Fit as a Forager Woman

We know from ethnographic accounts that the diet of our ancient ancestors revolved around nuts, seeds, berries and fruit, tubers and greens, and the occasional bird, fish or wild game animal.  They sought out an incredibly healthy diet, so it should be no surprise that our ancestors were also incredibly physically fit!

How fit?  According to a paper published in the journal The Physician and SportsMedicine, December 2010, the daily routine of a forager woman included walking five to ten miles in a day, usually while carrying food, water or fuel.  The typical forager woman also carried her children until they were four years of age.  While walking at a normal pace may burn two to three hundred calories per hour, walking while carrying a child uses over 500 calories per hour.  Other strenuous activities would include butchering animals, constructing shelter, or digging for roots.  The forager woman would have burned three to five times as many calories in a day as a modern, sedentary person.  According to  James H. O’Keefe, M.D.,  and Robert Vogel, M.D., the authors of this paper, she would have had a lean body structure, and so did not experience excess strain on back or knee joints.   And because she was walking about outdoors much of the time, she was manufacturing quality vitamin D to maintain skeletal and hormonal health.

Doesn’t it seem as if, in today’s world, it would take an exceptionally fit woman to keep up with the average forager woman of the past?  Well, let’s not beat ourselves up over it.   Let’s just take a cue from our ancestors’ habits and do what we can to live a healthier lifestyle.  Opportunities abound.  Get a pedometer and walk 10,o00 steps.  Lift your own suitcases.  Take a walk to the post office.  Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and see what it feels like to swing a hammer.

If you had a Ferrari, you wouldn’t leave it in a garage all day, every day, would you?  What would it be like to be a fit as a forager woman, and fully live within our bodies, the way nature intended?

If you need help getting your body tuned up before you take it out for a spin, make an appointment for a chiropractic adjustment.  Sometimes people need extra help to turn their health around effectively.  That’s my job.  There is no need for you to reinvent the wheel!