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Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

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Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#31

Post by fluxion »

stinos wrote: post #19
nkrisc wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you noticed no difference, that seems like a good sign it might be alright for you. That said, based on people I know, those who should not be eating dairy or wheat get various levels of intestinal distress if they do; it's pretty obvious. But most importantly, consult a doctor or other medical professional if you need more information.

it's pretty obvious this is what I don't get: author says most should avoid dairy, you (and others) say it's easy to recognize problems with eating it. Yet the vast majority of all people I know have no problems with dairy whatsoever. So is the author wrong, does he mean something else, do I live with people who can't recognize problems originating from dairy use or do I live with a special subgroup of people who all…

Approximately 65% of the worlds population suffers from a diminished ability to digest dairy after childhood, see http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lactose-intolerance. That said lactose intolerance usually doesn't occur in people of European descent so I would imagine you happen to live in s special subgroup who has no such problem.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#32

Post by apendleton »

stinos wrote: post #19
nkrisc wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you noticed no difference, that seems like a good sign it might be alright for you. That said, based on people I know, those who should not be eating dairy or wheat get various levels of intestinal distress if they do; it's pretty obvious. But most importantly, consult a doctor or other medical professional if you need more information.

it's pretty obvious this is what I don't get: author says most should avoid dairy, you (and others) say it's easy to recognize problems with eating it. Yet the vast majority of all people I know have no problems with dairy whatsoever. So is the author wrong, does he mean something else, do I live with people who can't recognize problems originating from dairy use or do I live with a special subgroup of people who all…

For dairy in particular, it's the last one. Globally, lactose persistence (the opposite of lactose intolerance) is a minority trait that appears to have arisen in populations that raised domesticated cattle, but not elsewhere. Most African and southeast Asian adults, for example, are lactose intolerant. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#33

Post by noondip »

stinos wrote: post #25
noondip wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegan here - I take a sub-lingual Methylcobalamin B12 vitamin. Iron is had from a variety of foods, lentils and spinach especially come to mind. With regard to protein, there is an ample amount (~10%) in all whole plant foods which doesn't make this a practical concern.

Definitely try to figure out where your supplement comes from.. Ideally, after seeing this [1] and other negative reports on quality of some supplements, you'd almost have to put it through a spectrum analyzer to make sure [1] www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supplements-and-safety/

The brand I purchase is Jarrow which seems reputable. Is there a practical guide to inexpensive home testing? I guess an alternative is annual B12 injections from your physician or some sort of wellness center. For the record, the only other supplement I take is an algae-based EPA/DHA pill and I'm told all brands of such are manufactured in one place.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#35

Post by bunkydoo »

The only person I know who did this diet ended up staying 350 pounds with persisting respitory issues. (Obviously present before the diet) he sat on me the other day and just about crushed my rib cage. But I'm still at a cool 135 lbs just eating whatever I want (which is surprisingly almost entirely organic foods) I'm here to tell you, Paleo probably doesn't do shit besides stroke your fucking ego into thinking you're a caveman or some dumbass shit.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#36

Post by noondip »

skyyler wrote: post #10
tkyjonathan wrote: post #8

Whole-food plant-based vegan here. Life is good. Energy is high.

Do you spend more on food than you did as a non-vegan? What made you take up veganism? I've been considering it for a while, I had a realization while eating a slice of salami a few weeks ago and I realized something had to die for me to eat it and it made me feel bad.

> Do you spend more on food than you did as a non-vegan?

I did when I'd first started out with plant-based eating, because I didn't know which foods to purchase and a lot went to waste. I had also sought out meat, cheese and dairy alternatives like Beyond Meat and Tofurky which aren't competitively priced (yet).

Now that I've been vegan for over a year - and eating almost exclusively whole foods - the grocery bill for my household is drastically lower. I buy a lot of food in bulk. A 25 lb. bag of brown rice provides tens of thousands of calories to last months and costs a mere ~$60, for example. Canned legumes, frozen fruits and veggies and seasonal produce from my garden, CSA or farmers' markets are all very affordable.

> What made you take up veganism?

Two YouTube videos -

101 Reasons to Go Vegan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4HJcq8qHAY

Best Speech You Will Ever Hear by Gary Yourofsky - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4

Later, I learned animal agriculture is responsible for the most greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding animal products can protect against most "diseases of affluence", which reaffirmed my decision.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#37

Post by Someone1234 »

bunkydoo wrote: post #35

The only person I know who did this diet ended up staying 350 pounds with persisting respitory issues. (Obviously present before the diet) he sat on me the other day and just about crushed my rib cage. But I'm still at a cool 135 lbs just eating whatever I want (which is surprisingly almost entirely organic foods) I'm here to tell you, Paleo probably doesn't do shit besides stroke your fucking ego into thinking you'r…

One anecdote, one data point.

Paleo isn't magic, but it is consistent with previous advice. High in fruits, veggies, seafoods, nuts, and unprocessed meats. Low in sugars, other processed foods, grains, and dairy.

I'm sure someone could do Paleo and stay 350 pounds, but that would be hard as eating almost 3000 calories a day from fruits, veggies, seafoods, nuts, and unprocessed meats is hard since they're so filling per weight (as opposed to sugar in particular which is not at all filing per weight).

To be honest you can simplify Paleo thusly: Drop sugar from your diet as completely as possible.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#38

Post by legulere »

> Recent data on these issues make me more comfortable today saying what not to eat. Our ancestors had no ...

Isn't that yet another fallacy? Just because our ancestors didn't have it, doesn't automatically mean it's bad for us. If we can learn anything at all from our ancestors, then it's that the human body is pretty adoptable to different food sources. So if we want to know what's bad for us we should simply do studies today. It's not that I disagree with the recommendations, but I find the way of reasoning flawed.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#39

Post by legulere »

ideonexus wrote: post #20

I've always appreciated Michael Pollan's essay (and books) on this subject. His advice can be summed up as "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." [1] In his books he argues strongly against the nutritionist strategy of trying to separate out the healthy components of foods from the foods themselves. For example, I know many nutritionists who take vitamins, but Pollan points out when you take the Vitamin C without t…

Sadly I can't cite a source, but I once read that farming didn't increase the lifespan or health, but actually greatly reduced it (note that we today have a totally different diet from the first days of farming). However it made an extremely higher population density possible. A real paleo diet would be so land consuming that it wouldn't be possible for more than a negligible fraction of today's population.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#40

Post by nkrisc »

apendleton wrote: post #32
stinos wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's pretty obvious this is what I don't get: author says most should avoid dairy, you (and others) say it's easy to recognize problems with eating it. Yet the vast majority of all people I know have no problems with dairy whatsoever. So is the author wrong, does he mean something else, do I live with people who can't recognize problems originating from dairy use or do I live with a special subgroup of people who all…

For dairy in particular, it's the last one. Globally, lactose persistence (the opposite of lactose intolerance) is a minority trait that appears to have arisen in populations that raised domesticated cattle, but not elsewhere. Most African and southeast Asian adults, for example, are lactose intolerant. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence

I just wanted to point out that African and Asian adults would certainly constitute "most" people, based on population. As I understand it, populations that can consume dairy tend to be centered on Northern Europe, a very small fraction of the global population.

I'll only speak for myself, but I was first thrown off by the "most" part as well, until I realized I had a pretty Euro-centric view of it. "Most people I know have no problem with dairy," I thought to myself. Then I remembered most people I know have European ancestry.

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