion, this process is truly hard, and yes, it will take a long time, but for us to learn more, this process must be done. Fortunately, this process is turning out to be successful. But even so, food composition is only one problem at the tip of the spear. The article mentions that we also have to deal with paleo fitness (throwing out your clothes is one way) , a paleo sleep contingent (a very hard process where you have to sleep using blackout curtains, black tinted glasses, and no mattresses), and paleo parenting (eating your own placenta is nice… or maybe not). Of course, who wouldn’t forget paleo hygiene? Not using shampoo and soap and instead using a bacteria coat seems legit (sarcastically speaking…). The ways of everyday living before are very different compared to now, so it must be very hard in adapting to this new change as you undergo through the paleo diet. Agriculture was a big step forward in human advancements, but was also a very big step backwards. It was very helpful to us, yet there were also some few setbacks. Agriculture, in my opinion really helped us in advancement. Domestication was done to animals and plants, which drove the supplies of food to increase. And these in turn allowed them to think more, and not only about feeding their selves; they learned to become merchants, priests, negotiators, bookkeepers, etc. They learned to build towns and cities as well. Innovation in math, science, writing, and metallurgy occurred, and adding all up, a major step was made. This is very amazing to know. All of this advancements happened just because of one thing: agriculture. This is very important for us to know. Because, in the first place, who would know that many of these advancements started all from the very first farmers who only scratched sticks on dirt? But still, side effects couldn’t be avoided. Because of agriculture, there were also physical deformities that occurred on us humans. To those who did farming, their height lowered approximate 3 inches. In fact, it was only during the 20th century wherein the height of Europeans was the same height as the cavemen. Can you believe that?! Imagine how long it took for us to regain that height. Wait, only the Europeans were mentioned in the article to have grown in height. So that must mean we (Asians) are still not back to our supposed alleged heights? Well, unless further information is given, we can approve of such statement. Another one of the effects that happened to humans—farmers specifically, are that they are more sickly; they have worse teeth (based on an analysis from the Near East), and they suffered from increased rates of anemia and other infectious diseases. It’s a pity; those who made very big marks on the history of agriculture had to suffer these diseases and illnesses. But then again, even if the humans have already recovered from the “height loss” and the “infectious disease transmission” thing, another problem arose: humans not only are becoming taller, but also wider; cases of obesity, hypertension, fatty-liver disease, Type 2 diabetes, and other familiar diseases have soared these past few decades. Hopefully, one day, the rates of these diseases will somehow decrease. Otherwise, your chance of dying because of a “mismatch disease”(a nickname Daniel E Lieberman, a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard, and the author of “The Story of the Human Body”, gives to diseases like Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and the like) is quite possible. Back to the main topic. Elizabeth mentions in a different part of the article something about going to a nearby grocery store full of an estimated 40,000 different brands and items (Yes, quite plenty, I suppose), True, our Paleolithic ancestors would very much be baffled and confused as to what in the world those colorful wraps of plastic cellophanes and cardboard boxes would contain (Which could possibly be candy bars or cereal), but even if we put them in the produce section, a.k.a. the fruits, veggies, other meats, etc. section, they’d be as baffled as when they were at the section before. This is because of domestication: they changed at a genetic level, through generations of selective breeding, to accentuate traits that can benefit us humans (based from a post by google services); Think our normal avocado today. Now, who would have thought that there was a time that seed was so big, only little flesh was present? The paleo diet seems to somehow challenges away many precepts of nutritionists, starting from red meat and whole grains. “Whether or not agriculture was the worst mistake in the history of the human race, the choice once made, was made for good.”, Elizabeth states. She also mentions that “With a global population of seven billion people, heading rapidly toward eight billion, there’s certainly no turning back now.” Now I understand why we need agriculture so badly, and somehow also need to push it away. The problem about it is its effects. It can trigger many different types of changes on us. And many of those, well, we don’t want it. However, because of rapid population rise, we can’t help but continue this agriculture of ours. We need it after all. Everything is so clear now. Now, let’s go back to what we were talking about. There are many rules that are imposed as to what to eat or not to eat in many cultures around the world, like the Jews (kashruth), the Islam (halal and haram foods), Hindus people (not allowing beef, or just not eating any meat at all), and many other cultures. “Food taboos from virtually all human societies” a survey in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine” studied and observed. The point here is, that this is an example of the paleo diet, and how it works: there are many food prohibitions. The most surprising and good part for me was at the end, when the children were asked at the end of the week as to what they have learned. I did not expect the answer of one of them, which is “We should eat more liver”. That really made the article end well. Overall, the article was very well-made and truly great to read. It was very interesting and informative as well. It’s a 10 over 10 for me. This was a very good way for me to express my opinions about this article. Thank you for the time. I hope this is not the last time I do something like this. Thanks for listening! (Or reading, to make things clear.) “I guess we can all say that somehow, a remnant of ancient history lies within us. Oh look! There’s actually a trend going on about it!” #ThisIsNotAnAssignment #lol #Coincidence tags: Carl Angelo Lustre Marcelo Manuel John Cayanong Erika Alocada Kier Anndrei Patawaran Daniel Angelo Reyes Mirador Aira Claire Caballero Ayn Lachica Milj-ann Suarez Medel Kaye Catipay Jelline Rabanal Dyle Lentija Ledylg Gail Fornan Greg Norman Millora Chester Joquino Pacetes Kate Nicole Pedroso Kevin Riggs Gacilos Iris Coleen Ysobelle Valdevieso Fern Macarimbang Maye Angelene Belinario Jericho Portez Pearl Angel May Alcon Princess Magnayon Leandrey Solacito Fantilaga Elyzah Parcon Datz Meditar Carl Angelo Juan Carlos M. Urbano Jesse Depra Buenavides Shevvie Belle Francis Ian Kim Tadiaman Jeremy Renz Arabaca
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 14:19:17 +0000
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