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Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

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Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#41

Post by dota_fanatic »

legulere wrote: post #39
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.

Perhaps you're thinking of Jared Diamond's (author of Guns, Germs, and Steel) The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race? Which can be read here: http://www.ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#43

Post by twistedanimator »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #13
noondip wrote: post #9

The evidence for plant-based, low-fat vegan diets seems more convincing to me. Is there a paleo version of http://nutritionfacts.org - complete with direct links or citations to research supporting the proposed way to eat? I'm not trying to be snarky, but rather genuinely curious what scientific basis this diet really has. The article says we're wise to limit saturated fat intake and increase fibre intake, but isn't…

If you like nutritionfacts.org, you may be interested to know Greger wrote a book which is well referenced: http://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/dp... Also, there was a recent article on Vox talking about why nutrition research is so hard to do: http://www.vox.com/2016/1/14/10760622/nutrition-science-comp...

And if you have an Android phone, I created an app for the section of the book about the Daily Dozen foods you should be eating every day. Here is a link if you are interested: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.slavick.da...

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#44

Post by legulere »

noondip wrote: post #9

The evidence for plant-based, low-fat vegan diets seems more convincing to me. Is there a paleo version of http://nutritionfacts.org - complete with direct links or citations to research supporting the proposed way to eat? I'm not trying to be snarky, but rather genuinely curious what scientific basis this diet really has. The article says we're wise to limit saturated fat intake and increase fibre intake, but isn't…

> The evidence for plant-based, low-fat vegan diets seems more convincing to me.

There are several nutrients you can easily be undersupplied with if you're not watching out really carefully: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism#Nutrients

Those can be easily supplied by eating a small amount of meat and other animal products without loosing the benefits of a mostly plant based diet.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#45

Post by glaugh »

noondip wrote: post #9

The evidence for plant-based, low-fat vegan diets seems more convincing to me. Is there a paleo version of http://nutritionfacts.org - complete with direct links or citations to research supporting the proposed way to eat? I'm not trying to be snarky, but rather genuinely curious what scientific basis this diet really has. The article says we're wise to limit saturated fat intake and increase fibre intake, but isn't…

I'm not aware of any one resource like that (though if you like that, you might find examine.com interesting; it's very neutral, and doesn't always hew to the beliefs of any one diet).

Here's one about saturated fat: http://examine.com/faq/is-saturated-fat-bad-for-me/

That said, paleo-ish writers like Chris Kresser do a good job of synthesizing academic papers that lead him to follow a paleo-ish diet. E.g., here's a bunch about red meat: http://chriskresser.com/the-truth-about-red-meat/

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#46

Post by devy »

enqk wrote: post #26
devy wrote: post #22

Does the below excerpt alleviate the belief that GMO foods are harmful? In 1985 scientists believed that few genetic changes had occurred since we were all hunting and gathering, say 10,000 years ago. Now we know that lots of genes have changed. One fascinating new finding is that within the last few thousand years Eskimos evolved genes for enzymes to process the fatty acids in Arctic fish.

Only if you believe the process followed by GMO engineering is the same as the process of selective breeding

So your point is ... the same or not?

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#47

Post by _greim_ »

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…

I've heard mixed things about salt. For example, look at the results in this Google search[1]. "Salt is obviously bad." "It's a myth, salt is probably fine." Etc. My takeaway has been that, as long as you don't have high blood pressure or some specific condition, the typical amount of salt in modern diets is fine.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=salt+in+diet&ie=utf-8&oe=utf...

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#48

Post by dhimes »

pc86 wrote: post #21
tkyjonathan wrote: post #8

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

Okay, so we've got the unrelated vegan comment, there's already an unrelated CrossFit comment, all we need is someone to mention they're an atheist and we've got the trifecta. It's almost as if nutrition is incredibly complex and different things work for different people.

I took the cross-fit as a sarcastic point about (its) gp- essentially making the point you are making about it.

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#49

Post by mfoy_ »

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

Not to nitpick, but it's "lactase" persistence. Lactase is the enzyme which breaks down lactose. People without lactase in their gut cannot digest lactose, hence "lactose intolerance" in those without "lactase persistence".

Re: Confessions of a Paleo Diet Pioneer

#50

Post by astrange »

noondip wrote: post #9

The evidence for plant-based, low-fat vegan diets seems more convincing to me. Is there a paleo version of http://nutritionfacts.org - complete with direct links or citations to research supporting the proposed way to eat? I'm not trying to be snarky, but rather genuinely curious what scientific basis this diet really has. The article says we're wise to limit saturated fat intake and increase fibre intake, but isn't…

Low-fat diets aren't particularly good for you, as you can see by the current generation of unhealthy heart disease-having Americans dutifully following them.

If your macronutrient ratio is going to be high-carb, you at least need a strong culture of small portions like Asians do to keep a precise daily calorie target.

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