[ExI] Paleo/Primal health

Dave Sill sparge at gmail.com
Wed Nov 17 21:48:09 UTC 2010


2010/11/17 Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>:
>
> Really? Even the links above are quite short in the evidence sector. "Human
> beings might or might not have eaten sorghum cooked on sun-heated stones in
> a coupla archeological sites around 20000 BC out of some six million years
> of hunting-and-gathering, so it is fine and healthy to gorge oneself on
> popcorn and french fries and candy floss after all".

I think the takeaway here is that basing one's diet on archeological
evidence is dangerous because that evidence will always be incomplete.
Not to mention that the prehistoric lifestyle is not much like the
modern lifestyle, so even if we could perfectly recreate a paleolithic
diet, it's appropriateness today is questionable. And, on top of that,
there are certain tweaks that should be made based on modern
knowledge.

I don't argue for gorging on popcorn and candy floss, I argue for a
modern diet that incorporates everything we know about diet,
nutrition, genetics, etc.

Probably the single biggest diet problem in the US today is
overeating. Just getting everyone to eat the right number of
calories--whether it's deep fried Twinkies or raw meat, nuts, and
fruit, would dramatically improve our health. The "paleo" diet is fine
for anyone who wants to follow it, I just think it's wrong to argue
that it's "the right diet for everyone".

-Dave



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