The Paleo Diet, Debunked

Stephen J

Stephen J

Suum Cuique
No surprise here !

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/the-paleo-diet--debunked—what-took-so-long--202100492.html

" And while it's true that our ancestors likely adopted a diet of 100 percent unprocessed food and were constantly exercising (being chased by a saber-toothed tiger can do that to a person) unlike the average computer-bound professional (walking to the salad place on your lunch break doesn't count), Zuk says that ancient remains show about the same incidences of modern-day cancer. Plus, cavemen, who typically lived until only about 18-years-old didn't consume grains, dairy, salt, and sugar—at worst, that's no bagels, fro-yo, and fries; at best, no quinoa, Greek yogurt, or almonds. Fun factor aside, carbohydrates are essential for energy and brain function, salt for nerve function, and dairy for strong bones. That doesn't sound like a well-balanced diet. "

:D
 
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The "caveman diet" as with most trendy diets are all unhealthy and ineffective over the long run.

The key to any type of diet for health or weight loss reasons is moderation and balance with light exercise. It's just that people are too spoiled to eat moderately and too lazy to exercise.
 
All of the above, plus the need to try something new that might work/ holds promise.
It's more exciting than "Eat your vegetables and don't sit on your ass eating bon-bons all of the time". That said, if it works for you who am I to tell you what to eat...
 
carbohydrates are essential for energy and brain function, salt for nerve function, and dairy for strong bones.

This is one of those vampire myths that won't die. Eskimoes for example don't eat carbohydrates.

From Wikipedia on No Carb Diets

A no-carbohydrate diet is ketogenic, which means it causes the body to go into a state of ketosis, converting dietary fat and body fat into ketone bodies and using them to fuel the entire body and up to 95% of the brain. The remaining 5% still runs on glucose which is adequately supplied by converting dietary protein via gluconeogenesis or by converting glycerol from the breakdown of fat. It uses mainly animal source foods and requires a high saturated fat intake.

An early proponent of an all animal-based diet was Icelandic-Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879 – 1962), who lived with the Inuit for some time and witnessed their diet as essentially consisting of meat and fish, with very few carbohydrates -— just berries during the summer. Hospital Center in New York City to prove he could thrive on a diet of nothing but meat, meat fat and internal organs of animals.[1] His progress was closely monitored and experiments were done on his health throughout the year. At the end of the year, he did not show any symptoms of ill health; he did not develop scurvy, which many scientists had expected to manifest itself only a few months into the diet due to the lack of vitamin C in muscle meat. However, Stefansson and his partner did not eat just muscle meat but also fat, raw brain, raw liver (a significant source of vitamin C and others), and other varieties of offal.

If you read the article, they quote Marlene Zuk, Ph.D., Professor of Biology who merely says that ancient man may have eaten more carbs than is found in a typical paleo diet. The Zuk book get 2.5 stars from 18 reviews on Amazon. She obviously impresses people with her expertise. The author of the article, Elise Solé, is the one who comes up with the "facts" of your quote. She is obviously an expert on the subject given that her other articles are obits for Margaret Thatcher and various Hollywood puff pieces.

P.S. Dairy is not an essential nutrient. In fact many people lack the ability to digest milk.

P.P.S. I do not eat a no carb diet although there are healthy people who do.
 
Putterman said:
carbohydrates are essential for energy and brain function, salt for nerve function, and dairy for strong bones.

This is one of those vampire myths that won't die. Eskimoes for example don't eat carbohydrates.



An early proponent of an all animal-based diet was Icelandic-Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879 – 1962), who lived with the Inuit for some time and witnessed their diet as essentially consisting of meat and fish, with very few carbohydrates -— just berries during the summer. Hospital Center in New York City to prove he could thrive on a diet of nothing but meat, meat fat and internal organs of animals.[1] His progress was closely monitored and experiments were done on his health throughout the year. At the end of the year, he did not show any symptoms of ill health; he did not develop scurvy, which many scientists had expected to manifest itself only a few months into the diet due to the lack of vitamin C in muscle meat. However, Stefansson and his partner did not eat just muscle meat but also fat, raw brain, raw liver (a significant source of vitamin C and others), and other varieties of offal.
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.......cavemen, who typically lived until only about 18-years-old "

" Raw brain, raw liver, and other varieties of offal "......:scratch2:......I think not !!
 
Humans are the only mamal that drinks milk after we are weaned. The reason the food pyramid calls for 6-11 servings of grain , if everybody stoped eating grains we couldn't grow enough food.
 
1) Ketosis is not a good thing.
2) Wikipedia doesn't really trump the peer reviewed literature as a source for information in the scientific domain. I'd suggest using http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ to search the literature (it's one of the standard "go-to" tools at my day job).
3) Most of today's diet trends are carefully engineered forms of malnutrition. When one is malnourished, one will lose weight. That doesn't make for a sustainable "lifestyle".

In 1978 I weighed 296 pounds. Today I weigh 156. The delta was due to WeightWatchers and the love of a good woman. Unfortunately except for walking and bike-riding, I hate to exercise... so I eat a lot of vegetables and fruit.
 
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Ok, I'll grant you she is a woman. :)

And I still feel it is just one opinion of many.

Carbs are sugar!!! Eating carbs, even whole wheat toast, spikes your blood sugar. More and more evidence is showing elevated blood sugar levels lead to so many major diseases including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc.
 
listen - I make my living analyzing and studying the biology of carbohydrates - don't y'all go dissin' sugar! ;-)
 
Am I missing something! How can a diet of meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds be bad for you?
 
Stephen J said:
Ok,let's call hers an educated opinion. . :yes:
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I don't really have a problem with her opinion (Marlene Zuk, Ph.D) as expressed in the article. There is evidence that ancient man/woman gathered starchy tuber like vegetables although it's unclear what % of their diet came from these sources.

I'm not sure that I agree with the cancer stats when most records of undisturbed cultures (i.e. primitive tribes) show a very low incidence of 'diseases of civilization'; heart disease, diabetes and cancer) until western foods were introduced.

My BIG PROBLEM with the article was that the writer inserted her unsubstantiated opinions into the article and didn't make clear that they were not necessarily Ms. Zuk's opinions. That is poor writing.

A better article is http://mobile.slate.com/articles/he..._exercise_based_on_ancient_humans.single.html which is mentioned in the first article which is actually an interview of Ms. Zuk.
 
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schaale said:
Am I missing something! How can a diet of meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds be bad for you?
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A less trusting person than myself my say that the diet you are describing is also very low in high profit, packaged foods. But I would never say that! :)
 
Uhhhh....bonjour.

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schaale said:
Am I missing something! How can a diet of meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds be bad for you?
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I don't think anyone is suggesting that it's bad for you.Just not as good for you as some people make it out to be.
Or that it will necessarily help you lose weight.
 
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