Ancestral Diet: Going Back To Our Roots

You are what you eat. Your food choices can significantly affect your life and health, especially if those choices are lacking in nutritional quality. This is why many people believe that most of the health problems people experience all over the world today are the result of an unhealthy diet. 

But who is to blame in this situation? 

As unhealthy food is generally cheaper, more accessible, and popularized nowadays, people often choose a huge hamburger and soda for lunch instead of buying more expensive organic foods and eating a nutritious, well-balanced meal. Fast and processed foods are rich in empty calories, which are often provided by unhealthy nutrients such as:

• Refined and simple carbs
• Saturated fats
• Trans fats

This has led to an increase in the rates and chances of various chronic diseases, including high blood pressure, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases (15). 

These rates were significantly lower in the past, which makes people wonder whether the ancestral diet is the key to optimal health.

Can consuming what your ancestors ate make you healthier and reduce the chance of modern health issues? In this article, you’ll learn more about what an ancestral diet is, what ancestral eating looks like, what ancestral diet foods include, and what the benefits of the ancestral diet are.

What Is an Ancestral Diet?

As may be evident from its name, the ancestral diet is a nutritional plan based on the foods your ancestors consumed. It may confuse some people and lead to questions such as “Is the ancestral diet vegetarian?” The answer is no, but you can try following a vegetarian variant of this dietary plan. 

The regular ancestral diet includes wholesome, natural, unprocessed, and organic foods, such as vegetables, fruits, meats, healthy fats, nuts, and seeds, and recommends avoiding industrial, heavily processed foods, sugar, fat, and alcohol. It emphasizes the consumption of food to which your ancestors would have had reasonable access. This means you need to consider seasonal and regional food differences.

So, the ancestral diet may vary, depending on the region you came from. It is reasoned that if your ancestors lived in a cold region and consumed primarily meat, fat, and dairy, your body is probably better adapted to these foods and will accept them better than some others. This is why people who choose an ancestral diet may have a better understanding of evolution, the history of food, and their own history.

What Is the Difference Between the Paleo and Ancestral Diets?

Many people tend to compare the ancestral diet with the Paleo diet and wonder if there is a difference between them. The Paleo diet or Paleolithic diet is a nutritional plan that focuses on eating foods from the Paleolithic era. It’s based on foods that were available before modern agriculture development around 10,000 years ago, which include unprocessed foods that people could hunt or gather, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, lean meats, and fish (10). 

Although this set of food is similar to that of an ancestral diet, one of the differences here is that the ancestral diet is more locally focused. Ancestral eating doesn’t mean you should eat what people ate in ancient times, it means eating what’s natural and organic, no matter what century it was consumed in. This is why it allows you to eat foods that appeared after modern agricultural development, such as dairy and grains. 

The ancestral diet is not a strict nutritional plan with a set of unbreakable rules to which you should adhere. This dietary plan is quite flexible, and its main principle is to eat healthy, organic foods. With that being said, let’s take a closer look at what foods may be the right option for you.

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Ancestral Diet Foods 

Although it’s recommended that you stick to the foods your ancestors could personally have access to, the most important thing is not to focus on what to eat specifically, but what to avoid, which are modern, processed, and industrialized foods. First, let’s take a look at what is NOT on the list of ancestral foods.

What to avoid

• Vegetable oils, such as soy, corn, canola, and cottonseed
• Refined sugar
• Processed soy and fake meats
• Refined, packaged products

In addition to the foods listed above, you should also limit the consumption of the following:

• Alcohol products
• Processed wheat products
• Fat-free or low-fat products

What to eat

Now we’ll look at the foods you can eat on an ancestral diet. As previously mentioned, you may want to stick to the indigenous cuisine of your direct ancestors, but you don’t need to limit yourself to only prehistoric foods. You can consume any type of healthy food, as long as it’s organic, natural, and eaten traditionally. Here are the foods your ancestral diet meal plan can include:

• Organic fruits and vegetables
• Wild seafood
• Grass-fed, wild animals
• Pastured chicken and eggs
• Grass-fed full-fat dairy products
• Healthy traditional fats such as lard, butter, olive oil, and avocado oil
• Fermented foods

All ancestral food is natural, seasonal, and mostly processed at home by you. It doesn’t have multiple ingredients and is usually a single, whole ingredient itself, such as fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, or seeds. Let’s take a closer look at each category of ancestral foods:

Animal products

It may be surprising and contradict the common idea spread by the media, but research shows that a large part of the calories hunter-gatherer groups consumed came from animal food, rather than plant-based foods (5). Meat was a part of the diet of hominids even 2.5 million years ago (7). 

Animal foods are among the most nutrient-rich foods. Some of the components that are abundant in animal products are difficult to get elsewhere as their counterparts of a plant nature have less bioavailability (4), which means that they are poorly absorbed or converted. These nutrients include:

• Heme iron
• Vitamin B12 (17)
• Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) omega-3 fatty acids
• Choline
• Vitamin K2
• Selenium
• Protein (19, 11)

It’s important to keep in mind that animal food is not just meat and fish. As our ancestors didn’t waste food, they ate almost every part of what they caught or hunted. Such an approach provides for a more nourishing and healthy diet. For example, bone broth and cartilaginous cuts are filled with the amino acid glycine, which helps balance out the high methionine content of meat (6). Organ meats, which are often referred to as “superfoods”, are incredibly rich in nutrients such as (2):

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K
• Copper
• Iron
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus

Vegetables

Although the dominant source (possibly up to 65%) of energy in the diet of many hunter-gatherers was an animal product (16), vegetables also played an important role and took up a large majority of the volume of the meal. Vegetables aren’t as high in calories as animal products, but they’re still nutritionally dense. They feed your microbiome and promote better digestion. 

Vegetables also offer a vast plethora of other health benefits, including better heart health, reduced risk of genetic diseases, high blood sugar, weight loss, and optimal gastrointestinal health. They are a prime source of many essential micronutrients. Some of the most health-beneficial vegetables you can consume on the ancestral diet include (22):

• Spinach
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Peas
• Sweet potato
• Beets
• Carrots
• Fermented vegetables
• Bell peppers
• Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Onions
• Cauliflower

If you want to stick to a vegetarian version of the ancestral diet, here are some of the protein-rich vegetables you can include in your menu (14, 20):

• Asparagus
• Watercress
• Spinach
• Cauliflower
• Mustard greens
• Collard greens
• Chinese cabbage
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Artichoke
• Corn
• Potatoes
• White mushrooms

Read more: 7-Day Weight Loss Low-Carb Diet: Choose High-Protein, High-Fiber, or Ultra-Low-Carb

Fruits, Nuts, and Seeds in moderation

These are often seasonal, and some of them may not be available to you geographically, but fruits, nuts, and seeds are also an important part of a well-balanced ancestral diet. The fructose from whole fruit is healthy and can be a great option for someone with a sweet tooth. The type of fruits you may consume will vary regionally. You can do some research to find out which fruits, nuts, and seeds your direct ancestors ate or just consume in moderate amounts. They include the following:

Fruits (18):

• Apples
• Lemons
• Strawberries
• Blackberries
• Oranges
• Grapefruit
• Blueberries
• Pomegranate
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Pineapple

Nuts (21):

• Peanuts
• Almonds
• Pistachios
• Cashews
• Walnuts
• Hazelnuts

Seeds (1):

• Chia seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Pomegranate seeds
• Flax seeds
• Hemp seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Sesame seeds

Grains and Legumes

Grains and legumes have long been consumed by people all over the world, but not in the way many people eat them now. Industrially baked goods and other processed grain products that are part of a modern diet are often considered to be the root cause of several health issues, including obesity and weight gain, acne, and high blood sugar. However, if you want to follow an ancestral diet as closely as possible, you don’t necessarily need to give them up completely, but you can prepare them differently. For example, you can try to follow a long tradition of sourdoughs and sprouting, which often makes grains more easily digestible and their nutrients more readily available. Fermented, soured, or sprouted grain dishes are filled with enzymes and vitamins, and the process of preparation neutralizes a lot of phytic acids that can interfere with the absorption of nutrients (23).

Dairy

If you already consume dairy products and want to follow an ancestral diet, it’s recommended that you continue to eat and drink them in their purest form. Stick to full-fat and raw dairy, including cheese, milk, and yogurt. You should choose organic and grass-fed dairy products. Avoid low-fat and nonfat versions, as they are processed and not as nutritious and digestible (23).

Health Benefits of an Ancestral Diet

The ancestral diet is focused on whole foods and bans processed and industrialized modern foods, which may promote a variety of diseases. There are many health benefits to an ancestral diet, most of which are the same as those associated with the Paleo diet. Here are some of them  (10):

Weight Loss

The modern diet is one of the main causes of high overweight and obesity rates. Junk food, sugary drinks, sweets, and other sources of empty calories could lead to weight gain, without offering any benefits to your health. The ancestral diet is well-balanced and, overall, more filling, which results in lower energy intake and weight loss. 

Improved Gut Health

A healthy gut is one of the keys to overall wellness. Following the ancestral diet may add to microbiome diversity. Due to a significant amount of fiber-rich foods, this nutritional plan promotes better digestion, which carries other health benefits.

Lower Blood Pressure and Better Heart Health

High blood pressure is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. An ancestral diet may help you lower your blood pressure and the level of bad LDL cholesterol, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease even more.

Decreased Inflammation

One of the main factors that contributes to the onset of many chronic diseases is inflammation. This process is natural and often occurs in your body. However, when it turns into chronic inflammation, this is when the tables turn. Refined sugar and grains and seed oils may add to chronic inflammation. This is why if you exclude them from your diet, as the ancestral diet recommends, you could notice inflammation decreasing and potentially lower the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and mood disorders.

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How to Start Following an Ancestral Diet

As with any other nutritional plan, the ancestral diet requires certain modifications and adjustments to your current diet. You may need some time to get used to these changes. So, here are some tips on how to gradually transition to a whole-foods ancestral diet:

• Start visiting your local farmers’ market
• Gradually substitute every food you eat with its organic version
• Establish contact with local farmers by searching for them on the internet or entering a buying club or farmer’s co-op in your area
• If you live in a house, start growing a small backyard garden
• Start cooking your meals instead of eating out
• Simplify your food by reducing the number of ingredients and spices you use for one dish
• Stop buying pre-packaged food

Best Ancestral Diet Recipes

If you’ve decided to try following the ancestral diet and your doctor or dietitian has approved this idea, you could start today. If you’re still hesitant and feel that without flavor enhancers, tons of sugar, and a long process, your meals would be plain and boring, it’s time to change your mind. These simple, nutrient-rich, and delicious recipes will make you immediately include them in your ancestral diet meal plan.

Baked Salmon with Fennel and Tomatoes

This super tasty, protein-packed, and easy-to-prepare ancestral dish is a perfect option for dinner. It’s low in salt and carbs and provides you with a great amount of healthy fat. Here’s the nutritional value of 1 serving of this baked salmon with fennel and tomatoes (3):

Calories: 398; Carbs: 5 g; Fats: 25 g; Protein: 37 g

Ingredients for 1 serving:

• 1 salmon filet (about 6 oz or 170 g)
• 1 medium fennel bulb
• Zest and juice of half of a lemon
• ½ cup of cherry tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160-180°C (320-356°F). 
2. Trim the fronds from the fennel, roughly chop them, and mix with parsley and lemon zest.
3. Cut the fennel bulb in half and then cut each half into 3 wedges.
4. Cook the fennel in boiling salted water for 10 minutes, then drain well.
5. Spread the drained fennel over a shallow ovenproof dish, then add the tomatoes.
6. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes, before nestling the salmon among the veg, then sprinkle with lemon juice and bake for 15 more minutes.
7. Scatter over the parsley and serve.

One-Pan Summer Eggs

Another protein-rich dish is one-pan summer eggs, which is a perfect seasonal breakfast choice. It will provide you with a pack of nutrients, while the delicious taste will elevate your mood for the rest of the day. One serving of one-pan summer eggs contains the following (9):

Calories: 169; Carbs: 7 g; Fats: 13 g; Protein: 12 g

Ingredients for 1 serving:

• 1 egg
• 1 large zucchini, chopped into small chunks
• ½ cup of halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• ½ a garlic clove, crushed
• A few basil leaves to serve

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan and add the zucchini chunks.
2. Fry for 5 minutes, constantly stirring until they start to soften.
3. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.
4. Stir in a little seasoning, then make a gap in the mix and crack in an egg.
5. Cover the pan with a lid or sheet of foil, then cook some more until the eggs are the desired consistency.
6. Scatter over a few basil leaves and serve.

Rosemary Chicken with Oven-Roasted Ratatouille

This colorful dish is a real celebration for your taste buds. The tender chicken balances out the juicy and rich vegetables, resulting in an ultimately delicious nutrient punch. One serving of this dish can offer you the following (13):

Calories: 288; Carbs: 11 g; Fats: 11 g; Protein: 37 g

Ingredients for 1 serving:

• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast
• ½ zucchini, sliced into half-moons
• ¼ eggplant, cut into chunky pieces
• ¼ cup of halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 deseeded and roughly chopped yellow bell pepper
• ½ tsp finely chopped rosemary, plus 1 small spring
• ¼ garlic clove, crushed
• 3 tsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180-200°C (350-390°F).
2. In a large roasting tin, toss together the zucchini, eggplant, and pepper, with half of the chopped rosemary, half the garlic, 2 teaspoons of olive oil, and the seasoning.
3. Spread the mix in an even layer and roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, mix the remaining garlic, rosemary, and oil.
5. Slash a chicken breast 4-5 times with a sharp knife, brush over the prepared oil mix, season, and chill for 15 minutes.
6. After the vegetable mix has cooked for 20 minutes, stir in the tomatoes.
7. Make space in the roasting tin and nestle the chicken breast among the vegetables.
8. Place a rosemary sprig on top of the breast and cook for 18-20 minutes more, until the chicken is fully cooked and the vegetables are lightly caramelized.
9. Serve and enjoy.

Heart-Helper Smoothie

This heart-helper smoothie is a great option for breakfast or snacks. As with any other smoothie, it’s incredibly easy to make. It’s filled with health-boosting nutrients such as vitamin C, potassium, manganese, folate, and others. One serving of this smoothie provides (8):

Calories: 88; Carbs: 19 g; Fats: 0 g; Protein: 2 g

Ingredients for 1 serving:

• 2 small raw beetroots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 small apple, peeled, quartered, and cored
• 50 g (oz) blueberries
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 cup of water or to desired consistency

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients in the blender.
2. Blend the mix until smooth.
3. If the outcome is too thick for you, add more water and blend again until the desired consistency is reached.

Read more: 24 Weight Loss Smoothies, 2 Diet Plans, and 5 Belly Fat Smoothie Secrets

FAQs

• What are some ancestral foods?

All our ancestors came from different backgrounds, which means that the foods they consumed varied greatly. However, regardless of the region, some things that ancestral diets have in common include whole foods, non-industrialized, non-GMO meats, dairy, fruits, vegetables, fermented grains and vegetables, whole raw dairy, and plenty of animal fats and organ meats.

• How do I find my ancestral diet?

There isn’t a single ancestral diet, as the foods our ancestors consumed varied greatly according to their geographical location, climate, and cultural practices. Some consumed something like what we now know as the Paleo diet, while others were fond of a more plant-dominant diet. You can discover your ancestral diet by researching your heritage and consuming the whole foods your ancestors would have eaten before industrialized food processing emerged. 

Explore the traditional cooking techniques used by your ancestors to enjoy the same flavors they did. These could include fermenting, soaking, and sprouting. These practices can enhance the nutrients and improve your digestion of the foods.

• What is the difference between keto and ancestral diet?

The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that helps the body burn fat for energy. The ancestral diet is more flexible and focuses on natural, unprocessed foods that our ancestors ate without strict rules on carbs, fats, or proteins.

• What carbs did our ancestors eat?

Some studies have suggested that eating meat helped early humans develop larger brains, leading many people to follow meat-heavy, low-carb diets such as keto to mimic their ancestors. However, new research has indicated that Neanderthals and their predecessors also ate a lot of starchy carbohydrates (12). 

You should ask your elders and check your history to study your ancestors’ dietary patterns. Although it isn’t necessary to incorporate these into your life, you can examine the difference between a plant-based and Paleo diet to make informed decisions.

The Bottom Line

Have you ever imagined what your life would be like if you lived in the past? If it were possible, you would have to stick to an ancestral diet and eat minimally processed foods without flavor enhancers, added sugar, and other popular modern food components. This could be many times healthier than the modern diet, which encourages the consumption of junk food and increases the risk of various health problems.

However, there’s no need to travel back in time to change this, as you can try eating what your ancestors ate today. An ancestral diet is a nutritional philosophy that advises minimizing the consumption of industrialized, processed foods. It encourages you to eat natural, organic whole foods, which your direct ancestors used to eat. You should consume seasonal, local foods which have been minimally processed, or may not be processed at all. You can eat anything that can be obtained by hunting or gathering. You can buy organic food in specialized stores, at local markets, or even grow it yourself in your garden. 

The recipes presented above will make sure your ancestral diet meal plan is nutritious, filling, and delicious. Keep in mind that before you make any adjustments to your current nutritional plan, you should consult a dietitian.