Paleo Diet: Can Our Caveman Ancestors Teach Us the Best Modern Diet?
Our eating patterns should perhaps be modeled on what Paleolithic hunter-gatherers ate
Reader Comments
Paleo Diet: Can Our Caveman Ancestors Teach Us the Best Modern Diet? - Hobson
You quote Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet, in your article: "Cordain suggests we mimic the diet of our hunter-gatherer forebears," cutting our milk and most grains, but the use of milk as a biproduct of animal husbandry is over 10,000 years old.
Surely, if it is true that "(the) study of how human diets evolved is a rich field" then we would hope it is also sophisticated enough to recognize that in 10,000 years of a milk-based diet evolved on the basis of 'the survival of the fittest' compatibility to that diet.. It is stupid to go back to people a half million years ago, who despite some purist ideal are NOT quite the same as the stratifications of our current populations. IF that is what Cordain said, then he is ridiculous. He assumes consistency in the population type and heritage, and in that D'Adamo in 'Eat Right 4 Your Type' makes a lot more sense, questioning "the standardized one-size-fits-all diets advanced by the diet gurus."
Right Idea...mostly
A hearty thanks to Katherine Hobson for spelling out the basic tenants of the Paleo lifestyle. Between her article, and Richard's (of Free the Animal) comment, readers new to the “Paleolithic lifestyle” will gain much valuable insight. I hope this sparks a curiosity that will culminate in the conversion of many new “Paleo disciples”. To be critical, though, I have to say that both Unger and Leonard have missed the boat when it comes to exercise prescription and energy balance.
Our paleo ancestors lived an explosive and sprint/power-dominant lifestyle that was anything but what is depicted here as the "slow and steady" farmer/herder lifestyle. This is exactly the point of the Paleo lifestyle – to consume what the body was engineered via eons of evolution to thrive upon, and to push the body physically in such a way as is best suited to encourage development of a powerful, explosive phenotype (i.e., infrequent bouts of short duration, high intensity exercise).
On the point of energy balance, one must remember (1) that the human body is anything but a closed energy system, therefore rendering the “energy balance theory of weight control” the fool’s chase that it is, and (2) the overriding contribution that insulin plays in the partitioning of ingested nutrients, and insulin’s response to the inordinate (and totally alien to our genome, I might add), ingestion of carbohydrates – especially simple carbohydrates, and those derived from grains. This, in effect (and to cop a phrase from Garry Taubes), renders one ingested calorie not necessarily equal to another ingested calorie.
Keith Norris
http://theorytopractice.wordpress.com/
Paleo Doesn't Mean One Thing
I think Dr. Cordain is a real hero for being instrumental in helping to light the way to a more sane lifestyle.
That said, there are many variations, some going by small-p 'paleo, LC paleo, high fat paleo, primal, ancestral, evolutionary fitness, and so on.
Why? Well, because our ancestors emerged out of Africa 50,000ish years ago and spread across the globe, and they adapted to different things, a prime example being the ability in some to digest lactose beyond weaning, which is actually a genetic mutation some 7,000ish years ago that turned off the gene that halts lactase production. So, it's reasonable to assume there are other adaptations and mutations, some subtile and some profound.
In the end, studies of primitive peoples not in contact with industrial civilization demonstrate one thing very clearly: people can live healthfully on natural diets from equator to arctic circle, and those diets can include vast differences in macronutrient content. Protein can't be more than about 30% of intake, so that leaves carbohydrate & fat. That swings wildly, being very high in many tropical places to almost nil in regions far away. For example, the Kitavans get about 70% of energy from natural carbs (starchy roots & tubers, mostly). They exhibit no "diseases of civilization." On the other extreme were the now "civilized" Inuit, getting maybe 2-3% of intake from carbs, and at times as much as 90% from fat. Again, when studied, none of our typical laundry list of diseases.
I think it's far more important to begin with a principle, which is to eat only real, whole, non-industrial foods: meat, natural fats (animal, olive, coconut), vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Then, attempt to ascertain where your ancestors most likely came from; tropical, far north, or in-between. Were they isolated from civilization for most of the time since agriculture so few adaptations to it? These can all be clues as to what might work best for you. In my case, I'm northern Euro, and what works for me is lots of meat and animal fats, plenty of vegetables, fruits episodically, and nuts. I've lost over 50 pounds, so far, corrected my own blood pressure from 160/100 to normal ranges, corrected and reversed gum disease for which I had two surgeries in 2001, and relieved myself of a couple of prescription medications, for GERD and allergies, the latter that I had been on for decades.
As documented on my blog, I now sport HDL (good) cholesterol at an astounding 135 (above 60 recommended) and triglycerides (fat in the blod) in the 40s (below 150 recommended).
Whichever style of version of paleo works best for you (and there's probably great variation) I can say this this is my style for life. At 48, I feel better, more energetic, more full of life than at any time I can remember.
Richard Nikoley
Free the Animal
www.freetheanimal.com
More of Prof. Cordain's Paleo Diet in new Documentary
Dear Ms. Hobson,
Great to see you feature The Paleo Diet and Professor Cordian's work. Certainly, with America's overall health is serious decline, it's critical to get this kind of life changing information exposed to as many people as possible.
One note: I think readers might miss the message when at the conclusion of the article with a statement like "Eat a balanced diet and a diversity of foods" like your Mom told you. Most would think that means any of the "foods" you can find in any isle of the local supermarket.
But, if a reader wants to think about that quote the way you introduced Professor Cordain and The Paleo Diet, then a "balanced diet and a diversity of foods" needs be considered in the context of the native human diet. As Professor Cordain said, that's "lean meats (especially grass-fed beef, wild game, and free-range birds rather than farm-raised animals), fish, plants, fruit, and nuts."
Btw, you'll be able to see and hear much more of Professor Cordain and his research in our upcoming documentary 'In Search of the Perfect Human Diet (TM)" later this year.
Sincerely,
CJ Hunt
Executive Producer
www.perfecthumandiet.com
