In a message dated 4/25/01 4:09:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< What other
 solutions are there for large scale, sustainable changes or is Paleo just
 another "elitist" fashion? >>

The problem really is with America, rather than the rest of the world. All
America has to do is cut out carbohydrates, particularly starches and sugars,
and most of America's dietary and health problems would go away. The
difference between grain and grass fed meat must be insignificant relative to
the effects of starches and sugars.

The rest of the world has different problems -- northern Europe is similar to
America in terms of starches and sugars, so the same solution applies.
Southern Europe has no particular problems because they are already eating
close to the ideal diet, with little starches and sugars, and their heart
disease rates are falling with increasing meat consumption.

I don't believe that most of the rest of the world, say India, China,
Indonesia, Africa, South America, has much of a problem with heart disease,
because they do not have access to such large amounts of starch and sugar.
Frozen french fries require a huge infrastructure to deliver to the consumer,
and while McD's is striving mightily to teach the world to eat french fries,
and I shudder to think how many McD's are opened every day around the world,
I don't think that as yet the average person around the world eats in a fast
food restaurant four times a week, as the average American is supposed to.

Incidentally, thinking of McD's - this is where this appalling habit of
putting two starches on the same plate comes from -- the bun and the french
fries. You would never see anybody do that in say Spain or Italy.

Charles
San Diego, CA