Logan Butler, Lee Butler and Isaac Butler (left photo); and Matt Garrett, Randy
Garrett and Maranda Garrett (above) volunteer for the woodcut in May.
Courtesy photos by Denise Garrett
Cut Wood for the Elders Day needs your help to get firewood to Tribal elders
The Tribal Natural Resources Com-
mittee and Natural Resources Department
will sponsor the second Cut Wood for the
Elders Day of the year on July 16.
The woodcut will be held on the
Tribe’s Logsden Road property between
the Tribal food distribution warehouse and
the Tribal vehicle storage yard in Siletz.
We need lots of volunteers to help
cut, split and deliver firewood for Tribal
elders. Bring your chainsaws, hydraulic
wood splitters, splitting mauls, axes and
lots of energy.
Lunch, drinks and snacks will be
provided. We will start at 8 a.m. and go
until mid-afternoon.
The goal of this event is to deliver fire-
wood to as many elders as possible. The
Elders Program maintains a list of elders
who burn wood for their winter heat.
People willing to haul firewood to
elders outside of the Siletz area should
contact the Elders Program clerk at 800-
922-1399, ext. 1261, or 541-444-8261 to
be paired up with an elder in need. We
especially need folks who can haul wood
to the Eugene, Salem and Portland areas.
Elders in need of firewood also should
contact the Elders Program clerk to get
their name on the delivery list.
If you have parents or grandparents
who burn wood in the winter to stay warm,
you need to help out at this event. Come
help replenish those wood piles for the
coming winter.
This year’s final woodcut is Sept. 17.
Modern-day hunter-gatherers: What are we meant to eat?
By Nancy Ludwig, MS, RD, LD, Siletz
Tribal Head Start Nutrition
An article by The PaleoMom caught
my eye recently, although it was published
in September 2015. My purpose here is to
highlight nutrition concepts of traditional
foods for modern-day healthy eating. Key
points are summarized below with refer-
ence links.
For some reason the question about
whether we are innate herbivores, carni-
vores or omnivores is often hotly debated.
Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, Ph.D. (also known
as The PaleoMom), believes that based on
examining a variety of scientific angles,
including evolutionary history, surveys of
modern hunter-gatherers, clues from our
primate relatives, comparative anatomy
and our unique genetic adaptations to
starch and dairy, we are clearly omnivores.
An omnivore is an animal that likes to
eat plants and meat. An herbivore eats only
plants while a carnivore eats only meat.
Analysis of hunter-gatherer societies
across the world suggests they average
about half of their diet (calorie-wise)
from animal foods and about half from
plant foods, with wiggle room on either
side depending on what types of meat and
vegetation are abundant.
Keep in mind that 50 percent of
dietary calories from one type of food isn’t
the same as 50 percent dietary volume
from that food, meaning that if you aim
for a diet of approximately 50 percent
plants and 50 percent animals, as hunter-
gatherers tend toward on average, the
plants will take up more visual space in
each meal, typically on the order of plant
foods taking up 2/3 to 3/4 of your plate.
It may be useful to consider a palm-
sized high quality protein portion with
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the remainder of the plate in vegetables,
which may be seasoned with high quality
fat. I add that high quality means clean
foods, raised responsibly, without con-
tamination, that are not altered by genetic
engineering or converted to trans fats and
fresh vs. rancid.
A diet in which 50 percent of calo-
ries are coming from plant foods will
tend to include some carbohydrates. In
other words, the diets of hunter-gatherers
generally are not low-carb. (see carbs-vs-
protein-vs-fat insight article link below
for more information).
Loren Cordain studied the diets of
hunter-gatherers and noted a wide range
of protein, carbohydrate and fat intake (ref-
erence below). The far north populations
tended to have fewer carbohydrates and
more fat. But many cultures, however, also
eat higher carb diets, with modest fat calo-
ries and most of the fat being saturated.
It was also noted that the diverse diets
of hunter-gatherers had common ground.
The nutrient contents all changed with
the seasons, they had cycles of feast and
famine, the foods were nutrient-dense
(many vitamins and minerals per calorie)
and fiber was quite a bit higher than the
current healthy recommendations.
The take home point is that rather
than worrying if you’ve eaten too many
carbohydrates or fat grams, your mental
energy might be better spent trying to
squeeze a wide variety of fresh, high-
quality, nutrient-dense plant and animal
foods onto your plate (like organ meat,
seafood and tons of veggies), and enjoy-
ing every bite!
Notice I did not include sweet treats,
which are a modern downfall for many.
July 2016
The bulk of the available scientific
evidence additionally points to low-fat
diets also having plenty of risks.
For one, we need some dietary fat to
optimize the absorption of the fat-soluble
vitamins A, D, E and K. Also, low-fat diets
and having low levels of serum cholesterol
(which tend to go hand-in-hand) have been
linked to a variety of health conditions,
including depression and suicide (low-fat
diets may impair serotonin receptors by
decreasing the fats in nerve-cell mem-
branes), anxiety, aggression, other violent
behavior, premature death and even cancer
(fat and cholesterol are important for the
integrity of cell membranes).
Hunter-gatherers certainly don’t fol-
low low-fat diets. Most contemporary
studies of hunter-gatherers report as
much as 58 percent of their calories from
fat. Overall, the research points towards
a moderate fat intake (30-40 percent of
calories, perhaps as high as 50 percent for
some people) being ideal for maintaining
all aspects of our health (see link below
for Saturated Fat: Healthful, Harmful or
Somewhere in Between).
Keep in mind that the fat consumed
needs to be healthy, which means fresh, not
rancid, and not processed into trans-fats.
In summary:
3. The diets of hunter-gatherers gener-
ally are not low-carb and are influ-
enced by location, season, availability
and climate. In today’s world, this
translates to a wide variety of fresh,
high quality, nutrient-dense plant and
animal foods on your plate (like organ
meat, seafood and tons of veggies)
and enjoying every bite! There was no
mention of cookies or candy.
4. Hunter-gatherers may have eaten
more than half of their calories in fat.
We need healthy fat to support our
mental health. Overall, the research
points toward a moderate fat intake
(30-40 percent of calories). Again,
the emphasis is on healthy and may
include the fat we eat in nuts, seeds
and avocados as well as salmon and
other animal foods.
5. If you want more science, check out
the links provided below.
Siletz Tribal Head Start is an important
and influential program. I am pleased to
support family nutrition education.
Reference links
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1. Hunter-gatherers are omnivores and
eat plants and animals.
2. The average intake of hunter-gatherers
with half calories from animal foods
and half from plant foods actually
looks more like a palm sized, high
quality protein portion with the
remainder of the plate in vegetables
(2/3 to 3/4 of the volume) and may be
seasoned with high quality fat.
•
•
thepaleomom.com/2015/09/the-diet-
were-meant-to-eat-part-3-how-much-
meat-vs.-veggies.html
thepaleomom.com/2016/06/carbs-
vs.-protein-vs.-fat-insight-from-
hunter-gatherers.html
Cordain L, et al. Plant-animal subsis-
tence ratios and macronutrient energy
estimations in worldwide hunter-
gatherer diets. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000
Mar;71(3):682-92
thepaleomom.com/2016/03/satu-
rated-fat-healthful-harmful-or-some-
where-in-between.html)
