PALEOFOOD Archives

Paleolithic Eating Support List

PALEOFOOD@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Dori Zook <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Paleolithic Eating Support List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 14 Nov 2000 09:43:58 MST
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (94 lines)
I said:
> >Most mammals
> >designed to live heavily on carbs for energy?  You're joking, right?
>Dogs,
> >lions, tigers, bears?  Please, your mental slip is showing on this one.

To which Amadeus said:
>Which mammals do you know, beside cats and other predators?
>... Got it?

This isn't about personal relationships, although my dog's doin' just fine
on meat.  It's what scientists know.  Many mammals are carnivores.
Unfamiliar with this term?  Let's look to the Newbury House Online
Dictionary:

car·ni·vore  n. animal that eats meat to live: Lions are carnivores who like
to eat zebras. -adj. carnivorous

You ask if I've got 'it'.  I'm not sure what 'it' refers to in your query,
but I know at least I've got a clue.  MANY MAMMALS ARE CARNIVORES.
CARNIVORES EAT MEAT.

What are you?  Omnivorous:
om·niv·o·rous  adj. eating both meat and plant foods: Bears are omnivorous;
they eat berries, fish, and meat.

Do some mammals eat plant food?  Of course.  But some eat virtually none.
Yet you say "most mammals" are designed to eat primarily carbohydrates.  I
don't know if this is mathematically correct.  But it seems a significant
number of mammals are carnivores.  So I repeat; lions AND tigers AND bears
AND dogs?  All of the above eat MOSTLY meat.  Sorry, but Mother Nature isn't
a vegetarian.

>Given that carbohydrates are a natural energy source,
>if the cause problems for some, where's the culprit?

Fat and protein are also natural energy sources.  What, besides your
personal feelings, makes carbs more natural than protein and fat?  All three
macronutrients are found in nature.

>Low-Carb may be a interesting  food regime - with benefits for overweight
>and diabetics.

Well, duh!  I think you're the only person on this list who did not reduce
his or her carb load after switching to the paleo principals.  And maybe
even YOU eat fewer carbs now than before.

It's simple; fat consumption is at a new low in the US.  Diabetes and
obesity are at new highs.  The more simple sugars people eat, the more
likely they are to become obese and/or diabetic.  An interesting food
regime?  A diet rich in animal protein and good fats and lower in carbs than
the USDA food pyramid (a grain-based prototype) are exactly what humans were
designed to eat.  By all evidence, only after humans switched to a
grain-based diet did they have to grapple with such maladies as obesity,
heart-disease and diebetees.  In straying away from the early dietery
prototype, numerous diseases are now widespread if not literally endemic.
Even complex carbs become sugar in the bloodstream, and lots of it.  A
medium potato becomes 1/3 cup of sugar, an ear of corn even more than that.
Fat has no affect on blood sugar, protein has very little at best.  Protein
and fat are high-octane fuels.

My only question is why I'm ranting and raving on this.  The list, by and
large, knows this.  I'm preaching to the choir.

I have two important studies on my home computer.  Give me time and I will
post them.  One is in regards to lectins and arthritis.  Here is the
conclusion from study #2: "Plant-animal subsistense ratios and macronutrient
energy estimations in worlwide hunter-gatherer diets" Loren Cordain, Janette
Brand Miller, S Boyd Eaton, Neil Mann, Susanne HA Holt and John D Speth,
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 71, No. e, 682-692, March 2000

Conclusions
Whenever and wherever it was ecologically possible, hunter-gatherers would
have consumed high amounts (45-65% of total energy) of animal food.  Most
(73%) hunter-gatherer societies worldwide derived >50% (56-65%) of their
subsistence from animal foods, whereas only 13.5% of these societies derived
more than half (56-65%) of their subsistence from gathered plant foods.  In
turn, this high reliance on animal-based foods coupled with the relatively
low carbohydrate content of wild plant foods produces universally
characteristic macronutrient consumption ratios in which protein intakes are
greater at the expense of carbohydrates.

Put that on your plate and eat it.

Dori Zook
Denver, CO


_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.

ATOM RSS1 RSS2