At 2:29 AM -0700 29/12/01, Dori Zook wrote:

>Ah, but then extinction enters the picture.  One example is the mammoth.
>This and other larger, now-extinct animals were much higher in fat than,
>say, the wild boars, deer, fish and fowl available today.

Were they? Just because an animal is big and wooly doesn't mean it is
fat. Look at the moose figures in the USDA database. This is a big
wooly animal living in a similar environment to what I imagine the
mammoth lived in, yet it is only 0.74% fat, the lowest of all game
animals. Elk is about 1.5%.


> While there's
>nothing wrong with lean, wild fare, look at the Inuit tribe of northernmost
>North America; they did just fine on a high fat diet.

I think perhaps the Inuit have adapted to a high fat diet. And as a
result these people have the greatest problems of any hunter gatherer
people with a high carb western diet. Weston Price noted this back in
the '30s.


>We'll never know exactly what early humans ate, but there's considerable
>evidence that the diet was higher in fat than most modern health nuts and
>even some Paleo experts care to admit.  I know for a fact that Drs. Eades
>and Dr. Cordain agree to disagree on this point.

Cordain's research has been targetted at paleolithic nutrition.
The Eades' research has been into controlling blood sugar. It's not
surprising they come to different conclusions.

I would also guess that a large proportion of the Eades' research has
been carried out on people with a problem severe enough for them to
consult a doctor. In this case, perhaps a more radical diet is required
either to correct the problem or because these individuals are
particularly sensitive to the SAD. Perhaps their research does not come
to a conclusion that is optimal for a person who is quite healthy and
is doing reasonably well on a SAD.


>Drs. Eades recommend and
>have put into practice a diet far higher in fat than Dr. Cordain supports
>and Drs. Eades have seen great success.  Worth considering, no?

I'm sure the Eades' diet which reduces carbs and increases protein and
fats is a great improvement over the SAD. But that doesn't mean that
it is the best possible diet for the human organism.


I'm sure everyone has already seen this article, but it's worth another
look. Sounds to me as if Cordain hasn't changed his tune much:
http://chetday.com/cordaininterview.htm

Quote: "humans evolved on a diet that was primarily animal based and
consequently low to moderate in carbohydrate, high in protein and low
to moderate in fat".

 ...R.