On Thu, 14 Dec 2000 17:39:50 +1300, Bridget Kelly <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Ken, thanks for your reply. I've read all of Sears' books, Neanderthin, Both
>Protein Power books and probably all the books written recently about
>lowcarb and/or paleo eating! :-) In Sears'first book, he was adamant that
>you should eat the correct amount of protein calculated by your lean body
>mass. He stated that it was important not to eat any more or any less. Then
>in his next book he decided that the minimum requirement is 11 blocks. I
>think this was because smaller people were starving on his diet, no matter
>how much more fat they added in. I *personally* lost a bit of faith in his
>thoeries when he changed stance like that. Sears certainly does say to
>adjust the ratios of C/F/P if you are hungry, mentally foggy etc, usually
>recommending to increase a fat block or decrease a carb block for example.
>However he states repeatedly that food should be thought of as a drug, and
>the theory as I understand it is that the ratio of C/P/F  allows for drug
>like precision in hormonal control. I just wonder if our H/G ancestors ate
>like that.

Of course, it is very unlikely that they did !

However, the sort of hormonal control you refer to is particularly needed to
avoid "diseases of civilization" that our uncivilized ancestors did not have to
worry about.

For example, the eicosanoid and hormonal control of the Zone Diet is designed to
be tilted towards preventing heart disease, blood clots, strokes, arthritis,
etc.   However, that means that it is tilted away from the most effective
defense of infectious diseases and traumas that were the largest perils in
paleolithic days.   Blood clotting is important when the sabre tooth tiger rips
a huge tear in your leg -- but in the modern world, far more people die of blood
clots than bleeding to death.

Thus, there is undoubtedly great significance in avoiding the modern foods that
our bodies are not really designed to consume, but that does not mean that any
other aspect of paleolithic life is automatically suitable to be added to our
modern lifestyles.

PS  You say " I *personally* lost a bit of faith in his theories when he changed
stance like that. ", whereas in my case, he gained a great deal of credibility
by modifying his stance to fit the truth, instead of just carrying on blindly
like all the "low fat" adherents do.


--
Cheers,

Ken
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