Eat the whole animal
Boneless, skinless chicken and tenderloins of beef taste good, but there is more to the animal than muscle to embrace on a regular basis. As previously covered in , our hunter-gatherers ancestors consumed the entire animal from nose-to-tail and recognized the wealth of nutrients obtained from the brains, liver, kidney, heart, blood, lungs, and all other visceral organs. The carcasses and bones can also be used to make rich, nourishing, and the fat can be used to make high-quality cooking oil. The whole animal offers minerals, nutrients, and calories to properly fuel our bodies, while also respects the food source where it came from.
Eat bugs
Ingesting insects, or entomophagy, is probably completely off your radar and most likely more repulsive than eating organs. However, insects form part of the traditional diets of at least 2 billion people in the world, including individuals in Mali who hunt and eat grasshoppers. There also existed a long history of insect eating 25-50% of North American tribes.
Significant environmental benefits exist to support cultivating insects for food. They are highly efficient to produce. For example, crickets require only 2 kg of feed for every 1 kg of body weight gain, compared to the 8 kg a cow needs. Insects produce very little greenhouse gas, and can be cultivated on using very little water or land, such as an organic side-stream, which reduces environmental contamination. Insects are also a great source of fat, protein, vitamin, and minerals. Ease into the idea of eating insects by using cricket flour or cacao covered ants, which can be incorporated into your Paleo cooking.
If we evaluate the current food production system and dietary norms based on the rising levels of , the obesity epidemic, and the negative environmental impacts of farming, we can conclude that the entire system needs to change. has been shown to reduce , improve waistlines, and and insulin response. We cannot afford to not choose the foods that best serve our bodies genetically, while also protect our planet.
References
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5. Webb, E. C., and H. A. O’Neill. "The animal fat paradox and meat quality." Meat Science 80.1 (2008): 28-36.
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7. ATES, S., et al. "Performance of indigenous and exotic× indigenous sheep breeds fed different diets in spring and the efficiency of feeding system in crop–livestock farming." The Journal of Agricultural Science: 1-16.
8. Paoletti, Maurizio G. Ecological implications of minilivestock: potential of insects, rodents, frogs and snails. Science Publishers, Inc., 2005.
9. Available at: https://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3253e/i3253e.pdf.. Accessed on February 4, 2015.
10. O'Keefe, James H., Cordain, L. "Cardiovascular disease resulting from a diet and lifestyle at odds with our Paleolithic genome: how to become a 21st-century hunter-gatherer." Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Vol. 79. No. 1. Elsevier, 2004.
11. Ballard, K et al.Dietary carbohydrate restriction improves insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, microvascular function, and cellular adhesion markers in individuals taking statins. Nutr Res.2013 Nov;33(11):905-12.
