[ExI] Severe Diet Doesn’t Prolong Life, at Least in Monkeys

[Stefano Vaj]

On 30 August 2012 19:41, Max More <max at maxmore.com> wrote:

> Cereals, potatoes, and legumes are avoided on a paleo diet, vegetables are
> definitely favored, but paleo types vary considerably when it comes the
> amount and type of fruits and nuts consumed.
>

Yes, exactly, especially if you are a neo-Atkinsonite like mysef. :-)

But while a rigid eskimo-style nutrition seems unobjectionable from a paleo
POV, I do eat plenty of leaves salads and herbs myself, such as lettuce,
chicory, basil, spinach, rocket and other I would be not be able to name in
English (hey, even my cat chew a little catnip from time to time, so I
guess this does not disqualify me as a bona fide carnivorous).

For fruits, I am well aware of their deplorable sugar content :-), but have
two criteria:
i) favour the kinds of fruit which is either not cultivated or at least
not  the recent product of caloric-efficient agricultural selection and
hybridation, and which have the best ratio between sugar and vitanutrients
(for both purposes, wild berries would seem the best around...);
ii) limit the quantity anyway, which is the very exception for a diet where
you have limit in the kind but not in the amount of caloric intake.
I am not so persuaded about the diffidence against nuts, OTOH.

At the same time, I am always amazed at the kind of ideological bias and
hostility that even some transhumanists (say, Tarrero or Pearce) regularly
express on the subject.

I am fully in favour, say, of growing meat (or vegetables, for that
matter)) in vials, but I do not really feel like recommending autotrophy or
veganism simply because the tech is not there yet.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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