I've been trying to resolve my own concerns on this point for the last month
or so (though to be fair I haven't devoted much time to the research).
There is real research showing that certain types of foods, when eaten,
promote loss of calcium, most probably from the bones.  Unfortunately, all
the research I found was within the context of the Standard American Diet -
for obvious reasons they aren't comparing people eating paleo or raw paleo
or zero carb with anybody else, because the scientific community doesn't
care much about zero carb or paleo dieters.

I will say that there is some evidence that a meat based diet will cause
calcium loss.  However, William (from this list) has indicated that there is
some evidence that eating that meat raw will make a difference (I don't get
this, but there's a lot about this issue I don't understand).

One possible mechanism to save bones when eating a meat-based acid-promoting
diet is the fact that we should be getting a lot more vitamin D3 and
(possibly) K2-Mk4 than people on a lower fat diet.  In the presence of
adequate levels of those two vitamins the whole calcium loss thing might go
away - those vitamins really change the way your body handles minerals.
That might more than make up for the acid- base issue.  Again, it's going to
be REALLY hard to find good research on this.  Look at almost any dietary
study and you won't find any group (experimental or control) that eats a
diet comparable to a paleo diet in terms of the nutrients available.

If this person found their teeth and gums feeling better it could be because
of this increased availability of fat soluble vitamins.  I'm still not sure
it's critical to eat that meat raw (I hope it's not, as I personally can't
stomach raw meat), but it's entirely possible that a meat and fat diet could
be entirely safe for bones.



On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 10:55 PM, Paleo Phil <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:10:27 -0500, Kenneth Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> >New people on this list should at least hear of the problems that can
> >be caused from the meat-and-fat-only diet promoted here. So once
> >again, I feel I should mention that according to Dr Cordain, who was
> >one of the originators of this diet, and this list, bone health is
> >substantially dependent on dietary acid/base balance. ...
>
> I used to tentatively promote this hypothesis (tentatively because the
> evidence was limited) and I am a big fan of Dr. Cordain and was even
> criticized multiple times for citing his work and saying positive things
> about it both here and elsewhere, but this is one area where I now disagree
> with him. Lex Rooker at another forum found that his "loose teeth firmed
> up,
> gums quit bleeding" and the enamel on his teeth improved after switching to
> a raw meat and fat diet. I have experienced the exact same improvements
> myself since adopting a mostly raw meat and fat approach, as have others. I
> don't fully understand the mechanism(s) behind why a very low carb diet
> heavy in meats and animal fats actually improves bone density, but it
> worked
> for me and others.
>
> One thing that Dr. Cordain himself mentioned in explaining why most
> traditional Inuit did not have low bone density is that the amount of
> calcium excreted on a 99% flesh Inuit diet is very low.
>



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