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Subject:
From:
"T. Martin" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Paleolithic Eating Support List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 4 Jul 1998 15:55:22 -0700
Content-Type:
text/plain
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Mary wrote:
>
> Is it true that most HG diets were not low in carbs?

"The Paleolithic Prescription" has a table adapted from a 1985 Eaton
and Konner article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
This table reports that for an average late paleolithic human, 33%
of calories would come from protein, 21% from fat, and 46% from carbs.

These figures are based on a 35% meat, 65% plant foods diet. A wide
range of probable HG foods were analyzed to produce the macronutrient
percentages above. This same analysis shows an average daily consumption
of 150g of fibre.

The 35/65 split is an average. From the book: "An overview of contemporary
preagricultural diets shows great variation - from the Aborigines of central
Australia, who obtain only 10 to 20 percent of their food from meat, to the
Arctic Eskimos, for whom animal foods provide 90 to 95 percent of the
subsistence - and suggests an average pattern of 35 percent meat and 65
percent plant foods."

One could argue about the applicability of modern HG diets in an analysis
of paleolithic HG macronutrient composition, but it seems likely that
paleo HGs would often be eating more carbs than the Atkins-esque version
of Neanderthin practiced by many people on this list, who seek to lose
weight.

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