 When we talk about what our ancestors ate, the first thing in general that comes to mind is the paleo diet. Eating foods presumed to have been available to humans during the Paleolithic era when we were cavemen, still hunter-gatherers. Unfortunately, the paleo diet has fallen short. One reason being that modern foods are different than the past. You can argue that our ancestors ate meat, fruits and vegetables, but they weren't eating conventional feedlot beef, apples half the size of our heads, and monocropped broccoli devoid of nutrition. The other reason the paleo diet has fallen short is that it hasn't identified what makes a diet healthy, not that any other diet really has. The sheer variance of climates and regions that humans have thrived in leads us to important observations. For example, you have First Nation Alaskans surviving solely on seal and caribou. There are various coastal tribes subsisting off of fish and foraged vegetables, tubers, fruits. The only consistent factor between every single diet of these groups of people is the presence of nutrition from animal foods in large amounts, typically an average of 55% of their calories. And this leads to the main point I establish in the majority of my videos, that we need to obtain certain vitamins, minerals and elements, fatty acids that are only present in quality animal sources. But once that is achieved, what more is there? We know there is a presence of raw, cooked and fermented foods in all groups of people. What determines what plant foods we should consume? What we have access to? What our specific ancestors ate? I had some gene testing done a couple years back as part of a volunteer program. I mean God knows what they do with the DNA. There are probably a bunch of frank to final clones running around in a different dimension, but the results pretty much confirmed what I had thought previously. To my knowledge, both my parents are Italian, both of their sets of parents are Italian as well originating from Naples. For percentages, I am 65% European, 32% West Asian, North African and 3% Central Southeast Asian. This makes sense as there were various North African conquests throughout recent Italian history, possibly the reason I have a giant bush of curly hair. Does this information help me though? Does this mean I should be able to subsist off of a Southern Italian diet as well as a North African diet? Is this why I am not able to digest dairy that well or tolerate lactose? What would these people have been eating? One can speculate in Naples there would have been a fairly high grain consumption, probably wheat and the rest of the diet may have been supplemented with pork, fish, certain goat and sheep dairy in the form of cheese. The same could be said of North Africa. There are dishes strongly based around grains like wheat, rice, barley with similar meat choices. What is interesting is that human beings developed depending on their diet and geographical location. Here we can see that native Indian tribes have similar but different facial features, the only variants being the part of America they settled in, therefore what foods they were eating in that specific geographical location. Skin color of course correlates to the amount of sun exposure throughout the year, which was fairly similar across Native American Indian tribes, some of them in the South obviously having darker skin due to more sun exposure. So will eating like an Italian make you as beautiful as an Italian? Will living in a Scandinavian country give you blonde hair, blue eyes and make you twice as tall as me? Of course not, but if you place humans in an environment for thousands and thousands of years, certain physical adaptations will be made, those features included. Why do you think everyone looks a certain way? Why do you think these groups of people, whether it's Polynesians, Japanese, Chinese, why do you think they all look similar? It's because of their location which is correlated directly to their diet. What we can do is observe the differences between these groups of people who was the tallest, the strongest, most beautiful. But that gives us the answer we spoke about earlier, the basis of animal nutrition in the diet. As the percentage of animal foods goes up or down, the height, the physical stature, the width of all of the bones in the body changes drastically. Why do you think Italians are so short in some parts? It's because of the high grain consumption. Interestingly, intelligence doesn't correlate directly to nutrition. Yes, brain size does, yes certain functions do, people tend to have straight teeth, not need glasses, but that social aspect, the environment the person is in for those thousands and thousands of years, those social interactions are what correlate to intelligence. Now are there other factors determined by these plant foods present in the diet? We do see reproduction go way up when grains are incorporated as opposed to hunter gathering. This could be because of the high energy and consistent availability of the caloric energy from grains that you're growing year round and you always have a food supply. But should I consume oats and cod liver because my Scottish ancestors were healthy, though I opt for rye bread and cheese as certain Swiss settlers did, eat ancient strains of wheat like the Romans, or perhaps indulge in sheep cheeses famous to Sardinia? Are these foods even remotely similar to what my ancestors ate or is the type of seed, the soil, the way we're growing them now, not even comparable? There's obviously far too much to consider and talk about, but in the end, the answer is obvious. Just like past humans survived with foods they had access to, we should be doing the same thing. See what your options are from an animal food perspective, from a plant food perspective, and then you can make subjective choices based on that. You might have access to raw dairy, but not pasture raised eggs. Perhaps you don't have access to grass and beef, but there is plenty of wild caught fish. Maybe it's a choice between conventional white rice or organic sourdough bread. As much as we can look at the paper value of foods and expect what happens when you consume them, anecdotal experience weighs heavily. If you feel like taking a nap after eating rice, but sourdough bread makes you feel great, it can definitely bring up questions that lead to further education. Is it because of your ancestry? Is it because of the gut microbiome you developed through your early years? Was there a pollutant concern in the rice fields? Did they use a specific sourdough culture? There's so many factors at play here, it's really, really, really subjective. Once we have a basis of animal nutrition in the diet from the highest quality animal foods you have access to, the plant foods that you might want to incorporate, whatever you tolerate, you know, if you do want to have a variance in your diet, very, very, very subjective and a good general guideline is stick to organic, stick to heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables and grains and of course gauge your reaction, see how you tolerate the food. Thank you guys for joining me. If you could please like the video, subscribe, hit that bell icon, share the video if you can. If you guys would like to support me further, definitely check out Frankie's Free Range Meat, high quality, nutrient-dense animal foods at an affordable price. Hopefully in the future, however long it is from now, I'm able to provide you guys with all types of quality, you know, natural, ancestral foods even outside of meat, whether it's grains, fruits, vegetables, who knows? So that's definitely something not too far off the horizon. You guys can also check out Frankie's Naturals for minimal ingredients, minimally processed hygiene and cosmetic products. If you guys do want to reach out to me for one-on-one consultations, you can send me an email frankatufano at gmail.com. Thanks again for joining me guys and enjoy the rest of your day. We are doing a Halloween live stream later. That's why I'm not wearing my costume yet. So definitely tune in around seven to eight o'clock Eastern time. You guys want to have a little fun.