A 2002 article discusses net acid load in three different diets: a pre-agricultural diet, an ancestral agricultural diet, and a contemporary diet.

    The abstract of the article leaves out the ancestral agricultural diet, and only compares the pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer diet to the contemporary diet (also known as the SAD, Standard American Diet). The SAD is highly processed, devoid of fruits and vegetables, and is acid-forming.

    In the body of the article, the ancestral agricultural diet is also discussed. The authors report that the pre-agricultural (hunter-gatherer) diet was the most alkalinizing, while the ancestral agricultural diet was less so. The differences come from the amounts of leafy greens (alkalinizing) and grains (mildly acid-forming).

    The article itself is behind a paywall, and I cannot post it online as that would violate copyright. However, I can send individual copies for educational purposes. Just let me know if you would like a PDF.

    The article abstract reports that agriculture developed only about 10,000 years ago, which is not enough time for the genome to modify and enable digestion of the new diet. The authors propose that we should all be eating like hunter-gatherers, leaving out grains and dairy. But is the statement about the genome accurate?

    More recent studies would suggest that it is not. Scientists at UC Berkeley found that over the last 12,000 years, the human genome has acquired more copies of genes for enzymes that digest starch. With an increased ability to digest grains, some of us can do well on an ancestral agricultural diet.

    This correlates well with what Dr. Weston A. Price found when he traveled the world evaluating the diets and dental health of various populations eating their traditional diets. He found healthy hunter-gatherers and healthy agriculturalists.

    He did not find anyone who was healthy while eating the SAD (Standard American Diet).