We’ve Caved to Sedentary Lifestyles.
Stop being obsessed with a “paleo diet.” We need to be “paleo-active.”
Our society is sedentary—and we’ve caved to this as a lifestyle. Perhaps more accurately, we’ve lost sight of what “active” really means.
Yes, there are plenty of us who think we are active. But not counting those of you whose job literally requires you to be on your feet walking, running, jumping, scrambling, and climbing all day, every day (which I’m certain is a tiny percentage of us), how much time each day do you spend sitting: at a desk, conference table, coffeehouse, sofa, restaurant, fishing dock, or vehicle of some kind?
I’m a good example: I’m pretty fit. I love to be in motion. At least 3-4 times a week, I get my heart rate up to 160 for at least an hour. I walk a lot in my job (around a campus). And still, there is no doubt I spend a far greater amount of my time every day sitting at a desk or conference table or coffeehouse or on my motorcycle.
Here’s the thing: our bodies are fundamentally no different than those of humans 50,000 years ago.
Our world has evolved…but our bodies have not. Now think about the lifestyle of humans 50,000 years ago: they spent a lot of time moving. Like, all day, every day. They hunted. They gathered. They sought shelter. And they traveled very long distances on foot. They hauled heavy loads. They dragged trees and rocks around.
A brutish lifestyle? Perhaps, but that is exactly what our bodies evolved for: grueling, all-day physical labor—the kind that requires great endurance. (And humans have more endurance than possibly any other animal.)
One of the latest craze-phrases is “paleo-diet,” referring to some nirvana of simple, natural, whole foods. Nothing wrong with those…but why do we never hear the phrase “paleo-active?” Somehow, over the last century or two in particular, we’ve come to associate all-day physical labor with low achievement, low pay, low respect, and low intelligence. As in, you better get good grades and go to college, or you might end up…gulp…having to get a job doing manual labor all day!
The wealthiest and smartest in our society avoid all-day labor. That’s one of the privileges of wealth and power—getting others to do your physical labor for you.
But what really irks me is the incredibly low bar we all set for the word “active.” If someone goes for a 30-minute run every day, we call them fit and active. Really? Do we really think that running for 30 minutes every day…then sitting at a desk for 8 hours is paleo-active? Hardly.
Okay, okay. Maybe I’m being too much of a hardass. Yes, when most of our society is obese and diabetic, running 30-minutes a day is awesome! But I can’t help but think that maybe…just maybe…we wouldn’t have so many obese, diabetic people if we hadn’t evolved into a largely sedentary society in the first place.
Anthropologists have produced countless tomes on how agriculture changed society, how the information age changed society. These two developments are generally held up as being good for us—they enabled us to form communities, to leverage our physical labor and have more time for the pursuit of happiness and art.
But as a species, we also lost something vital: our original connection (which remains biologically unchanged) to the intensely physical life we evolved for.
So what can we do about this? As with any vast paradigm change, it’s got to start with recognition of the problem. Whenever you hear or read about someone trying to get healthier, the first thing that comes up is diet. Why isn’t it sustained physical activity? As a society, we are far more obsessed with diet than activity.
While a good diet is certainly beneficial, I’ve seen no research that suggests the benefits of eating a paleo-diet are anywhere near the benefits to both mind and body that sustained physical activity offers:
• Eating well doesn’t make you stronger.
• Eating well doesn’t get endorphins flowing.
• Eating well doesn’t sharpen your acuity and motor skills.
• Eating well doesn’t relieve stress.
• Eating well doesn’t increase your endurance.
• Eating well doesn’t help you think more creatively.
Yes, both are good. But in a contest between the two, I’ll take paleo-active over a paleo diet any day. And we need to kill the absurd notion that if you eat a paleo diet—but still sit most of the time or maybe walk to/from work every day—you’ll be healthy. You might not get sick…but that shouldn’t be the definition of healthy (see bullet items above for the things that really make you healthy).
When we’re physically active all day, our bodies are amazingly efficient furnaces that will burn and benefit from almost anything edible. That’s not to say you could workout all day and eat nothing but Twinkies and McDonald’s…but if you’re really active all day, you don’t have to resort to a paleo-diet to be in phenomenal health.
One study of Appalachian Trail through-hikers (who carry loads of 30-50 pounds or more, all day, in rugged terrain for three months straight) revealed that most of them sustained themselves for weeks on Ramen noodles, peanut butter, Snickers bars, M&M’s, and oatmeal. (Not the organic, steel-cut oats you buy at the local co-op—just the average Quaker instant oatmeal with all their bad-for-you chemicals.) And not one of those hikers ever reported flagging health. And they were all in awesome shape by the end of their hikes.
The body is an incredibly efficient furnace when you fire it with sustained activity.
Don’t cave to being sedentary. I know you can’t just quit your job and start picking cotton all day. I know you can’t just go out and wander the mountains for weeks on end.
But you can be less-obsessed with diet and more obsessed with motion. You can take every opportunity to do something physical—to pick up a box, to take the stairs, to get up at random times from your desk and walk a lap around the building.
And you can start thinking more about how our ancestors lived, and most importantly, how your body is no different from theirs. You can do everything they did—and you’d be amazed at the results.
