On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, Phosphor wrote:

>   > You may not like it, but he's not just making this stuff up.
>
>   He's invented the whole tuber theme out of thin air.

False.  As I mentioned before, his primary source was Wrangham.
See, for example,
http://www.newswise.com/articles/1999/8/TUBER.UMN.html

As I also said, this research has been sharply criticized in some
quarters.  See
http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/Abstracts/Pennisi_99.html

We also discussed Melissa Darby's research on the wapato.  See
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9710&L=paleodiet&P=R1550

So, whatever you may think of it, Amadeus didn't make it up out
of this air.

> I, OTOH, have provided a concret example of the folly of a tuber based diet.

Yes.

>  Further, any diet high in carbs - that is, high relative to your biochemical
>  tolerance - promotes insulin resistance and all its accompanying 'modern'
>  diseases - diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressue, kidney failure. This
>  is the key health issue in paleo vs non-paleo eating.

While I'd like to agree, the research doesn't entirely support
this.  The Kitavan diet, for example is rather high in carbs and
low in fat (though not at Ornish/Pritikin levels of low fat), but
they seem to do rather well with it.  I am increasingly inclined
to think that there may simply be more variation in biochemical
tolerance than we think.

>   Why don't you try living on tubers for a month if you think its credible?

You know, I probably should try this experiment.  I've mentioned
before that I have a running debate with a colleague about diet.
He has been on the McDougall diet for a couple of years now, and
seems to be doing very well on it.  He has lost quite a lot of
weight, and indeed in that respect he is the "winner" of the
debate, since he has become leaner than me.  And he started out
fatter.  The McDougall diet, as you probably know is a
starch-based diet that makes extensive use of tubers.  On the
other hand, I also know people who had no success at all with the
McDougall diet and were miserable the whole time they tried it.
I suspect I would fall into that category, but you're right that
I really should try the experiment.

Todd Moody
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