The following is a very long message. I asked a
family friend who has a Ph.D in Nutrition to look over
some of the Paleo websites. She passed it to a grad
student. And this is what she says.
Please don't contact either one of them, I want the
chance to clear up some misunderstandings first.
Thanks
Monica Machalka, my graduate assistant who is
Registered
> Dietitian eligible and near
> the end of her Master's degree in Food and
Nutrition, did about your query (at my request).
> >Dr. Cessna, these are the responses I have made to
the websites that were
> >provided. I researched his websites for about 5
hours. Some of them were
> >very long. A lot of this stuff is my opinion based
on what I have learned
> >in school and in my internship. I don't think the
diet is bad nor do I
> >think it will hurt Mr. Brown. To make my very long
story short, the diet suggests that we try to eat like
the
> >hunters-gatherers did back 40,000 years ago. It
suggests a diet based
> >mostly on fruits and vegetables with about 15% of
the diet coming from animal products. Unfortunately,
they do not eat grains or much dairy. The grain part
may be overlooked if Mr. Brown is truly eating so much
fruit, vegetables, and meat coming from a variety of
sources. However, I am a firm believer in dairy
products and this diet is not. I would personally
recommend milk and at least 2-3 servings of whole
grains a day. Otherwise, I don't think it's that bad.
I do think these scientists that
> >believe in this diet need to understand the Food
Guide Pyramid and Dietary Guideline better instead of
looking at how many Americans eat and then associating
it with the food guide pyramid. The scientists were
very harsh in a couple of the websites.
> >
> >Regarding the website
>
>http://www.nutritionsciencenews.com/NSN_backs/Apr_97/paleolithic.html
> >Mr. Nicholson claims that when the agricultural era
came about and people
> >were consuming more starchy foods, there was an
increase in tooth decay, malnutrition, and infectious
diseases. However, not mentioned in the interview,
increase number of people living near each other as
well as
> >increased life span can also lead to malnutrition
and infectious disease.
> >As for tooth decay, fruits are just as likely to
cause tooth decay as
> >starchy foods are. Just brush regularly. The
other problems such as
> >anemia can be caused when people do not eat enough
meat. It is not caused by people eating starchy foods
though. Here, Mr. Nicholson is confusing two separate
issues. He is claiming that when there was an
increase in starchy food consumption, people started
getting anemia making it sound like that caused the
anemia. When in fact, people can eat a diet high in
starchy foods and still avoid anemia if they also eat
some meat. It is not an increase in starch that
causes anemia, it was the lack of meat (possibly due
to the increase in number of people compared to the
number of animals, or due to the fact that people
didn't have the money to pay for meat).
> >Another issue comes up with cardiovascular disease
and cancer. First of all, these two diseases are
largely associated with lack of exercise in addition
to diet, genetics, and daily living. To insinuate
that eating as
> >a hunter-gatherer will prevent these diseases
because they were rare in the
> >hunters/gathers of the past is only telling half of
the truth. The fact
> >also lies that as we have evolved, So have genetic
mutations (also a large
> >factor in heart disease and cancer--more so than
diet or exercise). In
> >addition, we also have that second bystander called
pollution. In toady's
> >society, you would literally have to escape to some
remote tribe who is far
> >enough from most other people to be exposed to
pollution. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to
escape environmental changes that have occurred since
the hunters/gatherers of the past. It is true,
however, as Mr.
> >Nicholson states, that trans fatty acids and
saturated fats are researched
> >and probably are more highly associated with both
cancer and heart disease than unsaturated fats
(especially monounsaturated fats.) It is also true
> >that many people do consume too many starches and
refined sugar. When Americans took to the craze of
eating low fat, they thought that meant they could eat
as many grains as they wanted because they were low
fat and at the bottom of the food guide pyramid.
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
> > It is highly recommended that people eat whole
grains instead of refined starches. It is also
recommended that people eat
> refined sugar in moderation. It is too bad that
this message was not made clearer to the public
because obviously an influx of starchy foods has
certainly not cured the country of obesity and
associated risks.
> >
> >The issue of increased brain size: it is true that
fat helps support brain
> >growth. Actually, the human brain grows until we
are about 2 years old,
> >and modern nutrition and medicine both insist that
babies are fed enough
> >fat to support brain growth. However, even though
Mr. Nicholson has found in his research that brain
size decreased when people stopped eating so much meat
in the last 10,000 years. He claims that a decrease
in animal
> >foods is correlated with a decrease in brain size.
Lets not forget that
> >correlation does not mean cause and effect.
Increased ice cream
> >consumption is correlated with increased number of
murders, but that does not mean that eating ice cream
causes people to murder. Maybe something else
happened 10,000 years ago that decreased brain size.
Maybe it doesn't
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