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[Robin Shuster]

Mr. McGee,

In your book, you briefly discuss the health difference between early humans who were meat eaters and the less healthy grain eaters, pointing out that human health recovered in the 19th Century with better access to meat and milk, only to start to degrade again in the 20th Century in the industrialized countries.

Could the problem be the change from grass -fed animals to grain -fed animals f(rom the 19th to the late 20th Century) that may be responsible? I have read that grass fed animals, for instance, have much less saturated fat and more omega 3 fatty acids.

Also, do you have opinions on the current controversy over the most healthy ratio between Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids. Some people have argued that the traditional human diet was much higher in Omega 6 and we now eat too high a ratio of Omega 3.

Would love to hear your thoughts about this.

[Harold McGee]

Many aspects of our diet changed with the industrialization of the food supply and the mechanization of life in general, and I think that a lower intake of fruits and vegetables and level of physical exertion may have been as important as anything. Grain feeding doesn’t make animal fats any more healthful, but how significant that shift has been, I don’t know. It may well be that a higher proportion of long-chain polyunsaturated fats would be good for our long-term health.
What comes to my mind is that life expectancy in the industrialized world has been rising pretty continuously for many decades, and that the most reliable method for increasing it dramatically seems to be eating as little as possible. Facts to chew on!