On Mon, 10 May 1999, Ken Stuart wrote:

> His conclusions are that the two major factors causing the diseases of modern
> civilization are excess insulin and insufficient Omega-3 fatty acids.

Although I sometimes quarrel with the way in which Sears gets
from general principles to specific dietary recommendations
(e.g., strict macronutrient ratios), I think he is right on the
money here.  That is, I think the evidence against these two
suspects is strong enough to warrant a conviction.

In my mind this raises at least two more questions: (1) If we
accept that excess insulin and insufficient w-3 are the
troublemakers, does a Neanderthin type of diet correct the
problems? (2) How significant is the "foreign protein" effect,
over and above the effect of excess insulin and insufficient w-3
fats?  That is, if the insulin/w-3 problems are corrected, how
important is it to address the foreign protein issue?

The first question can be answered with a definite maybe.
Following Neanderthin might reduce insulin levels, but it could
also raise them.  Here's how: A person whose implementation of
Neanderthin includes lots of saturated animal fat will incur
increased insulin resistance.  The tendency of SFA to increase IR
is well documented.  If that person's diet is high in calories,
with a large percentage (say 50%) from protein (with 58% of
ingested protein being converted to glucose) then there is every
reason to believe that insulin levels will become elevated as a
result of the elevated blood glucose and the IR effect.

As a general thing I think most implementations of Neanderthin
will tend to reduce insulin levels.  My point here is that this
is not inevitably so.

Does Neanderthin correct the w-3 deficiency problem?  Again, it
might or might not.  Available meats vary widely in their w-3
content.  Many nuts tend to be high in w-6 fats.  Neanderthin
does not require monitoring such things, so it is quite possible
to have a Neanderthin-compliant that is too high in w-6 fats and
very low in w-3 fats.  This is less likely to be a problem on
Neanderthin that it is on a grain-based diet, of course, or one
that allows liberal consumption of seed oils, but the point is
that the Neanderthin guidelines in themselves do not necessarily
solve the problem.

The second question deals with the importance of the foreign
proteins.  The authors make much of this, but documentation is
lacking, for the simple reason that no one has ever compared a
diet that controls insulin and w-3 but not foreign proteins with
a diet that controls all three.  Therefore it is very hard to say
what the distinct contribution of foreign proteins to the
diseases of civilization is.  On a purely anecdotal level, the
kinds of results that people report from Neanderthin are not
distinguishable from what they report from the Zone or Protein
Power diets, which do not forbid foreign proteins.  It is a fact
that most of the foods with the most foreign proteins are also
foods that will tend to disturb the insulin and w-3 factors, but
the correlation is by no means perfect.  People are getting good
results Zoning while eating small amounts of grain, dairy
products and soy products.  Are they the worse off in the long
run for doing so?  I don't think anybody is in a position to
answer that question.

Todd Moody
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