But aren't these diseases of civilization merely the result of medicine's
success in dealing with infections and trauma.  Everyone has to die of
something, and if you cut out some of the possible causes, that merely
increases the numbers available to the remaining causes.
And then there is the increasing longevity of the human lifespan.  As I
recall, the earliest humans seem to have had relatively short lifespans:
an elder could be someone in their thirties.  Increasing lifespan is
something that is documented in this century:  65 was picked as the
retirement age for US Social Security because at that time (1930s) that
was the average age of death, and Uncle Sam was counting on not having to
actually pay retirement benefits for most of them.   And all these
diseases of civilization are the sort that don't appear until the latter
half of the lifespan, in most cases.  In short, paleoman may not have had
diabetes, cancer, etc. not because of diet, but because he didn't live
long enough to develop such a disease....
Be well.

  Jeffrey Smith       [log in to unmask]
O voi ch'avete li 'ntelletti sani/mirate la dottrina che s'asconde/sotto
'l velame de li versi strani [O you of sound thought, see the doctrine
which hides under the veil of strange verses]--Dante, Inferno, Canto IX