----- "Adrienne Smith" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> I too eat a very high saturated fat diet. I just read a post over at 
> HyperLipid blog under a uric acid discussion that the president of the optimal 
> diet society died of stomach cancer. He had purportedly been on the diet for 
> over a decade and was only early 60s when he died. Anyone have any thoughts 
> on this? I understand there is no perfect chemopreventative diet but the 
> low-carb high fat diet is supposedly good for the stomach, intestines etc. 
> The only big differences I see between paleo and optimal diets are the 
> inclusion of dairy and much smaller amounts of protein...Thoughts? 

I read that post, and I think Peter's attitude about the matter is very sane. We can't assume that he died because of his diet, nor can we assume that he didn't. We just don't know. He mentions that Poland has one of the highest stomach cancer rates in the world; nobody knows why. We can conjecture all we want, but we'd really need to know whether Optimal Diet followers have stomach cancer rates that are higher, lower, or equal to those of other people. 

I think we are tempted to believe that following the paleo diet (or some other diet), if done right, should confer upon us immunity to cancer, heart disease, and all other diseases of civililzation. But the actual data fall short of that. They indicate that paleo reduces our chances of having these diseases, and that has to be good enough. The data simply don't show that a change in diet undoes all damage caused by prior diet, not to mention non-dietary factors. We should keep in mind that wild animals get cancer too. They may still be victims of civilization, in the form of pollutants, but they're not victims of a civilized diet. As much as I'd like to believe that a paleo diet gives immunity to the diseases of civilization, I have to remember that it's just that: something I'd like to believe. It's not something I know. 

It's a cautionary story. It could be the dairy protein in the diet. It could be the consumption of heavily processed sausages (popular in Poland). It could be something else from the 50+ years before this individual started the OD. It could be a non-diet cause. By following the OD, I'm gambling that it's safe. I don't know that I'll follow it forever. If I can reach a reasonable weight, I may make some changes. I'm not going to make plans for that until I'm there. At the moment, I'm still losing weight, and feeling good. That's good enough. 

Todd Moody