On Jul 31, 2008, at 8:55 pm, Stanevich, Ron L wrote:

> Ashley, you appear to be implying that native Americans are similar to
> Paleo Ancestors.

Yes?  I don't see why they shouldn't be, they aren't selectively bred  
or genetically engineered.  (Do we have any native americans on the  
list?)

The whole point about the paleo diet is that we *are* similar to our  
paleo ancestors, regardless of american or european descent.  If it  
wasn't, we'd be talking about the "neo diet".


> Plus the animals that roamed in the Paleo period were quite different
> than those of our native American ancestors.   Buffalo were mostly
> herded then, and groomed, and may be typical of the grass fed beef we
> had today.  They didn't have as many predators then, their environment
> was much different than the paleo period.

Robert answered this one better than I could.


> I do agree that a caveman would eat a fat animal if that's all he  
> had..

I think a caveman would be overjoyed if a fat animal was all he had!

> But I think the fat animals were the exception and not the norm..
> animals back then were leaner than the buffalo of the wild west. The
> diets they ate were different.
>
> I simply think Cordain is taking it from a nutritional component,  the
> animals of that period most likely contained this much Omega 6s and
> 3s... as opposed to the animals today that contain twice/three times  
> as
> much of 6's to 3's..... as opposed to what one would have eaten, how  
> it
> was eaten etc.

I can see what he is trying to do, but I'm suspicious of such a non- 
paleo solution to the problem of recreating a paleo diet.  I'd rather  
buy fatty organic meat and some fish and take my chances that I don't  
get enough omega-3 fats, than supplement with things that I just  
cannot ever conceive of being paleo, ie flax.


> Plus I seriously doubt you would have suffered "Rabbit Starvation"  
> even
> following his diet to the T.    But I'm not your Doctor, nor am I a
> doctor, I just find that claim a little extreme.

I suffered constant hunger and muscle weakness, to the point where  
walking was hard.  It wasn't rabbit starvation to the extent the  
american colonisers suffered (wasting and death), but despite all my  
efforts to eat fruit and nuts, I ended up eating more and more lean  
meat in a failed attempt to satisfy my appetite.

Maybe I did just completely misunderstand his recommendations.  But  
there's no doubt about it in my mind - the way I interpreted paleo  
according to Cordain left me a physical wreck for a few weeks if not  
months.  (It's four years ago now.)

Ashley