Credits: Social Media
Dietician warns ancestral diet could end in people struggling with foodborne illness
A registered dietician has offered her opinions on the rise of the ancestral diet, TikTok’s newest fad that prioritizes foods that your ancestors would have eaten.
From the diet that slows down aging to the link between chronic pain and sugar, the modern health nut is spoiled for choice in terms of avenues to explore. That being said, it can be difficult to differentiate between a valid health plan and a gimmicky schedule thrown together by some TikTok influencer.
What is the ancestral diet?
As the name suggests, the ancestral diet centers around foods and dishes that were readily available during the time of your ancestors. Given that we each have a long line of ancestry that spans across the globe, one person’s example of an ancestral diet could be very different from the next.
While there is no set ancestral diet, plans usually include natural foods, whole foods, non-GMO foods, and foods free from industrialized processes.
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Registered dietician Abbey Sharpe (@abbeyskitchen), who you might remember from earlier scathing takedowns about fad diets, addressed the ancestral diet in a video that has since garnered nearly 90k likes. In the clip, she stitched Gretchy (@thehealthywife), who said she eats the ancestral diet while also omitting seed oils, artificial sugars, dyed, and preservatives.
Delving into Gretchy’s daily routine, Abbey trashed the idea that lemon water is some holy grail health hack. She took further concern with the influencer’s use of raw milk in her coffee, which could lead to “foodborne illness.”
Though most of the influencer’s health-infusing choices were just, Abbey highlighted how she filled the video with health-nut jargon. For instance, instead of saying she “cooked a chicken”, Gretchy “prepared a heritage breed whole chicken that had been pasture-raised and slaughtered on my parent’s farm.”
Throughout the day, Gretchy made a kefir smoothie and a cheesecake, both of which used raw dairy. As you can imagine, Abbey winced at the sight of it.
“This looks so delicious meal, and honestly, they all look like delicious meals,” Abbey said as Gretchy’s video showed her dishing up dinner. “But I can take a pass on the elitest exclusive diet commentary and the known sources of foodborne illness.”
Everyone has their own ancestral meal
Though some were genuinely interested in what goes into an ancestral diet, most took the opportunity to make jokes about their own renditions of the trend.
One person questioned: “Ancestral diet? So what is that& basically eating fresh organic foods?”
“My ancestral diet is salt and vinegar chips and dr pepper,” a second person joked, as a third said, “My ancestral diet is mass quantities of sauerkraut and pierogi.”
