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The Paleo Diet


Evan

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If you have heard of it then you probably are on it. This diet is truly a score for evolution. The idea is this...

 

It is 40,000 B.C., you are in the middle of the forest and you need to find something to eat. What is availible? The choices are nuts, fruits, eggs, meat(raw if you JUST killed it but packaged you have to cook), vegetables, and various fish. What isn't availible? Bread, potatoes, and processed foods. Humans are adapted to eat all the availible choices. We have evolved to eat those kinds of foods and not things like bread or potatoes.

 

Why can't we eat bread or potatoes?

Think about it... You CANNOT eat grain or potatoes UNLESS you cook it. Even after baking bread for 2,000 years we still cannot eat grain raw. The same thing goes potatoes. The plant created enzymes within its high energy seeds to keep animals from eating it. Grain is built to fling its seeds everywhere with the help of wind. It can't survive if animals are always eating it.

 

How do we know this diet works?

Nutrition experts and scientists have been stressing low fat diets and eating carbs. Meanwhile America keeps getting fatter and fatter. Who is the culprit? Carbohydrates. Our bodies are adapted to breakdown glucose for energy not the complex carbohydrates. The articles explain how making grain the staple of our diet can cause serious issues with with maintaining insulin levels. You will have to read it for yourself it is really convincing.

 

P.S. It also helps fight disease or problems concerning old age. One of the scientists(or nutritionist can't remember) started the diet with horrible arthritis. After severals weeks and almost all grain removed from his diet, his arthritis pain was alleviated considerably.

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It makes a certain sense, but I have no idea where the "no potato" idea came from. People have been eating tubers (sweet potatos, potatos, etc) for as long as we can tell. In addition, many primitive cultures (esp in africa) still do (raw and cooked).

 

The truth is, no one really knows what our species used to eat. We can guess, sure, but with the near homogenous spread of our species acrossed the planet, we've had to adapt to a variety of diets.

 

People are fat because they eat badly and don't exercise. Changing your diet without changing your lifestyle is a recipe for dissapointment.

 

IMOHO

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Interesting but one comment you made doesn't follow. Americans don't eat any more starches than other countries that are not fat. Italians eat pasta twice a day and Russians live on potato diets. Niether one of these countries is nearly as fat as America; not even close.

 

I read the other day that lack of sleep and stress was a contributing factor to obesity. I would argue that the true difference between the US and the countries I just mentioned is the fact that Americans are much more overworked and sleep deprived.

 

Truly though, American obesity is still a mystery to me. It seemed to have popped up dramatically over the last 20 years. Perhaps it's the results of Reagan's deregluation and Reaganomic's impact on the American work force. Dunno, it's as good a hypothesis as any I think.

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Yeah, starch might be not so good for you. But stop with these stupid scientific studies to explain why we're all overweight, you already know the answer. AMERICANS EAT TO FUCKING MUCH.

 

A single combo meal from a fast food resturant has around 1000 calories...about half of the average adults' daily caloric requirement. And the average American eats about 3-4 of such meals a day. (And dont bother thinking that normal, non fast food resturants are any healthier)

 

Over time, all that extra calories is gonna make you fatter. Simple fact of life.

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I've been reading on this lately, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Starchy foods, like potatoes and bread, lay the pounds on you. After examining my diet, I realised it was full of starch/sugar based foods. It is true that we (Americans) have grown fatter even though we have mostly focused on low-fat diets, plus we seem to be experiencing a diabetes epidemic. Sugar might be the culprit, not fat. It seems like the Paleolithic Diet, along with similar diets such as The Zone and Sugar Busters, would work because they fit our evolutionary history, rather than diets that focus totally on fat. I've also looked at the Calorie Restriction Diet, though I don't know if I could follow it permanently.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry I haven't replied to this in a while been busy. I want more people to give their opinion on this because it is a really interesting subject. The matter of weight has always been how much people eat. It is affected by what people eat as well, but not near to the extent of a large consumption of food. You could eat fast food everyday and still be skinny depending on your daily activies(like working out). The one thing that really won me over about the diet idea is that those who have really taken this diet to heart seem to have a smaller percentage of those who get diseases like cancer or they have reduced arthritis. If anything it would help to explain why so many people are lactose-intolerant(and for that matter why some cultures don't even drink milk and don't have a huge crisis with bones).

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If you have heard of it then you probably are on it. This diet is truly a score for evolution. The idea is this...

 

It is 40,000 B.C., you are in the middle of the forest and you need to find something to eat. What is availible? The choices are nuts, fruits, eggs, meat(raw if you JUST killed it but packaged you have to cook), vegetables, and various fish. What isn't availible? Bread, potatoes, and processed foods. Humans are adapted to eat all the availible choices. We have evolved to eat those kinds of foods and not things like bread or potatoes.

 

Why can't we eat bread or potatoes?

Think about it... You CANNOT eat grain or potatoes UNLESS you cook it. Even after baking bread for 2,000 years we still cannot eat grain raw. The same thing goes potatoes. The plant created enzymes within its high energy seeds to keep animals from eating it. Grain is built to fling its seeds everywhere with the help of wind. It can't survive if animals are always eating it.

 

How do we know this diet works?

Nutrition experts and scientists have been stressing low fat diets and eating carbs. Meanwhile America keeps getting fatter and fatter. Who is the culprit? Carbohydrates. Our bodies are adapted to breakdown glucose for energy not the complex carbohydrates. The articles explain how making grain the staple of our diet can cause serious issues with with maintaining insulin levels. You will have to read it for yourself it is really convincing.

 

P.S. It also helps fight disease or problems concerning old age. One of the scientists(or nutritionist can't remember) started the diet with horrible arthritis. After severals weeks and almost all grain removed from his diet, his arthritis pain was alleviated considerably.

 

I've read up on it, it sounds good in theory but there are no scientific studies of it that I'm aware of. I also question the underlying assumption that 10,000 years is not enough generations of humans to allow tolerance to eating grain. Cooked rice is high glycemic, but billions of Asians have survived rather well on it. The Greeks on Crete and the Okinawans are the longest-lived human populations, and their diet includes plenty of grains. Methinks fad diets are a crock of reeking offal designed to divest you of your hard-earned dollars, but you are free to eat whatever you like. ;)

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After my 36 years on this planet, I have a good idea what works and what doesn't. I try to maintain a diet high in lean protein, brightly colored fruits(high is antioxidants and phytopigments), dark vegetables, and clean carbs like rice or rice noodles. Keep wheat products at a minimun. This being china, the home of rich spicy foods, it's a bit hard to avoid fats and oils, but easier to balance it out with a lot of fish. Also there are a huge variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in abundance at the street markets which are usually extremely cheap. It's a sin that in the west fresh fruits and vegetables are so expensive, and no wonder pringles, hot dogs and ketchup have become staples.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm overweight, and I eat my veggies (and grow them too, something most Americans do not do much of). Starches I(in excess) may be an issue, earing too much at a sitting is probably an issue, but I think there are other factors too. American diets have a lot of corn syrup in them and there is some evidence now to suggest that corn syrup may mess with the hunger hormones to make your hungrier longer. I've cut out most of that. Stress is definitely an issue, Americans are stressed to the max.

 

As for eating grain, we humans do need B complex vitamins, some of which are found in whole grain. I can't quite recall if any of them do not have an alternate source, though.

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I'm 36 and had horrible eating and exercise habits that led to being overweight and contributed to Rheumatoid Arthritis which runs in my family (bigtime). Almost two months ago I switched to a vegan diet that includes LOTS of greens, fruits, nuts, seeds, and my grain comes in the form of Cream of Wheat and Quaker Oats. I get B12 from drinking fortified Soy milk....I've never felt better in my entire life and have lost now 21 pounds to boot!

 

The Paleo Diet is new to me. My dietary changes came as a result of searching the net for help in dealing with RA and saw numerous sites from people who relied on solely medicine, solely dietary changes and both. Because we don't have insurance, I really had no other choice but that okay, it's worked out great! I've been on numerous vegan and vegetarian sites and have seen similiar good reports from others as well.

 

My grandmother, younger sister and aunt are not overweight but suffer with RA no differently than my mother and I. However, they continue to eat a diet with few veggies and mostly processed and cooked foods. My sister has already had her Oxycontin dosage upped after only a year. :-( I shared with her how switching might help her to relieve or rid symptoms completely and she was honest: "Sis, I'm happy for you but it would be to hard."

 

Pound for pound broccoli has more usable protein than steak and I get my other proteins from fortified Soymilk, whole nuts (essential fatty acids) and seeds. Cream of Wheat is rich in iron, 50% per serving and 1 TBSP of Blackstrap Molasses has 20% iron and of course we all know that Spinach is rich in iron. Many carcinogens are in foods that most Americans eat which is why many of us know 'healthy' people who end up with cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. You can't have a plate of buttered mashed taters that have been mixed with milk, butter, salt, topped with gravy, a lean bone-less skinless chicken breast, and a tiny bowl of salad with 10 grams of fat per serving and call that healthy. LOL

 

I'm saving money because I no longer need supplements and my children and hubby are trying to include more of these great foods too. I truly believe that if our bodies are fed foods high in nutrients that we have the potential within to heal beautifully and I'm saying that because it has worked. There is no overnight miracle here, it takes effort. Basically, I'm trying to supply my body with the basic needs and getting rid of the 'need' to eat rich, fatty, sugary DELICIOUS foods. Once in awhile is okay but not regularly. Doing this is helping me to breakdown a traditional lifestyle of poor eating habits within my family, one where heart disease and arthritis prevail.

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I think Americans are fat because we place too much emphasis on being FAT. We have a terrible food culture. It's so negative. Everywhere we go we're being told "we're too fat, we're diseased, we're ugly, we need this, we need that, try this new diet, you can't trust yourself, you need something!"

 

I finally realized after twenty years of dieting that this mentality of "you're not worthy of appropriate BMI range...unless you do this!" is exactly what was keeping me fat. Once I started deconverting from the Religion of Obesity and Weightloss and stopped reading my scale like holy scripture, the excess weight started coming off.

 

I'm not buying into the lies of "appropriate diet" anymore. I don't need anyone to tell me that eating stuff with ingredients I can understand instead of chemical names makes me feel better. I don't need anyone to tell me to exercise, it's fun to swim in a lake on strong arms and have a good time playing games with friends in the park. And I don't need a doctor to tell me that doing all this is making me sleep better, feel better, look better, and giving me less colds in winter.

 

I eat fine, I look fine, and I like my cooking. I've had enough of crappy American food culture.

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