Does the human body really need such healthy food?

[miniwh]

As in, 5+ a day veg/some fruits etc

For thousands of years humans weren't able to access that type of varied and balanced diet

You could say we need to move with the times but other mammals are in good health by eating what's always been available to them and nothing else

So surely our bodies are designed for fairly restricted and limited diets?

Absolutely rubbish…stop scaremongering!Why are post WW2 people still thriving ?

I hope you are not studying history.

Also emotional and intellectual satisfaction for those with a true vocation, I think

Pesticides don't affect the flavour of vegetables, but soil condition does as much as the variety.

100 years ago, farmers would manure their fields every winter, and they would let fields lie fallow to rest and recover nutrients. That often involved planting a green manure crop, which was then ploughed under to feed the soil.
Modern intensive farming methods depend on artificial fertilisers instead, and have contributed to soil collapse. Our food may not be as nutritious as it used to be. So don't turn your nose up at taking a vitamin and mineral supplement.

It's not rubbish. And it's not scaremongering. It is factual.

31 years old and the only issue you're aware of... Wait until you are 41, 51, 61...

There will be an advanced degeneration of skin tone, for starters, and a heightened probability of any number of cancers that are related to low fruit and vegetable intake, including and especially bowel cancer, as well as other preventable lifestyle-related diseases: Cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, osteoporosis, dementia, etc.

Too right! That's why everyone in Scotland receives a poo testing kit from the NHS as soon as they turn 50. Understanding your risk to certain diseases and early detection are vital. If you've got a rubbish diet then you need to accept there is some risk to your health.
I think our attitudes towards food especially ultra processed food is finally getting to a similar tipping point when everyone finally accepted passive smoking was real. I think the focus of the NHS Is becoming more about taking preventative action and we all need to get on board with that.

That's why everyone in Scotland receives a poo testing kit from the NHS as soon as they turn 50.

Yeah no that's not actually the NHS, that's Gillian McKeith's secret plot to collect as much precious poo as possible, before gathering it in a ceremonial mound, declaring that it smells terrible, then leaping in from a great height.

What counts though ?
Grains ?
Nuts?
Seeds?
Pulses ?
Herbs ?

If all the above then I can see how you could do 20. We are veggi thou and I never go below 5 (can't really see how you would tbh). Sunday was a crap day, back from holiday Saturday, no food in the house running about sorting kids. I ate :
An apple from the garden 1st thing (1)
Frozen berries with Yoghurt and granola @ 9:30 (2?3? Dried fruit in the granola)
A supermarket veggi sandwich, packet of crisps and handful of grapes @ 3 ( 2?)
Veggi sausages, mash and green beans at 7 (1/2, never sure if potatoes count).

So for me not a great day, no nice big salad, lots eaten on the go and crisps, but still 5-7 fruit and veg eaten.

Food stuffs became more adulterated, more susceptible to mold and infestation.

My 1st thought reading that was history of ergot poisoning.
Population pyramids in medieval times were very flat.

Mistake to think there's one type of suitable or ideal human diet. We're obviously very adaptable to live well on a variety of food combinations.

The human body evolved to eat whatever the fuck it could find.

Right, which consisted of what, do you think..?

But whole foods, not ultra processed crap.

Yeah I was replying to a PP who said the above, in response to me saying the human body is adapted to eating an unprocessed plant based diet. So 5 a day is just trying to approximate what the body is adapted to it's not an overreach but an underreach.

There were also a lot of people living with chronic disease due to malnutrition in the past (and now unfortunately).

Scaremongering

www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/bowel-cancer/risks-causes

I was just going to give the same advice! Dh is Gastroenterologist, he suggests the pp books a colonoscopy for when she’s 40!

And (sorry a bit random) who remembers this rhyme?

Pease pudding hot
Pease pudding cold
Pease pudding in the pot 5 days old.

Quite. The idea people didn't eat way more F&V historically is a bit mad. Yes industrialised workers in Victorian Britain ate badly. They died from it. But rural people would have eaten absolutely loads of F&V. Meat consumption would have been much lower. No refined grains. No/low sugar. No UPFs.

I do not understand the premise of the thread

Mistake to think there's one type of suitable or ideal human diet. We're obviously very adaptable to live well on a variety of food combinations

We currently have epidemic levels of obesity, diabetes etc. on a scale not seen previously. That strongly suggests to me that humans are not adaptable to live well on highly processed, sugar saturated 'food'. Most of what is sold in supermarkets is not particularly fit for human consumption.

We are adaptable to live well on various forms of wholefood diet, because that's what all our ancestors ate.

But people aren't thriving? Go into your nearest city centre and look around - people are getting bigger every year. Most of the population is overweight to a degree that will affect their health. How many of the people you are looking at are diabetic, or have high blood pressure do you think?

Our modern diet is obesogenic, and also gives rise to a whole host of other disorders which were not present at such high levels in the past.

The idea people are 'living well' currently is quite weird. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, vascular disease, bowel cancer, inflammatory disorders are all very high.

adjusted for age, adjusted for obesity... are diabetes etc. really sky high?

Some modern Hunter gatherers get like 40% of their calories from honey. Very poor people end up eating rotten veg & iffy meat & drinking unsafe water, not least because they can't afford to throw away poor quality food (indeed rotten sheep is a traditional staple of the Faroes islanders). The idea that paleolithic diets were all lovely healthy is wrong, too.

Adjusting for obesity skews the results though, as the obesity and diabetes are effectively two symptoms of the same cause.

Yes, diabetes is high and rising.

This thread seems like a parallel universe where people are denying the medical reality of the UK today.

I know it's a total MN cliche, but people really have lost sight of what a healthy body looks like, what size a healthy adult in their prime should be etc..

When I go into my nearest city I see pale, undernourished, overweight people who are YOUNG. A large proportion of 25 years olds are carrying serious amounts of weight and shuffle along like a much older person. I have no doubt that many of them have associated conditions, or will do in future.

The shift has been noticeable even within my lifetime, people are visibly less healthy.