Stone Age diet stops ageing process
While some people may feel anxious about their body’s condition as they age, US academician Professor Michael Rose has no qualms about it; claiming once individuals reach their 90s their bodies stop ageing.
While some people may feel anxious about their body’s condition as they age, US academician Professor Michael Rose has no qualms about it; claiming once individuals reach their 90s their bodies stop ageing.
According to Professor Rose, who is an expert in evolutionary biology, “if you are lucky enough to live that long, you stop ageing”. To reach this point, he suggests adopting a ‘stone age’ diet when you hit 30 years of age.
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years, during which humans and their predecessor species widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the manufacture of implements with a sharp edge, a point, or a percussion surface.
Writing in last week’s New Scientist magazine, Professor Rose states switching to the sort of diet favoured by “our hunter-gatherer ancestors” could speed up the advent of the healthy part of old age.
The theory is a person should only eat what their ancestors ate 10,000 years ago. The Stone Age diet prioritises seasonal fruit, lean meat, fish and very little intake of processed food, sugar, grains – including bread – or dairy products.
Many modern cavemen also fast and eat at irregular times, much like those early hunter-gatherers. Along with pure, mostly raw food, the modern caveman adapts his exercise to mimic the efforts of hunting, rather than today’s emphasis on endurance running or building muscle in the gym.
Professor Rose says when we are young, our bodies were probably better able to cope with modern diets; but as we age, we would most likely be better suited to a caveman diet.
Practicing what he preaches, Professor Rose says he has followed the diet for two years – avoiding grass-derived foods, such as grains, rice, corn and sugarcane, and anything made from milk.
His advice is based on the observation that, in general, while a person’s health may not be great, it does not get worse. “People do not get sicker and sicker as they get older and older,” he insists.
“The discovery that ageing stops suggests the age-old desire to radically extend the human life span is a real possibility,” Professor Rose claims.
