I get this question/statement a lot: “Did cavemen eat bread?”… “Bread is bad because cavemen didn’t eat it.”
Well, actually this isn’t quite true but it also depends on what you believe bread is or was as a food. When man found wheat, man rubbed wheat between stone, added water, made a paste and let it dry in the sun. The first ‘bread’ was born. That’s a long way from today’s Wonder Bread.
The next step was the fermenting process. Yeast came as early as 3000BC with the Egyptians (Oh, and Beer appeared around the same time).
Grains (not necessarily not refined sugars, gluten, or HFCS) have been around since the dawn of time.
And, I will continue to eat and drink them.
Bread is mentioned alot in the Bible too; so if Jesus ate bread and fish, that is good enough for me! I just don’t eat it much because it is a trigger food for me (I could eat ALL the rolls at O’Charleys!!)! So it is better for me to have none; however, I don’t think it is evil to eat it.
Ha that is the best thing I have read… “If Jesus ate bread and fish that is good enough for me.”
Umm, wheat grows, doesn’t it?
And fries are potatoes and they are grown. It is all in how it is prepared….
While I do agree that some people have a sensitivity to carbs it is not on the levels that claims are made.
Carbs get blamed left and right for the health problems in America and I will give you that people are eating fries but take a moment to think about what they are fried in. A 169gms of potato’s 110 calories. 169gms of french fries, deep fried in oil has 539 calories.
That doesn’t mean fat is bad but I would pick a better culprit wouldn’t you.
What about a whooper…oh wait heavy on fat.
Well a pizza is…oh yeah covered in carbs and fat.
Alright alright bacon chili cheese fries…Oh snap carbs and LOTS AND LOTS OF FAT AGAIN.
It kills me that people really think bowls of cereal are what is doing our country in or potato’s.
Overeating and sitting on our butts for the win.
I love it! A lot of misconceptions about this topic. Thanks for keeping that pendulum from swinging too far in the other direction, Leigh!
I posted this on Health Ranker (hope you don’t mind). If anyone else is signed up on health ranker, I encourage you to add your vote to the ranking.
http://www.healthranker.com/Food_Nutrition/did-cavemen-eat-bread/
Hey Mike,
Thanks a lot! What a neat site that is, going to take a closer look.
Well, this issue is a little more complicated than that. There is no evidence that man rubbed the wheat between stones until about 10,000-12,000 BC. However, our genome is virtually unchanged in the last 40,000. Now, if you grant the proposition that man evolved, it’s just simple commonsense that what is healthy (or not healthy) is solely a result of our evolution. Furthermore, archaeological studies show that when man transitioned from a hunter/gatherer lifestyle (little to no grains) to a agricultural (lots of grains) that various morbidities greatly increased.
For me, what this means for grains is at the very least you probably shouldn’t make them the dominant food group in your diet as the USDA recommends. But is anything going to happen to you if you eat a serving or 2 or 3 a day (as opposed to the 6-11 from the USDA)? Probably not.