10/27/2026
🥩🌎 HUMAN NUTRITION: HAVE WE FORGOTTEN HOW OUR ANCESTORS ACTUALLY ATE?
As a physician practicing Integrative and Functional Medicine, I spend considerable time studying nutrition, human physiology, metabolic health, and the anthropology of ancestral diets.
And I have a significant concern with how modern nutrition is often presented.
We have developed dietary recommendations around a world that has existed for only a tiny fraction of human history.
Think about it.
For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors had no supermarkets, refrigerators, freezers, airplanes, or cargo ships transporting foods across the globe.
They couldn’t eat avocados from Central America, figs from the Mediterranean, tropical fruits from the Pacific, and blueberries from North America whenever they wanted.
They ate what was available where they lived, when it was available.
For most of human history, we lived as hunter-gatherers, relying on locally available foods.
Animal foods, including wild game, ruminants, birds, fish, and shellfish, were important sources of protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals across many environments.
Plant foods, including roots, tubers, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, contributed to diets according to geography and season.
Some populations consumed substantial amounts of animal foods. Others relied more heavily on plant foods.
There was no single ancestral diet.
Agriculture changed everything.
Beginning approximately 12,000 years ago, domesticated grains and other crops became increasingly important in many human populations, supporting permanent settlements and eventually large civilizations.
But this transition did not occur everywhere at once, and many populations continued hunting and gathering for thousands of years.
Now fast-forward to modern society.
We are told to consume abundant fruits and vegetables, healthy whole grains, and a variety of so-called superfoods every day.
But here’s my question:
If these particular foods are essential to optimal human health, how did populations around the world survive for thousands of years without access to them?
The answer is that humans are metabolically adaptable.
Our ancestors obtained essential nutrients through different combinations of locally available foods.
No single fruit, vegetable, grain, or trendy superfood was universally necessary.
And just because a food is considered healthy doesn’t mean it is necessarily appropriate for every individual.
A metabolically healthy, physically active person may tolerate a dietary pattern very differently from someone with significant insulin resistance, obesity, or metabolic dysfunction.
This is where individualized nutrition becomes so important.
I’m not suggesting that we abandon modern nutritional science or that everyone should eat a carnivore, ketogenic, or hunter-gatherer diet.
I’m suggesting that we stop pretending there is one ideal dietary pattern for every human being.
We need to understand human physiology, evolutionary history, metabolic health, and individual responses to foods.
Our ancestors didn’t follow dietary guidelines. They adapted to their environments.
Modern nutrition should recognize that remarkable human adaptability rather than assuming that everyone needs the same foods in the same proportions.
Nutrition should be based on the individual, not simply the food pyramid, the latest superfood trend, or a universal dietary prescription.
Dr. Johnny Gomes, D.O.
Integrative & Functional Medicine
Optimal HealthCare
