Newsgroup: sci.med.nutrition
Subject: The Myth of the Paleolithic Diet Exposed!
From: "John Gohde" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 12:26:27 -0400

Cavemen did not eat exclusively meat.  The facts point out that cavemen ate
mostly plant foods.  And, that meat eating was seasonal.  Cavemen did not
start eating a lot of meat until he learned how to domesticate animals.
Further, any meat eaten by the cavemen was significantly different from
modern domesticated meat.  Hence, merely switching to modern red meat will
in fact produce health problems due to the high saturated fat content of
domesticated meat.


The following study shows that there is no evidence that proves cavemen ate
mostly meat.

TITLE:  Animal v. plant foods in human diets and health: is the historical
record unequivocal? [In Process Citation]
AUTHORS:  Nestle M
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:  Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York
University, NY 10012- 1172, USA. [log in to unmask]
SOURCE:  Proc Nutr Soc 1999 May;58(2):211-8
 [MEDLINE record in process]
CITATION IDS:  PMID: 10466159 UI: 99395653
ABSTRACT:  An ideal diet is one that promotes optimal health and longevity.
Throughout history, human societies have developed varieties of dietary
patterns based on available food plants and animals that successfully
supported growth and reproduction. As economies changed from scarcity to
abundance, principal diet-related diseases have shifted from nutrient
deficiencies to chronic diseases related to dietary excesses. This shift
has led to increasing scientific consensus that eating more plant foods but
fewer animal foods would best promote health. This consensus is based on
research relating dietary factors to chronic disease risks, and to
observations of exceptionally low chronic disease rates among people
consuming vegetarian, Mediterranean and Asian diets. One challenge to this
consensus is the idea that palaeolithic man consumed more meat than
currently recommended, and that this pattern is genetically determined. If
such exists, a genetic basis for ideal proportions of plant
or animal foods is difficult to determine; hominoid primates are largely
vegetarian, current hunter-gatherer groups rely on foods that can be
obtained most conveniently, and the archeological record is insufficient to
determine whether plants or animals predominated. Most evidence suggests
that a shift to largely plant-based diets would reduce chronic disease
risks among industrialized and rapidly-industrializing populations. The
accomplish this shift, it will be necessary to overcome market-place
barriers and to develop new policies that will encourage greater
consumption of fruits, vegetables and grains as a means to promote public
health.



The following study shows that there is strong evidence to suggest that
cavement ate mostly plant food.

TITLE:  Nutritional characteristics of wild primate foods: do the diets of
our closest living relatives have lessons for us?
AUTHORS:  Milton K
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:  Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and
Management, University of California, Berkeley 94720-3140, USA.
[log in to unmask]
SOURCE:  Nutrition 1999 Jun;15(6):488-98
CITATION IDS:  PMID: 10378206 UI: 99305969
ABSTRACT:  The widespread prevalence of diet-related health problems,
particularly in highly industrialized nations, suggests that many humans
are not eating in a manner compatible with their biology. Anthropoids,
including all great apes, take most of their diet from plants, and there is
general consensus that humans come from a strongly herbivorous ancestry.
Though gut proportions differ, overall gut anatomy and the pattern of
digestive kinetics of extant apes and humans are very similar. Analysis of
tropical forest leaves and fruits routinely consumed by wild primates shows
that many of these foods are good sources of hexoses, cellulose,
hemicellulose, pectic substances, vitamin C, minerals, essential fatty
acids, and protein. In general, relative to body weight, the average wild
monkey or ape appears to take in far higher levels of many essential
nutrients each day than the average American and such nutrients (as well as
other substances) are being consumed together in their
natural chemical matrix. The recommendation that Americans consume more
fresh fruits and vegetables in greater variety appears well supported by
data on the diets of free- ranging monkeys and apes. Such data also suggest
that greater attention to features of the diet and digestive physiology of
non-human primates could direct attention to important areas for future
research on features of human diet and health.


The following study suggests that cavemen ate a low-fat diet.

TITLE:  Evolutionary aspects of omega-3 fatty acids in the food supply [In
Process Citation]
AUTHORS:  Simopoulos AP
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:  The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health,
Washington, DC 20009, USA. [log in to unmask]
SOURCE:  Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 1999 May-Jun;60(5-6):421-9
 [MEDLINE record in process]
CITATION IDS:  PMID: 10471132 UI: 99397733
ABSTRACT:  Information from archaeological findings and studies from modern
day hunter-gatherers suggest that the Paleolithic diet is the diet we
evolved on and for which our genetic profile was programmed. The
Paleolithic diet is characterized by lower fat and lower saturated fat
intake than Western diets; a balanced intake of omega-6 and omega-3
essential fatty acids; small amounts of trans fatty acids, contributing
less than 2% of dietary energy; more green leafy vegetables and fruits
providing higher levels of vitamin E and vitamin C and other antioxidants
than today's diet and higher amounts of calcium and potassium but lower
sodium intake. Studies on the traditional Greek diet (diet of Crete)
indicate an omega-6/omega-3 ratio of about 1/1. The importance of a
balanced ratio of omega-6:omega-3, a lower saturated fatty acid and lower
total fat intake (30-33%), along with higher intakes of fruits and
vegetables leading to increases in vitamin E and C, was tested in the Lyon
Heart
study. The Lyon study, based on a modified diet of Crete, confirmed the
importance of omega-3 fatty acids from marine and terrestrial sources, and
vitamin E and vitamin C, in the secondary prevention of coronary heart
disease, and cancer mortality.


The following study suggests that what the cavemen actually ate, varied
widely.  Also that the notion that cavement ate a lot of meat because they
were hunters is just plain silly.

TITLE:  From the Miocene to olestra: a historical perspective on fat
consumption.
AUTHORS:  Garn SM
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:  Center for Human Growth and Development, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-0406, USA.
SOURCE:  J Am Diet Assoc 1997 Jul;97(7 Suppl):S54-7
CITATION IDS:  PMID: 9216569 UI: 97359653
ABSTRACT:  Given the extraordinary dietary and geographic diversity of
Pleistocene hominids, there is no single "Paleolithic diet" or average
pre-Holocene fat intake. Even the Neanderthals initially were scavengers,
possibly becoming seasonal hunters of large game at a later period. Fat
intakes of greater than 20 g/day (11% of total caloric intake) developed
after the domestication of mammals and then by selective breeding of
genetically fatter animals in suitably temperate climates. By the late
1940s, the percent of fat in the diet rose to more than 40% in many Western
countries (including France), decreasing somewhat to about 35% by the late
1980s in the United States, following reduced consumption of whole milk,
fried meats, and other high-fat foods. Overall, fat reductions to less than
30% may be facilitated by no-fat or low-fat substitutes or texturizers or
(perhaps more effectively) by increased intakes of fiber and calcium and
greater reliance on fats that are poorly absorbed
because of their stearate content.


The following study documents that cave men ate a lot of fiber and plant
foods which physically wore their teeth down (ie. severe abrasion).

TITLE:  [Dietary habits and the state of the human oral cavity in the
prehistoric age]
AUTHORS:  Kee CD
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:  Catholic University Medical College.
SOURCE:  Taehan Chikkwa Uisa Hyophoe Chi 1990 Jun;28(6):555-8
CITATION IDS:  PMID: 2130134 UI: 92013581
ABSTRACT:  This is an age-by-age summation of literature on over 100 sites
(of more than 250 excavated prehistoric ruins on the Korean Peninsula:
about 160 places in South Korea--Paleolithic Age 15, Neolithic Age 21,
Bronze Age 90 and Iron Age 35--and about 90 places in North Korea) which
produced dietary-habit-related devices such as hunting tools, fishing
instruments, farming equipments, tools of daily life, and human bones and
teeth. 1) Various dietary-habit-related Old Stone-Age tools, instruments
and other items were found. Among them were stone axes, stone hand axes,
fish spears and hooks made of bone or horn, stone blades, stone scrapers
and stone drills believed to have been used in daily life, and charcoal and
sites of furnaces used for cooking. Furthermore, it was found that there
were severe dental abrasions and dental caries among the inhabitants of the
Korean Peninsula in the Old Stone Age. 2) Some evidences were found which
lead us to believe that hunting was practiced
with stone arrowheads in the New Stone Age. Stone net sinkers, which is the
evidence of the use of fish nets, were also found. In addition, farming
stone tools and charred cereals, both of which date back to the latter part
of this period, were unearthed. Millstones, which began to be used in this
age, and livestock bones were found. Where these items were discovered, 23
maxillae and mandibles with teeth and a total of 231 separate teeth of
Neolithic period human beings were reported. However, there are no records
indicating dental caries, but some records describe severe abrasion.


Cavemen diet  "richer in" animal protein does not translate into they ate
more meat.  No does it mean that they ate mostly meat.  It means that they
ate more quality meat, which simply does not even exist in the modern era.
Furthermore, this study also says that the cavemen diet is richer in fiber.
 You can not get a lot of fiber in your diet, without eating a lot of plant
food!

TITLE:  Phylogenesis and nutrition.
AUTHORS:  Haenel H
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:  Central Institute of Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrucke,
Academy of Sciences of the GDR.
SOURCE:  Nahrung 1989;33(9):867-87
CITATION IDS:  PMID: 2697806 UI: 90190808
ABSTRACT:  The evolution of man is connected with a life-style of hunting
and gathering, and with the development and use of tools. The success of
tools promoted the evolution of brain, thinking and skills. The food
sources--animal and plant--remained the same during the whole of evolution.
But the proportions of foods, preferences, preparations and the
attainability changed. Evolution was a process continuously based on
omnivorous nutrition. Compared to modern nutrition, paleolithic nutrition
is richer in animal protein, vitamins, calcium, potassium and fibre, and
poorer in fat and sodium. Saccharose, lactose and alcohol play no roles.
The quality of the fat is marked by a high proportion of polyunsaturated
fatty acids. This shift from a paleolithic diet to a modern diet caused
nutritional risks, partly responsible for the dramatic increase in modern
chronic diseases of heart, circulation and so on. Man's metabolism works in
a stable genetic frame, derived during phylogenesis. We
have to adapt our nutritional behaviour to its tolerances or we may succumb
to disease and premature death. While our paleolithic metabolism is
overdone with modern nutrition, our psychological heritages press in the
direction of overdoing.


John Gohde,  Health Nag

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