Hello folks,
i was reviewing Cordain's food pyramid:
http://www.paleofood.de/ENGPaleo/ENGPyramids/engpyramids.html
and contemplating the impact upon patient health and compliance, I
thought that it would be interesting and helpful to get your feedback
upon what y'all think of what proportions of different foods should
comprise of the diet. Because most folks don't pay all that much
attention the specific caloric content of their diet, and nor do most
actually weigh out the foods they eat, I usually recommend dietary
components in basic proportions (i.e portions of the proverbial pie):
it makes it easier for patients to actual visualize what to eat.
According to Cordain's food pyramid, meats make up 56-64% of the total
caloric intake, which obviously contains some admixture of fat and
protein depending upon the protein source. Compared to the
(non-starchy) vegetable intake, which have an alkalizing effect on pH
and supply a whole host of vitamins and antioxidant compounds but
provides little in the way of actual calories, the meat proportion may
be less in my diet as compared to Cordain, or it may be fairly close:
there are obviously several variables to take into account here. Also,
because in temperate regions vegetation is available for a much longer
portion of the year than actual fruits, this is reflected in the
proportion of fruit to vegetable intake I describe below:
30% meats
40% (non-starchy) vegetables
15% fats (above that contained in meats, e.g. olive oil, butter,
coconut oil etc)
15% carbohydrate, i.e. temperate fruits (in summer/fall) or starchy
vegetables (in winter, not potatoes).
I will also allow some whole grains (e.g. rice, oatmeal, barley, but
not flour) for non-sensitive folks in the CHO portion simply because
most people will not give them up entirely unless the condition
requires it (e.g. CVD, diabetes, autoimmunity), and there may be some
additional benefit as a source of fiber to maintain the GI ecology.
Although most patients make a "best effort" to achieve the above, in
some cases its pretty hard to determine what exactly they are eating
day in and day out (without extensive reporting), so I often gage
successful implementation upon a reduction in symptoms (e.g. GI
distress, skin conditions, BP etc.) I realize that most of you are not
clinicians, and therefore may not have any experience in implementing
dietary changes in others, but even still, I would be interested to
hear how your thoughts or practices compare with the above.
Of course it is impossible to eat completely in a paleolithic fashion,
and given that most don't live in a paleolithic environment (i.e. most
of us live in a semi-tropical indoor environment for much of our
lives), I have modified the diet to reflect this as well, as well as my
knowledge of dietary practices in traditional Chinese and Indian
(Ayurvedic) medicine.
Thanks for your thoughts...
Todd Caldecott, Cl.H., AHG
Clinical Herbalist
Wild Rose Clinic
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Director of Clinical Herbal Studies
Wild Rose College of Natural Healing
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400 - 1228 Kensington Rd. NW
Calgary, AB T2N 5P6 CANADA
tel: (403) 270-0891 ext 315
fax: (403) 283-0799
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.wrc.net/phyto
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