Due to a well needed 6 week vacation at Lake Tahoe, I have not been in
correspondence with this wonderful group of people that comprise our
paleodiet digest.    However, upon my return, I have been able to review
most of what has "gone done" in the past six weeks, and I see that there
has been a number of lively debates on a variety of issues.   Let me
humbly add my two cents to some of these conversations (I will reply to
Dr. Enig & Sally Fallon in a couple of days):

June 24:   I only recently became aware of Leon Chaitlow's, "Stone Age
Diet" book and have ordered it through interlibrary loan.   I will try
to do a short review on it when I receive it.
        I'd be interested to know if Art DeVaney has a more complete
reference for "Dr. Citron's Evolutionary Diet and Cookbook".
        Another older book on paleodiets which apparently was a
"classic" but is rather obscure these days is: DeVries, Arnold.
Primitive Man and His Food. Chicago, 1962. - I dont know the publisher,
and have not read the book yet, but have ordered it through interlibrary
loan.    Are any of our readers familiar with this book?

June 27:   There is another reason why paleodiets are beneficial for
calcium balance in addition to the three reasons Staffan mentioned.   In
pre-agricultural diets consisting of meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts
etc., the Calcium to Magnesium ratio is approximately 1:1.   Because the
Ca:Mg ratio of milk and dairy products is 12:1 (1), the inclusion of
milk and milk products into post-agricultural diets can raise the Ca:Mg
ratio to 3-4:1 (1).    In animal models, it has been shown that rats
develop clinical signs of Mg deficiency after three weeks on high
calcium, normal magnesium diets (2,3,4).   Ironically, high calcium
diets may have a deleterious effect upon bone mineralization because of
their hypomagnesic effect.   Mg deficiency is a known cause of
hypocalcemia (5).   The resultant hypocalcemia stems from PTH
unresponsiveness (6), since the effects of PTH are magnesium dependent
(7).   Gross, clinical hypocalcemia and hypomagnesia tend not to occur
in otherwise healthy post-menopausal, osteoporotic women; however, serum
measures of magnesium concentrations are not good indicators of
magnesium status, and subjects with magnesium deficiencies (as measured
intracellularly) frequently maintain normal serum magnesium levels (8).
Consequently, over a lifetime, a marginal or reduced intracellular Mg
level may adversely influence PTH responsivity which in turn likely
compromises bone mineral content.   A recent review article (9) showed
that post-menopausal women given magnesium supplements over a 2 yr
period had a significant increase in their bone mineral density, whereas
meta-analyses of calcium supplementation and bone mineral density have
been equivocal.


                                REFERENCES

1.      Varo P.  Mineral element balance and coronary heart disease. Int
J Vit Nutr Res 1974;44:267-73.
2.      Evans GH et al.  Association of magnesium deficiency with blood
pressure lowering effects of calcium.  Journal of Hypertension
1990;8:327-337.
3.      Luft FC et al.  Effect of high calcium diet on magnesium,
catecholamine, and blood pressure of stroke-prone spontanneously
hypertensive rats. Proc Soc  Exp Biol Med 1988;187:474-81.
4.      Sellig MS et al.  Magnesium interrelationnships in ischemic
heart disease: a review. Am J Clin Nutr 1974;27:59-79.
5.      Rude et al.  Functional hypoparathyroidism and parathyroid
hormone end organ resistance in human magnesium deficiency. Clin
Endocrinol 1976;5:209-224.
6.      Rude et al.  Parathyroid hormone secretion in magnesium
deficiency. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1978;47:800-06.
7.      Estep H, et al.  Hypocalcemia due to hypomagnesemia and
reversible parathyroid hormone unresponsiveness. J Clin Endocrinol
1969;29:842-48.
8.      Ryzen E, et al.  Low intracellular magnesium in patients with
acute pancreatitis and hypo calcemia. West J Med 1990;152:145-48.
9.      Sojka JE et al.  Magnesium supplementation and osteoporosis.
Nutr Rev 1995;53:71-4.