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Healthy Eating Habits and Ancestry - 3/5/2012 7:17:57 AM

fucktoyprincess

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When I read a lot of dietary recommendations around healthy eating, what researchers typically do is find something that is working very well in one part of the world (say the Mediterranean or France), and then simply say that following those guidelines will help you become healthier (I am not really talking about weight or dieting for weight purposes, but eating properly for overall healthiness of the body and its major systems).

But when I think about healthy food habits globally, it seems to me that different regions have very different approaches that, I think, are historically based on what was readily available in their particular environment. And I feel certain populations have actually adapted to certain diets over the thousands of years of human history. In other words, what might be healthy for one type of person because of their ancestry may not be the healthiest diet for another person. I think we are each genetically predisposed to react better to certain types of foods than others based on our ancestry.

So for example, there isn't a lot of dairy in the East Asian diet. And people of East Asian ancestry often have difficulty even digesting dairy products. And even if they can digest them, if they eat dairy, they often end up with cholesterol or other issues, that people of other backgrounds would not get from eating the same amount of dairy.

I believe the Inuit of the northern most parts of the globe subsist, in part, on large quantities of seal fat (and meat) and far less in the way of grains or vegetables - a diet which would give many of the rest of us all sorts of health issues.

People of cultural backgrounds that are predominantly vegetarian, like some Buddhists and Hindus, have issues with cardiac disease and diabetes when they consume animal protein.

Soy, tolerated very well by people of East Asian ancestry, is sometimes not as easily digested by people of other ancestry. It can lead to endocrine issues and diabetes (but doesn't seem to cause these issues for East Asians).

When people say my grandfather drank and ate butter, red meat and white bread until he died at 100, they are almost always speaking of a family member of Germanic or other Northern European background. You are unlikely to hear anyone from certain parts Asia ever say that.

Anyway, there is no research that I am aware of to support this view of mine. But I am wondering if any of you have any personal observations to share. I do know that when I adhere to a diet that more closely resembles that of my ancestry, I feel better and am healthier (for example, huge swings in cholesterol levels when I eat a diet more like my ancestors - some of which is not necessarily healthier per se, but just better suited to me, I think).

So whenever researchers come out with a discovery about the newest "super food" - I always pause and think about whether consuming that food would make sense for me, given what I know about both my ancestry, and what I tolerate well and don't. I really think what works for some groups of people will not necessarily have the same effect on other groups. Just like genetics and family history matter for health generally, I think it matters for determining what foods are healthiest for us.

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~ ftp