Tim Rowell wrote:
>
> I'm new to the paleo diet and this topic raised a question in my mind.
>
> Isn't it one of the underlying tenets of the Paleo diet that we don't need
> supplementation?  That a 'correct'  Paleo diet gives our bodies everything
> they need to function correctly?
>

The claim Atkins and others make is that modern farming methods deplete
soils of trace minerals and that selective breeding over the millennia
has increased the carb to nutrient ratios in fruits and vegetables and
the fat to protein ratios in domestic animals. This may even be true for
much of the organic farming practices. This all means that we are much
lower now than in the past in our intakes of vitamins, minerals, and
other nutritional components at a time when we are under attack by an
onslaught of hazardous industrial chemicals, a stressful disjointed
social life which is out of synch with our evolutionary expectations,
and a lot of diseases which didn't exist before agriculture gave rise to
concentrated population centers. I use supplements while at the same
time trying to maximise my intake of good foods. Whenever I hear about a
great new supplement my first question is 'what food is it in?'.