Highlights Your ancestors had a much healthier lifestyle than you

Malnutrition problems can be traced to poor quality diets

Earlier diets were highly diverse and nutrient dense

Believe it or not, your ancestors had a much healthier lifestyle than you and a study published suggests you consume a diet like them, highly diverse and rich in nutrients as it may help boost your health. According to the study published in the Journal Nutrition Reviews, consuming a monotonous diet of staple cereals and ultra-processed foods may be leading to malnutrition. Researchers from the Washington University in the US stated that malnutrition problems can be traced to poor quality diets lacking in diversity, a recent phenomenon in evolutionary history.

The study also revealed that there is a misalignment of modern diets and the genome formed through time. Evident in the divergence are shared risk factors for both under and over nutrition. "Earlier diets were highly diverse and nutrient dense, in contrast to modern food systems in which monotonous diets of staple cereals and ultra-processed foods play a more prominent role," said Lora Iannotti, associate professor at Washington University.

The study focussed on higher dietary quality, which points to the need for altered macronutrients macronutrient ratios-lower percentages of carbohydrates, in particular and higher concentrations of a variety of micronutrients.

"This review shows that ultra-processed foods, in particular products made from substances extracted from whole foods, particularly oils, flours and sugar, were not part of evolutionary diets and may be a main driver of malnutrition across most current food environments," Iannotti said.

With Inputs from PTI