Caveman-Inspired Consumption

The good old days of the Palaeolithic Age, where our ancient predecessors didn’t have to face the horrors that plague our society today — Pot Noodles, Diet Coke, and microwave macaroni cheese.

Despite certainties that our predecessors were more concerned with not dying from injury, infection, or gruelling labour, they didn’t know how good they had it, living a refined sugar, seed oil, ultra-processed food (UPFs) free life.

I am a sceptic but an open-minded one at that. There are nodes of my belief system that are happy to be convinced otherwise, like whether or not I should be regularly consuming beef tallow.

Tallow is rendered fat from cattle, sheep and bison. More specifically, it's rendered suet — the fat surrounding the animal's organs. It's similar to lard, which is rendered fat from pigs, boars and other swine.

Ah, beef tallow. The early 90’s McDonald’s chip oil, and viral skincare trend. Another thing our ancestors were concerned with — crispy fries and glowing skin.

I am a believer of healthy, balanced eating, with minimal to no UPFs, but as the "ancestral living” trend creeps more into my field of vision (Instagram) every day, there are certainly some parts of it’s ethos that make sense. Like, getting a good amount of natural sunlight, and being a sociable creature. I read Ultra-Processed People by Dr Chris van Tulleken. I was horrified to discover the origins of xantham gum and I hadn’t really considered that Quavers weren’t actually food.

Beef tallow is a source of healthy fats, like avocado, but beware the marketing that tells you “our primal ancestors relied on beef tallow.” They likely didn’t, they primarily hunted wild animals, survival focused on immediate consumption, and fat preservation would have proven difficult without modern refrigeration.

The rise of the ancestral living movement is described as simply adopting the lifestyle habits of our hunter-gatherer ancestors — eating real food. The diets that constitute as real food to qualify as an ancestral living being are:

1. The Paleo diet: consuming meat, organs (and sometimes dairy), vegetables, nuts, seeds and seasonal fruit. Grains and processed foods are avoided as part of this lifestyle.

2. The Carnivore diet: consuming only eating meat, organs and in some instances dairy and eggs. These are often conflated with various other terms banded around the internet like “single-ingredient diet” or “ketovore”.

(If you’re worried you might not be consuming enough beef tallow, you can still meet your beef tallow goals by also buying it in supplement form.)

The particularly divisive “carnivore diet” demonstrated by one TikTok account @steakandbuttergal consists of her eating a stick of unsalted butter straight out the fridge, gelatinous bone broth, fatty steak, eggs, beef patties, raw kefir, and raw cheese.

@steakandbuttergal

#carnivorediet #carnivore #butter #animalbased

This plate is what I would find waiting for me on my personal journey through every layer of Dante’s Inferno.

There are many videos in the ether that claim to be trying “the carnivore diet” but there are carnivore purists in the comments — quite rightly — asking the important questions like “From wich animal come that green stuff?”

Honestly, the pictured chopping board looks like a great balanced meal. There isn’t anything “ancestral” about it — but it’s not directly claiming to be.

People want simple answers to complex questions about health, and marketers will capitalise on this desire — ultimately "ancestral" sounds more premium than "healthy eating" and creating divisive opinions online tends to get more views.

Basic healthy eating isn't marketable - it needs constant rebranding to create profit opportunities. The irony being that making healthy eating more complicated often makes it less accessible and sustainable.

If you’re looking for a healthy alternative fat, beef tallow is a great option. I’m probably not going to start eating beef tallow. I am always happy to have my mind changed, by the way but for me, beef tallow is 2025’s answer to 2013’s Goji Berry — expensive and perfectly okay to live without. I will likely never completely forgo modern human nature in the effort to thrive under this new wave of caveman-inspired consumption.

A chopping board filled with meats, veggies, eggs, and fruit looks good, and I think butter is smashing. I would eat that, knowing it was a balanced and healthy meal. I also know Cadbury’s mini rolls are not good for me, but they are delicious.