The Book Nook

[cathepsut]

The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat by Loren Cordain

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"The modern dietary regimen known as the Paleolithic diet, also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various human species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era, that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. Centered on commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils."

(yanked from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleo_diet and slightly abbreviated)

I like the basic idea and I would definitely be better off with a dairy- and grain-free diet, considering my digestive problems and my lactose-intolerance. I am not really sold on the argument that this diet is the right one because it's how our stoneage relatives ate and that the rise of agrarian cultures is the root of all evil. Our genetics might not have changed all that much, but our bodies for example adapted to dairy, so ruling out nature's ability to change with the cirumstances sounds narrow minded to me.

It also bugged me that the author kept up a constant advertising of the book and its principles. I bought the book, so I am obviously interested. I don't want to read three chapters telling me how bad all the other diets are for me and praising the one supposedly explained later in the book that I'm already holding in my hands. I just want to get on with it.

The constant repetition was also... well... very repetitive.

So, idea good, I'm interested and will try to apply the principles of the diet. The book as such did not really do it for me.

Comments

[thejeopardymaze]

I'll have to disagree with you a bit here, because dairy, unlike gluten is meant to be consumed by mammals, while the human body never really adapted to gluten grains regardless of cultures that relied on them, the state of Egyptian mummy skeletons being a rather extreme case, but obviously not a good case for those healthy whole grains we're supposed to eat.

I believe Dr. Harris makes a better case against them-

http://bookcrossing.dreamwidth.org/22927.html


I do have some issues with Cordain though, particularly his views on saturated fats, though I've heard they have changed the past few years. Then there is the problem with most nuts and seeds that aren't tropical, due to high Omega 6 content ratios.

Fruits are also problematic due to fructose content, and all fructose whether its natural or lab made you consume goes to the liver, because the liver treats it as a toxin for a reason, not unlike alcohol. This is why I consider the term 'paleo diet' to be problematic as of late, since just because it's traditional doesn't mean it is safe or better.

Thankfully, there are better resources online these days anyway for optimal diets, such as the link I provided above, and due to the quality of blogs I've found in the past few years I'd have to say Cordain is the last person I would refer to in regards to nutritional information.

[cathepsut]

Could you please add that link again? You added the link for this post... :-)

Dairy + mammals = only the young, not adults. Which is why areas of the world without dairy farming never developed the enzyme to deal with lactose, for example Asia. Lactose-intolerante europeans like me are evolutionary throw-backs, I guess. ;-)

I've had a gluten-free weekend and feel a lot better, that's for sure. I find maintaining a gluten free diet very difficult though. It'll take some major adjustments.

I managed to add both Hunt.Gather.Love and Archevore to my feeds here on DW, so thanks again for the links!

Doh!

[thejeopardymaze]

Another try:

http://www.archevore.com/panu-weblog/2009/6/23/the-argument-against-cereal-grains.html

Dairy + mammals = only the young, not adults. Which is why areas of the world without dairy farming never developed the enzyme to deal with lactose, for example Asia. Lactose-intolerante europeans like me are evolutionary throw-backs, I guess. ;-)

Asia and Africa are much more diverse culinary speaking than it is often stereotyped in mass media, so I would have to disagree, the Mongols drank on fermented mare's milk (and may still do), and the Masai still consume a lot of dairy (these are just a few examples). In each case, adaption to dairy over a few generations in most populations its introduced, so it seems to be quick evolutionarily speaking, but somehow gluten grains and legumes never seemed to be compatible with the human digestive system, due to the evolution of these types of plants. Kurt Harris discusses the matter in his blog, and his views on dairy have changed in the past few years since he started it. If you don't lose the ability to digest dairy, it's a useful resource to get proteins and fats from.

I believe gluten intolerance is one of the main reasons many people can't tolerate dairy, though certainly not all, and for public health reasons you don't want to downplay allergies and food intolerances of any kind. I knew people so severely allergic or intolerant ingesting even a very small amount could put them in the emergency room.

Luckily for myself my only problem was a milder form of lactose intolerance, but it took me about 2 1/2 years of staying off gluten for me to be able to digest all dairy products again without resorting to lactose digestive pills. I'm convinced I must have something like Celiac because of that, since that must be a sign of a lot of damage for it to take that long to recover.


Pre-ETA: I know there is at least one article online about the genetics of lactose adaption, particularly in one of the African cultures, but I don't think I ever got around to adding it to one of my bookmark service accounts. I would of linked to it if I was sure where the link was.

Re: Doh!

[cathepsut]

>Mongols drank on fermented mare's milk
They still do, I think. Ok, so I meant South-East Asia. They are catching up with us now, unfortunately. Globalisation has given them McDonald's, Starbucks, KFC and so on. I travel to China several times a year and McD is on every corner in bigger cities. Vietnam has always been a bit of an exception, the French brought dairy with them. Generally the Asians I know personally don't tolerate dairy well on a larger scale.

>Masai still consume a lot of dairy
I know. Dairy farming is widespread in Africa and has been for a long time, hence I didn't mention it... ;-)

>If you don't lose the ability to digest dairy
I have, unfortuanetly. My symptoms range from mild itchiness to severe diarhea. Took me a while to figure out what was wrong with me. Luckily you get a wide choice of lactose-free products in Germany now and I'm an avid reader of the small prints on labels when I go shopping, so it's manageable. Eating at the cafeteria at work is sometimes a bit of a challenge.

I'm not a fan of lactose digestive pills. I have them and I take them sometimes, but my gut doesn't like them much.I'd rather stay away from dairy.

Re: Doh!

[thejeopardymaze]

I heard coconut milk can be a nice substitute for cream, at least if you're not allergic to that kind of thing. I've been thinking of trying to make a yogurt out of it someday if I can find it in bulk.

Re: Doh!

[cathepsut]

I love coconut milk. I usually use it to make Thai food. Strangely enough I haven't found any lactose-free cream yet. Consequently it has pretty much disappeared from my cooking.