Becoming Primitive....

In my research for the Primitive DIVA book, I have spent countless hours reading blogs, books, magazines and research around Natural Health, Wellness, the promotion of living a more Green primitive lifestyle and all things related to sustainable living. One thing became very predictable in most of the authors message(s).
Doom and gloom, and lots of negative and fear based writing.

In the past several years I have intentionally limited my exposure to serious environmental issues in the media. Mainly because as a super sensitive empathetic person, I could not deal with all the negative information without having the solution to share. It seems that having the knowledge is one thing, but the power comes in knowing how to make concrete steps towards leading a more natural life, not just being bombarded with all the realistic understanding of chemical and industrial hazards that are out there.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I do consider it imperative that we need to be aware of any danger associated with knowing where our food comes from, be able to know what to look for in your household cleaners, skin care products along with being mindful of the impact we leave on this beautiful blue/green globe of ours…. However, The challenge is balance. Knowing what to DO about it, practical steps towards better living. This reflects in my own Primitive Diva philosophy that will be explained in more detail in the book.
For instance, knowing which foods are the best to eat organically really helps me prioritize choices in the grocery store. I am continually quoted as answering questions during a nutrition consult with “Well, in a PERFECT world, we would choose…..” Guess what? We do not live in a perfect world! Realistically, I cannot optimally sustain my health and that of my family IF I refuse to consume anything else but local, organically grown foods that I have personally confirmed their individual farming practices. The Diva side of me lives in the real world with busy’ness and stressful family activities and schedules. So finding my way to being primitive has empowered me with information and practical advice of long lost traditional wisdom to share.

I have devoted much time over the past 20 years studying data in both nutritional clinical /science (the Future) and nutritional anthropology (the Past). The two directions have allowed me a much deeper understanding of natures intended nutritional guidelines. My own nutritional experiences (success’s and failures) have ranged from RAW vegan, Macro-biotic, Yeast Free, Gluten Free, Low Fat, Low Carb to Raw Paleothic… Whatever the diet dictocrats were promoting as the lastest and greatest. You name it and there is a book selling it.---and people hoping for a magic bullet, buying it! All in trying to understand our physical makeup and what allows the body to heal itself---“let food be thy medicine”, right? I have a sincere passion to understand the how and why’s of our traditional pillars of health wisdom. With the ludicrous statements and theories that I have seen, read or heard from the gurus through the years— and a strong mistrust of anything to do with corporately founded/funded science (Big Pharma, Big Agra, Food Scientist, the AMA, the FDA, the USDA or any other government or corporate agency) I began a very important evolutionary quest to get past the hype, confusion and political posturing of our food industry that surrounds our experts in dietary/nutrition arena. I searched for facts that could be evidenced through several generations. I discovered my most profound truth for health and wellness by looking back---by looking at generations of our ancestors. Societies who thrived by hunting wild animals and fish and gathered wild fruits and vegetables. We commonly refer to their lifestyle today as “hunter-gatherer”. I have studied research material of the world’sPioneers of nutrition, leading evolutionary biologist, paleontologists, geneticist, nutritional anthropologist and researchers devoted to the historical study of the human body and health.
Through the professional research support and education from these experts I have embraced the learning of forgotten food preparations and traditions of generations before us. Methods that seemed to have been tossed away with each new technological advance, preservative and flavor/color enhancer. What people have eaten and more importantly how they prepared it has helped humans for many ages of time be free of diseases- such as diabetes, cancer, hypothyroidism, heart disease, auto-immune diseases ,dental disease obesity and many other serious health problems. Their diets not only influenced their health but for a large extent---determined it! History reveals that the healthiest people in the world were/are the most primitive people as well! Our ancestors rarely died from diet or lifestyle related illnesses that kill most modern people before their time. Our ancestors foraged for wild game, fresh caught fish from the sea or inlands, wild berries, nuts and plant foods. They had more active lifestyles in every day physical demands. They did not have health clubs and gyms.
While I readily admit that we cannot go back to the old ways of our primitive ancestors completely, we can learn from their wisdom and make our bodies strong, healthy and disease resistant. So, over the next few months I will share some principles for maintaining optimal health in a very primitive way.

Lets explore the definition of the original hunter gatherer primitive diet:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The modern dietary regimen known as the Paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various human species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet. Centered on commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts; and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

First popularized in the mid 1970s by a gastroenterologist named Walter L. Voegtlin, this nutritional concept has been promoted and adapted by a number of authors and researchers in several books and academic journals. A common theme in evolutionary medicine, Paleolithic nutrition is based on the premise that modern humans are genetically adapted to the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors and that human genetics have scarcely changed since the dawn of agriculture, and therefore that an ideal diet for human health and well-being is one that resembles this ancestral diet. Proponents of this diet argue that modern human populations subsisting on traditional diets allegedly similar to those of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are largely free of diseases of affluence, and that two small prospective studies of the Paleolithic diet in humans have shown some positive health outcomes. Supporters point to several potentially therapeutic nutritional characteristics of allegedly preagricultural diets.