There is always a lot of lively discussion on this list about which foods are
considered Paleo, and why eating Paleo is the healthiest way to eat. Before
and after lab values are bandied about, studies are sited, personal anecdotes
abound, all promoting the health benefits of our chosen lifestyle. Debates
rage about the pros and cons of including such debatably Paleo foods as salt,
peanuts, tomatoes, cheese, vinegar, etc. in our diets.

But for me, personally, I find a great amount of disconcerting irony in the
irrefutable evidence that has come out of scientists studying the
health/life-extending benefits of calorically restricted diets. Virtually
every animal studied, from microscopic invertebrates, right up through
current studies on primates, has shown a positive correlation between living
longer, healthier lives, and eating less food. This effect generally occurs
despite manipulations in macronutrient composition, as long as basic
nutritional needs are being met.

Irony, because in Roy Walford's book, Beyond the 120 Year Diet, he cites
studies of anorexic girls, whose biomarkers for health were often extremely
good, until they reached the point of near death from long term starvation.
In other words, "on the way down" they were healthier living on a few cut up
Oreo cookies as long as they kept their calories restricted to the extreme!
Now please don't think that I am advocating any sort of anorexia or diet of
Oreos as a long term way of life! One of the saddest things is that these
girls sometimes die of heart failure after they start putting weight *back
on*. I believe that is what happened to the singer Karen Carpenter. But I
digress.

When doctors tout the sweeping success in lowering cholesterol or blood
pressure or any of a zillion other markers for health as being due to eating
oatmeal, or low fat, or low carb or whatever, the positive benefits can be
due as much to weight loss as to what type of diet was eaten. (Of course, I
personally choose to believe that a Paleo diet will achieve far better resul
ts than any other type of diet). But I think we might keep in mind that in
Paleo times food was never always abundant, and often secured with great
effort. Periodic caloric restriction most surely was an element in the lives
of our ancestors.

Perhaps we might consider, that in the scheme of a basically Paleo diet,
consuming less food overall may well be a lot more important to health and
longevity than how fanatic we are in keeping the diet "pure".

Maddy Mason
Hudson Valley, NY