On Fri, 11 Sep 1998, Kaiden Fox wrote:

[Re: all-meat diet for weight loss]
> Ideally, your sodium intake should be as low as possible.  Unfortunately,
> pork rinds often get the beter of us.  :)

Lyle McDonald, on the lowcarb technical list, has discussed a
study by Phinney that shows that heavy sodium supplementation can
reduce or eliminate much of the fatigue and weakness that many
people experience when they first try a ketogenic diet, such as
the all-meat diet.  Phinney recommends 4 to 5 *grams* a day of
sodium, as well as substantial amounts of potassium and
magnesium.  The reason is that ketosis has a strong diuretic
effect, which washes the electrolytes out of the body.

This supplementation is very un-paleo, of course, but it may be
necessary while the body adapts to the all-meat diet.  In any
event, electrolyte depletion can be dangerous.  I don't know
whether the need for supplemental electrolytes eventually
disappears in all people on ketogenic diets.  Phinney, as I
recall, suggests that the need is long-term, but I don't know how
much data is out there.

This could be another example of genetic variation that is
relevant to the ability to tolerate an all-meat diet: a greater
or lesser tendency of the body to conserve electrolytes while in
ketosis.

Or it could be that those hunter-gatherers who have all-meat
diets do supplement their electrolytes in other, more natural,
ways.  Sea water has a decent blend of electrolytes, and blood
supposedly has a similar salinity (i.e., blood is the "interior
ocean").

In short, the avoidance of salt may only be typical of
non-ketogenic paleodiets.  Once again, it may be a mistake to
suppose that what is true of one sort of paleodiet is true of
another.

Todd Moody
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