Donna H wrote:
> Would be interested to hear more about women supposedly thriving best
> on 'heavy' diets as opposed to 'light'.... and take it this means
> thriving at a weight range I would consider attractive today.

Here's my chance to be more precise.  First, I wasn't saying that all
women do better on a heavy diet; rather, certain individuals of both
sexes thrive best on such a diet, and the majority of these people are
female.  Rudolf Wiley (author of "BioBalance") estimated that about 15%
of men and 50% of women should eat a relatively heavy diet.  Classifying
women is somewhat complicated by the fact that half of them cycle
between metabolic subsets during menses; this is probably a recent
phenomenon.

Also, the "light" and "heavy" labels I used are misleading.  Generally
speaking, "heavy" refers to a diet relatively high in protein, fat, and
purines, and relatively low in carbs; the opposite description applies
to "light" diets.  Using Dr. George Watson's terms, people adapted to a
heavy diet are "fast oxidizers" and people adapted to the opposite
extreme are "slow oxidizers." (Wiley uses the terms "acidic type" and
"alkaline type," and a friend of mine prefers "Hunter-Gatherer" and
"Agriculturalist".  Unfortunately, all of these labels are misleading in
some way.)

However, our ancestors ate foods, not isolated nutrients, and the effect
of a given food on one's metabolism can be counterintuitive.  Fast
oxidizers have a low tolerance for carbohydrates, yet certain high-carb
foods, such as parsnips and carrots, actually assist their metabolism
(eaten in moderation, of course).  Broccoli is low-carb, yet it has the
opposite effect, as do nightshades, onions, garlic, and citrus.  As a
general rule of thumb, foods native to Northern Europe agree with fast
oxidizers.  Mind you, all of the research on metabolic subsets has
focused primarily on subjects of European descent; perhaps these
guidelines will need to be changed for people of non-European
ethnicities.

> I have heard of some fairly recent research in which they discovered
> (!) that women do well on highish fat diets (duh). Also very interested
> in any thoughts about eating/dieting patterns and the menstrual cycle.
> Very recent research found that women quitting smoking pre-menstruation
> gained more weight than those who quit once their period arrived:

Thank you for the abstract.  I enjoy hearing about any research that
suggests weight loss (or gain) is more complicated than simply counting
calories.

Cheers,
-- Aaron Wieland