First of all,
Bread, potatoes, cabbage, beans, and various kinds of cereal were the base of local cuisine. There was usually only one dish per meal on the table on regular days. On holidays, there could be several dishes served during the same meal, but they were the same as those cooked on regular days, as a rule.
As evidenced by many of the oldest living adults, over 90% of their diet consisted of vegetables and fruits. The people who consistently live to see triple digits have diets that mostly consisted of leafy greens and homegrown vegetables indigenous to their area.
Eat your chocolate, drink your wine, use olive oil, and treat yourself to hobbies you love.
Susannah Mushatt Jones, an Alabama-born 116-year-old woman who resided in Brooklyn, revealed that daily diet consisted of morning bacon and eggs, fruit for lunch, and the classic meat, potatoes, and vegetables for dinner.
In ancient times, people usually ate one daily meal that was considered unique and abundant to any other time for eating. For example, the ancient Romans consumed only one meal around midday, considering it a healthy choice and the only one able to guarantee good digestion.
As foragers, they would fast until they found, caught or killed their food. There was no breakfast upon waking,, or leftovers for lunch. They ate opportunistically, Freedman and Pobiner say, consuming anything they could get their hands on.
Our ancestors in the palaeolithic period, which covers 2.5 million years ago to 12,000 years ago, are thought to have had a diet based on vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots and meat.
She was wealthy
Another factor that likely helped her live longer, and stress less, was that “she never worked,” says Robine. “She always had someone at home to help her,” and didn't have to cook for herself or even shop for her necessities.
Agostino "Angus" Giuseppe A Barbieri (1939 – 7 September 1990) was a Scottish man who fasted for 382 days, from June 1965 to July 1966. He lived on tea, coffee, sparkling water, and vitamins while living at home in Tayport, Scotland, and frequently visiting Maryfield Hospital for medical evaluation.
The best of the best longevity foods in the Blue Zones diet are leafy greens such as spinach, kale, beet and turnip tops, chard, and collards. In Ikaria more than 75 varieties of edible greens grow like weeds; many contain ten times the polyphenols found in red wine.
Foods were healthier, cheaper, and more accessible in the twentieth century than today. In the last century, many families had farms or small gardens next to their homes to grow vegetables, fruits, and some crops.
The diet of the earliest hominins was probably somewhat similar to the diet of modern chimpanzees: omnivorous, including large quantities of fruit, leaves, flowers, bark, insects and meat (e.g., Andrews & Martin 1991; Milton 1999; Watts 2008).
A new analysis of early human teeth from extinct fossils has found that they expanded their diets about 3.5 million years ago to include grasses and possibly animals. Before this, humanlike creatures - or hominins - ate a forest-based diet similar to modern gorillas and chimps.
Dental Care cavemen
Cavemen chewed on sticks to clean their teeth and even used grass stalks to pick in between their teeth. Without the availability of high-quality toothbrushes and toothpaste, however, cavemen's teeth were more susceptible to cavities and decay, even with a healthy, carbohydrate-free diet.
It was about 2.6 million years ago that meat first became a significant part of the pre-human diet, and if Australopithecus had had a forehead to slap it would surely have done so. Being an herbivore was easy—fruits and vegetables don't run away, after all. But they're also not terribly calorie-dense.
Hunter-gatherer societies ate raw meat. Hunter-gatherers also ate plants found in the wild, such as seeds, nuts, and berries. By the end of the Stone Age, humans began to grow their own crops, domesticate animals, and use fire to cook food.
It was in the 17th Century that the working lunch started, where men with aspirations would network. The middle and lower classes eating patterns were also defined by their working hours. By the late 18th Century most people were eating three meals a day in towns and cities, says Day.
For those who need a primer on the paleo diet, it basically means eating only the items that a "caveman" would eat, when he or she was hunting and/or gathering back in the Paleolithic era. This means grass-fed meats, veggies, fish, nuts, eggs, fruits, fungi.
"The Romans believed it was healthier to eat only one meal a day," food historian Caroline Yeldham told BBC News Magazine in 2012. "They were obsessed with digestion and eating more than one meal was considered a form of gluttony. This thinking impacted on the way people ate for a very long time."
In Western culture, it is a common idea that the daily food intake should be divided into three square meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Often dieticians suggest adding two snacks (morning and afternoon) to help appetite control, and indeed the mainstream media message is to eat “five to six times a day”.
Well … Although many humans choose to eat both plants and meat, earning us the dubious title of “omnivore,” we're anatomically herbivorous. The good news is that if you want to eat like our ancestors, you still can: Nuts, vegetables, fruit, and legumes are the basis of a healthy vegan lifestyle.