>
>  Oh but they did adapt; they shrank.
>>
>
> So which is it?  Did we have time to adapt (evolve), or didn't we?
>  --
>  Robert Kesterson
>  [log in to unmask]
>



To me, this is one of the very interesting questions surrounding the paleo
diet.  We clearly have adapted somewhat to a neolithic diet (at least some
of us have).  Many people around the world do not have adult onset lactose
intolerance (myself included).  I've seen studies that examined cultures
that started keeping cows (which is the only way to get dairy in your diet,
realistically) and found that populations whose ancestors kept cattle for a
certain amount of time (I think it was around 1500 years, but I'm not sure)
had relatively little lactose intolerance, while those whose ancestors
didn't have cattle or had them for less time had a lot of lactose
intolerance.  Compare Asians - mostly lactose intolerant, little dairy in
the traditional diet - to Northern Europeans, who have less lactose
intolerance and whose ancestors kept more cattle So it seems that many of us
have "evolved" to make lactase as adults, an attribute which would have
clearly been useless to our paleolithic ancestors.

That doesn't meant that milk is good for us, or that the fact that we make
lactase as adults counteracts any other negative effects of dairy, but it
does show some evolution to the neolithic diet.  The argument that we have
to make to support paleo eating is that this evolution is incomplete, and
that anyone who isn't overtly sickened by the neolithic diet is still
suffering subclinical side effects of it.  This can be difficult to argue,
especially as there are so few available examples of healthy people - I
believe that 70 year olds who ate paleo would look and feel remarkably
different from 70 year olds who ate neolithic their whole lives, but I can't
just refer to Uncle Bob who's healthy as a horse after eating grass fed beef
and a few veggies for the last 50 years - I don't have such an uncle, and I
only even know of one or two people in the country who qualify.  I can't
just say, "look at Art De Vany," and expect eveyone I speak with about this
to believe in some guy they can only know about online and who, to be fair,
might just be a genetic fluke.

I hope that 30 years from now we'll see a significant group of healthy older
people we can reference, people who have eaten paleo for decades and are
free from degenerative diseases.  Until then I suspect the paleolithic way
of eating will mostly appeal to people who experience overt problems on the
neolithic diet (i.e. obesity, celiac disease, over symptoms of chronic
inflammation, etc.)

Joe


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