Are the old ways of eating better?

Husband and I were discussing diet, in particular, the Paleo diet that Loren Cordain invented or maybe we should say rediscovered. Husband's point was that the underlying assumption in such diets is that the old ways are best and no one addresses that issue.

Personally, I think that is a non-issue. It would be impossible for the current people of the world to become hunter gatherers. Jared Diamond, scientist and author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Guns, Germs and Steel,wrote an article for the May 1987 issue of Discover Magazine, titled Agriculture, The worst mistake in Human history. It's an interesting read and he states his case very well. However, I think it's mono-culture that is the worst mistake not agriculture itself. In this article,Professor Diamond says “The farmers gained cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition, (today just three high-carbohydrate plants -- wheat, rice, and corn -- provide the bulk of the calories consumed by the human species, yet each one is deficient in certain vitamins or amino acids essential to life.) Second, because of dependence on a limited number of crops, farmers ran the risk of starvation if one crop failed “. If mankind had followed different model for agriculture, similar to the sustainable lifestyle espoused by Bradford Angiers' classic 1972 book One Acre and Security, for example, or the urban gardens that Cuba is now encouraging in Havana, life would probably be different.

I don't understand why mankind narrowed our food choices rather than expanded them. When we had a glut of corn, some genius invented feed lot beef. If you are not familiar with that abominable practice, you can read an excellent description in Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma, along with a description of a saner and healthier approach.

Beef that has been force fed corn and antibiotics can't be good for you. Getting most of your calories from corn, wheat and soybeans instead of a variety of vegetables and grass fed animals doesn't make sense to me. If the quality of our food is poor, naturally we are going to be hungry. The excess calories get stored as fat, while we search for the nutrients to nourish us.