In the last digest, Art wrote:

I would be very interested in adding a discussion of activity
patterns to this valuable discussion group's topics and interests.
Diet cannot be understood in the absence of and understanding of the
activity patterns of the organism.

Art De Vany


Our group has writtten a paper which should appear in print shortly
involving estimation of ancestral activity patterns.    I refer you to
(Cordain L, Gothshall RW, Eaton SB.  Evolutionary aspects of exercise.
World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics 1997;81:xx-xx).   I can provide
you with preprints if you directly e-mail me.    Also, I made a
presentation on this topic at a National convention last month in which
my co-presenter, Dr. Jakicic presented data from his group.   Enclosed
is the abstract of his findings which supports Dr. De Vany's concept of
short term high intensity exercise bouts:

Jakicic JM.  Wing RR.  Butler BA.  Robertson RJ.  Prescribing exercise
in multiple short bouts versus one continuous  bout: effects on
adherence, cardiorespiratory fitness, and weight loss.  International
Journal of Obesity & Related Metabolic Disorders 1995;19:893-901.

Abstract
    OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether prescribing exercise in several
    short-bouts versus one long-bout per day would enhance exercise
adherence,
    cardiorespiratory fitness, and weight loss in overweight adult
females in
    a behavioral weight control program.
    CONCLUSION: These  results suggest that short-bouts of exercise may
enhance   exercise  adherence. Short-bouts of exercise may also enhance
weight loss and
    produce similar changes in cardiorespiratory fitness when compared
to
    long-bouts of exercise. Thus, short-bouts of exercise may be
preferred
    when prescribing exercise to obese adults.


Dr's Lindeberg and Millard wrote:

Andrew Millard wrote:
>We do have hunter-gathers using pottery in the Jomon culture of Japan for
>several thousand years, but not in Palaeolithic cultures (any culture
>which had pottery would probably not be labelled Palaeolithic!).  The
>Jomon is usually considered to be similar to the Mesolithic of Europe.
>
>On the other hand we do have farming cultures, notably the Pre-pottery
>Neolithic of the Near East, where there is clearly massive reliance on
>cereal crops but no pottery in which to cook them.  They clearly needed to
>cook their crops, but we have little idea of how they did it.

Could it be that they wrapped them in leaves and covered and baked them
in
the ground with heated stones like for instance the Trobriand Islanders
and
many others traditionally did? Would this leave any traces?

Staffan Lindeberg

There are two references in the literature which suggest that early
cereal consumption may have been done by consumption of gruels & maybe
even beers which perhaps were made in vessels of animal hides, stomachs
or intestines.

1.    Katz SH et al.  Bread and beer. The early use of cereals in the
human diet.   Expedition 1986;28(2):23-34.

2.  Braidwood RJ.  Did man once live by beer alone?  Am Anthropologist
1953;55:515-526.

        - Perhaps Dean could comment on the title of the last citation?

STEFANSSON'S WEIGHT:


In the paragraph about Stefansson, it was noted:

 "It turned out that his ad libitum average caloric intake was 2,650
calories/day of which 2,100 calories consisted of fat and 550 calories
consisted of protein or about 79% fat & 21% protein. "

New York is not the Arctic and the amount of energy expended daily in
the
city - even with exercise - could not account for the dissapation of all
those calories.  Do you know whether he gained a lot of weight during
this time?

robert

The answer to this one is a direct quote from Stefansson:  "A phase of
our experiment has a relation to slimming, slenderizing, reducing: the
various treatments of obesity.  I was about 10 pounds overweight at the
beginning of the meat diet, by life insurance standards, and lost all of
it." (Stefansson V.  The Fat of the Land.  Macmillian, New York, 1960,
p.84.).   I believe his official body weight pre-post the one year of
the all meat diet was reported in (Lieb CW.  The effect on human beings
of a twelve month's exclusive meat diet. J Am Med Assoc  1929;92:20-.).