Is our diet natural?

[keith_aquino]

I've read this article from the Runner's World website. It mentioned something about the Paleolithic diet. I've been ignoring the idea for a few months; now, I'm giving it some thought. Here's the website url...

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/...0-9048,00.html

I'm starting to think it makes sense.

These modern grains were not "invented" until 10,000 years ago. In other words, throughout 99.6 percent of our evolutionary history, we ate no bread, pancakes, pasta, or chow mein. As a result, they say, we aren't adapted to process them healthfully.

Your opinions?

[Double_Player]

I like my pasta... and I love meat... meh, they just a bunch of scientist trying to sell their idea. remember if u follow this diet u have to pretty much doing a lot of physical activity all day (wrestling wild boar, and try not to be eaten by a cheetah at the same time, make fire out of wood and bow/flintstone. et c etc ) like a cave man. sitting in the office all day then play baddy for 3 hours won't cut it. Plus, meat kinda expensive, espc the lean kinds. But, that's my opinion.

I follow those balance diet with more portion on the protein and meats

[tinkerbella122]

<kind of off topic> but whenever I talk to my friends and ask them to eat ice cream with me or something, they are always on a "ringette diet" or a "volleyball diet" ... Makes me wonder if we should have a "badminton diet" ?

[stumblingfeet]

I really like the idea of the Paleo diet. I've been incorporation a lot more fruits and vegetables, lean meats and fish into my diet recently. The arguments for this type of diet make a lot of sense - grains, particularly processed ones like pasta, weren't available in huge amounts until relatively recent in human evolution. These foods are relatively low in micronutrients, fibre and also tend to have a high glycemic index. Yet for some reason, the food pyramid displays it as the most important type of food. It seems to me that, especially if you're not extremely active, cutting back on these grain products would reduce your total kcal intake - so you don't get FAT.

I've been reading about the nutrition ideas of John Berardi, www.johnberardi.com I believe he advised Canadian olympic athletes at the olympic oval in Calgary, among other athletes. I suggest that you check it out, he has nutrition advice that'll help you not only in terms of maximizing athletic performance, but also general health as well.

[keith_aquino]

<kind of off topic> but whenever I talk to my friends and ask them to eat ice cream with me or something, they are always on a "ringette diet" or a "volleyball diet" ... Makes me wonder if we should have a "badminton diet" ?

"Ringette diet"? I've never heard of it. It's not on Google as well. What is that?

[keith_aquino]

I like my pasta... and I love meat... meh, they just a bunch of scientist trying to sell their idea. remember if u follow this diet u have to pretty much doing a lot of physical activity all day (wrestling wild boar, and try not to be eaten by a cheetah at the same time, make fire out of wood and bow/flintstone. et c etc ) like a cave man. sitting in the office all day then play baddy for 3 hours won't cut it. Plus, meat kinda expensive, espc the lean kinds. But, that's my opinion.

I follow those balance diet with more portion on the protein and meats

I disagree. I think women were more of nurturers at those times. It's amazing that they consume that much energy with so little grains and rice. Their primary source was of carbohydrates were fruits and vegetables. These foods also contain more vitamines than those grains.

[cooler]

I like my pasta... and I love meat... meh, they just a bunch of scientist trying to sell their idea. remember if u follow this diet u have to pretty much doing a lot of physical activity all day (wrestling wild boar, and try not to be eaten by a cheetah at the same time, make fire out of wood and bow/flintstone. et c etc ) like a cave man. sitting in the office all day then play baddy for 3 hours won't cut it. Plus, meat kinda expensive, espc the lean kinds. But, that's my opinion.

I follow those balance diet with more portion on the protein and meats

but not an informed opinion
american obesity trend started when their diet comprise more and more pasta, white bread, hamburger, french fries, etc...

[tinkerbella122]

"Ringette diet"? I've never heard of it. It's not on Google as well. What is that?

...basically, her team just follow the regular diets for athletes and cut off fries, and other fattening food.

http://www.peakperformance.on.ca/sports/fuel.htm

[keith_aquino]

...basically, her team just follow the regular diets for athletes and cut off fries, and other fattening food.

http://www.peakperformance.on.ca/sports/fuel.htm

Just wondering, do they do it for health or just for show. I've heard about this social hiearchy in North American countries (or china? ). Hey maybe I should try that!

I just came across this clip on the Discovery Channel. It mentioned that in Japanese cuisine, "cooking is the departure from the natural state". I've also noticed that Japanese Japanese usually eat raw fish and veggies. It's the most similar to the paleo diet don't you think?

[tinkerbella122]

Just wondering, do they do it for health or just for show. I've heard about this social hiearchy in North American countries (or china? ). Hey maybe I should try that!

I just came across this clip on the Discovery Channel. It mentioned that in Japanese cuisine, "cooking is the departure from the natural state". I've also noticed that Japanese Japanese usually eat raw fish and veggies. It's the most similar to the paleo diet don't you think?

"social hiearchy" ... what do you mean?

[keith_aquino]

"social hiearchy" ... what do you mean?

I mean I've head that there are "populars", "nerds" etc... Or am I just being stereotypical?

[Jinryu]

I'm actually a subscriber of Runner's world too and so it's a nice coincidence that you bring it up... that article didn't catch my eye if it was in the magazine, but i do tend to just skip over diets. I'm just an advocate of 'moderation' in general.

I'd say that the weak points of the paleo diet though are that they assume that human physiology is the same as it was back in the caveman days. We know that human physiology changes, and thorugh successive generations, people become very different.

For example... until diets changed in the past several years (and in some places it still hasn't changed) a good amount of Asians are still shorter people and cannot take cow's milk. Yet in north america, you will find that next generation born asians are taller, and can take milk (for example, me, even though neither of my parents, uncles and aunts, or their forerunners could, or even my cousins who are the same generation as me but have access to very different diets since they are born in asia)

My point is:

A paleo diet was suitable for the physiology of a paleo man. But over the years our techniques have adapted, our cooking techniques have adapated, our food has adapted, and as a result our bodies have adapated. But the important thing to remember is that our possible menus are not cumalative. I mean, if you had an animal that was used to eating raw meat, then you trained a few generations to gradually get used to cooked meat, you could't just suddenly give a descendant (a dozen generations down the line from that original raw meat eater )-- a peice of raw meat and expect it to survive. It doesn't gain the ability to eat cooked meat WHILE retaining the ability to eat raw meat.

To go back to the paleo method may not be appropriate if it suggests that we start eating things that are really out of our current diet list.


Of course, the paleo diet is not suggesting we look for things that are extinct, becaues... really... what nowadays in terms of food still exists from the paleo age?

in which case, the paleo diet has nothing to do with the paleo period at all. It's just a name to suggest "doing it old school". There's not much we can eat nowadays that actually came from the paleo period, nor would it be healthy to do so, given that a human today is very different from paleolithic man... and I'm sure that the creators of the diet know this and wouldn't deny it.


In which case, call me prejudiced, but I don't see how it's different from any other diet gimmick...


I do agree that a lot of the food processing methods today do include a lot of EXTRAs that we don't need (and that our paleo buddies didn't need either) such as just about anything in excess.

But we don't have to look as far back as the paleolithic to find some simplicity i find.

[tinkerbella122]

I mean I've head that there are "populars", "nerds" etc... Or am I just being stereotypical?

Well dieting is certainly something that you hear often in North America. It's understandable though, as most people in North America are obviously overweight. I guess dieting is okay if people promote it as a "health concern" , but these days, all the media is telling us is how if we are not thin, we aren't beautiful and that we are worthless. They are giving people the wrong impression of dieting and many teenagers do diet as part of their fad. Some even develop eating disorders such as bulimia or anorexia ... it's a sad world that we're living in. While you see rich celebrities starving themselves on T.V., you also see these World Vision commercials of Africans and Asians who are starving because they have no choice . How ironic.

[stumblingfeet]

Human physiology doesn't change THAT quickly though. Humans evolved over millions of years eating a "paleo diet" so a few thousand years of eating more grains, etc. is a very recent occurance.

The human body is flexible in what nourishment it takes in, but chronically poor quality of food eventually leads to chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, etc.

I'm actually a subscriber of Runner's world too and so it's a nice coincidence that you bring it up... that article didn't catch my eye if it was in the magazine, but i do tend to just skip over diets. I'm just an advocate of 'moderation' in general.

I'd say that the weak points of the paleo diet though are that they assume that human physiology is the same as it was back in the caveman days. We know that human physiology changes, and thorugh successive generations, people become very different.

For example... until diets changed in the past several years (and in some places it still hasn't changed) a good amount of Asians are still shorter people and cannot take cow's milk. Yet in north america, you will find that next generation born asians are taller, and can take milk (for example, me, even though neither of my parents, uncles and aunts, or their forerunners could, or even my cousins who are the same generation as me but have access to very different diets since they are born in asia)

My point is:

A paleo diet was suitable for the physiology of a paleo man. But over the years our techniques have adapted, our cooking techniques have adapated, our food has adapted, and as a result our bodies have adapated. But the important thing to remember is that our possible menus are not cumalative. I mean, if you had an animal that was used to eating raw meat, then you trained a few generations to gradually get used to cooked meat, you could't just suddenly give a descendant (a dozen generations down the line from that original raw meat eater )-- a peice of raw meat and expect it to survive. It doesn't gain the ability to eat cooked meat WHILE retaining the ability to eat raw meat.

To go back to the paleo method may not be appropriate if it suggests that we start eating things that are really out of our current diet list.


Of course, the paleo diet is not suggesting we look for things that are extinct, becaues... really... what nowadays in terms of food still exists from the paleo age?

in which case, the paleo diet has nothing to do with the paleo period at all. It's just a name to suggest "doing it old school". There's not much we can eat nowadays that actually came from the paleo period, nor would it be healthy to do so, given that a human today is very different from paleolithic man... and I'm sure that the creators of the diet know this and wouldn't deny it.


In which case, call me prejudiced, but I don't see how it's different from any other diet gimmick...


I do agree that a lot of the food processing methods today do include a lot of EXTRAs that we don't need (and that our paleo buddies didn't need either) such as just about anything in excess.

But we don't have to look as far back as the paleolithic to find some simplicity i find.

[Double_Player]

I grew up in asia, but is not lactose intolerant. I'm short, although there is some Dutch gene in my gene pool from mother side. I have been trained professionally as a swimmer for national level in Indonesia ( i get paid by the province) before my family move to canada. still although all my friend grew rapidly, I'm not. so it guess all it depends on your gene and then the nutrition

[keith_aquino]

I grew up in asia, but is not lactose intolerant. I'm short, although there is some Dutch gene in my gene pool from mother side. I have been trained professionally as a swimmer for national level in Indonesia ( i get paid by the province) before my family move to canada. still although all my friend grew rapidly, I'm not. so it guess all it depends on your gene and then the nutrition

Nutrition. I must drink more milk! I'm only 5'5

[keith_aquino]

Forgive my out of this world thinking but, I think this will popularise. I was just thinking about the absurdity of the idea of germs back a few centuries ago.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted
was once eccentric.

Bertrand Russell

I love this quote.