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are about 65% wild game meat and 35% gathered plant food, show them to be generally free of the signs and symptoms of cardiovascular disease. Could it be then that the eating habits of our ancestral pre-farming Paleolithic people living 2.5 million years ago until 10,000 years ago are guiding us along a path to prevent heart attacks and stroke in modern humans?
• Those who don't swallow this theory advise us that back then, most people had to walk about an hour a day to survive, had smaller portions of food when they had food at all, and that most didn't live past 30 years of age anyway. These contrarians state that 500 generations of living with an agrarian diet has been enough to evolve tolerance to lactose and gluten with only an occasional throwback who doesn't tolerate our modern diet of milk and bread.
• I think the path to preventing a heart attack is not by avoiding meat and fat, or even milk and bread, but rather by simply eating smaller portions and daily walking along any path.
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• Dr. Rick Holm wrote this Prairie Doc Perspective for "On Call®," a weekly program where medical professionals discuss health concerns for the general public.  "On Call®" is produced by the Healing Words Foundation in association with the South Dakota State University Journalism Department. "On Call®" airs Thursdays on South Dakota Public Broadcasting-Television at 7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain. Visit us at OnCallTelevision.com.