Jean-Louis Tu <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>1) Many overweight Americans eat a low fat, high carb diet and however
>do not lose weight.

Correct, and obesity in the US has increased a lot since people started
eating more of a low fat, high carb diet. (Up 32% over a 10 year period.)
>From a Paleolithic perspective we are not adapted to eating such, but are
adapted to a high fat, low carb diet. Just pay a visit to any of the
numerous lowcarb mailing lists and you will find success stories from
people losing weight by going low-carb. The grandfather of this in our era,
Dr. Atkins, has been preaching this for 25-30 years.

This whole low fat, high carb diet is a recent thing. Back when I was
growing up a diet meant a hamburger without the roll and a cottage cheese
and peach salad.

Here is an Introduction excerpt from _Protein Power_ by Eades and Eades:

We have a copy of the earliest diet book ever to sweep the nation,
Banting's Letter on Corpulence, first printed in the middle 1800s. This
restricted-carbohydrate diet worked like a charm for Banting and, if sales
were any indication, many others. It has always intrigued us because it
completely flies in the face of today's low-fat paradigm. At about the same
time we ran across Banting we began attending paleopathology conferences
and studying anthropology, where we learned what paleopathologists and
anthropologists have known for years: the agricultural revolution and the
increased consumption of carbohydrates it brought along with it played
havoc with the health of early man. Mary Dan's extensive study of eating
disorders and metabolic hormonal derangements combined with Mike's interest
in biochemistry rounded out the "preparation" of our minds. We looked at
Banting's success with carbohydrate restriction along with the
paleopathological/ anthropological data showing a decline in health
acompanying an increase in carbohydrate intake and concluded that maybe the
intake of large amounts of carbohydrates wasn't necessarly a good thing.
That became our first mini-hypothesis: excess carbohydrate consumption
isn't good. But why not?

Don.