Diet fad statistics
Our epidemics of dietary disease have prompted a great deal of research into what humans are meant to eat for optimal health. The Paleolithic period represents just the last two million years of human evolution. How do we know it was their diet that protected them, and not something else. In the 25-year update to their original Paleo paper, the authors tried to clarify that they did not then, and do not now, propose that people adopt a particular diet just based on what our ancient ancestors ate. No bacon, butter, trans fats, and massive amounts of fiber, which pulls cholesterol from the body. Are health and ill-health lessons from hunter-gatherers currently relevant. W C Roberts, We think we are one, we act as if we are one, but we are not one. A Defieur, T White, P Valensi, L Slimak, E Cregut-Bonnoure. Please consider volunteering to help out on the site. Though it may be reasonable to assume our nutritional requirements were established in the prehistoric past, the question of which prehistoric past remains. The Garden of Eden--plant based diets, the genetic drive to conserve cholesterol and its implications for heart disease in the 21st century.
For most of human evolution, cholesterol may have been virtually absent from the diet. Dietary recommendations must be put to the test. So what were we eating for the first 90% of our evolution. As the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology noted 25 years ago, no matter how much fat and cholesterol carnivores eat, they do not develop atherosclerosis. So the higher the calorie foods, the better. What the rest of the great apes ended up eating: over 95% plants. So eating lots of bone marrow and brains, human and otherwise, would have a selective advantage, as would discovering a time machine stash of Twinkies, for that matter. D J Jenkins, C W Kendall, A Marchie, A L Jenkins, P W Connelly, P J Jones, V Vuksan. HOW NOT TO DIE: New York Times Best Seller. A consideration of its nature and current implications. Transcript: The Problem With the Paleo Diet Argument.
