\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until we added those carbs that we got all those other changes, including those changes in body fat,\u201d said Anthony G. Comuzzie, who helped create an obese baboon colony at the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/a>We just took the kids to see the movie \u201cChimpanzee<\/a>\u201d. I love primates because everything they do seems so human… of course Darwin would have something to say about that.<\/p>\n
As they were foraging for food I was reminded just how diverse the primate diet can be. Unlike their human counterparts the chimps didn’t think about their food or analyze<\/a> their calories, they just ate what was readily available.<\/p>\n
They ate quite a bit of fruit (if they could find a tree) but they would polish this off fairly quickly. They ate green leafy veggies rarely and it soon became apparent that their foods of choice were nuts and if they could get their hands on it…. meat. This happened only once in the movie when they hunted together as a team (quite amazingly I might add) and were able to catch a monkey. Yes, the chimps hunted and ate a monkey.<\/p>\n
The majority of this protein rich diet was consumed by the females who were caring for the infant chimpanzees. It was fun to see the big burly males step aside, but you could tell they were a bit frustrated by this. I felt their pain thinking back to all the times we have been on trips and my wife withheld snacks for her \u201cstarving husband\u201d claiming that \u201cthey are for the kids\u201d. Maybe next time I will beat my chest.<\/p>\n
Fasting<\/a> was a big part of their lives, but of course it was never intentional. When things got bad they would seek out honey and small invertebrates such as ants. Not yummy but hey what is a hungry chimp to do?<\/p>\n
The Primal Diet<\/h2>\n
The entire Paleo movement seems pretty strait forward to me…. Just pay $7.50 and see the movie \u201cChimpanzee\u201d. Here<\/a> you have the original human diet.<\/p>\n
What is interesting is that most chimps I have seen in captivity appear lean. I assume it is because their diet is controlled. Thinking about this question more of course led me to do a bit of research.<\/p>\n
And yes, not to my surprise, they are researching the standard American diet all over the world on poor unsuspecting Rhesus monkeys.<\/p>\n
Despite a diet high in calorically dense and nutritionally vacant carbohydrates, about 40 percent do not put on a lot of weight.<\/p>\n
According to this wonderful article<\/a> in the NY Times:<\/p>\n
\u201cFat Albert, one of her monkeys who she said was at one time the world\u2019s heaviest rhesus, at 70 pounds, ate nothing but an American Heart Association-recommended diet<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n
The studies also found something else that could be important for people \u2014 that eating a healthy diet during pregnancy reduced troubles in the offspring. That suggests, he said, that the diet of a pregnant woman matters more than whether she is obese.<\/p>\n
Check out the article<\/a>, it really is interesting.<\/p>\n
The Primal Being<\/h2>\n
The best part of the movie Chimpanzee is the fact that the big burley alpha male (Freddy) ends up adopting Oscar: a baby chimp that lost his mother. The other thing I found interesting is just how much time the \u201cCEO\u201d spent attending to his tribe. Doing basic things like picking tics of his fellow tribe-mates and responding to his blog commenters.<\/p>\n
In the end this smaller, more united tribe, dramatically wins back a part of its territory not because they were the biggest, but because they knew how to work together.<\/p>\n
In my mind this is an important point: To be a great leader you must care for those in your tribe that need it the most and pay attention to the little things.<\/p>\n
It really is the little things that matter most\u2026. And the diet? Probably not so much!<\/p>\n
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