RE: FITNESS: Diet and Exercise

From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Apr 14 2003 - 10:37:24 MDT

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    Damien Sullivan wrote:

    > But that doesn't mean the grains are bad, vs. how we treat them.

    I think the question is not whether grains are "good" or "bad" in any
    absolute sense. It is rather "What are the best sources of calories?"

    Agricultural products, including whole grains, are very low on the list when
    ranked according to a nutrients/calorie ratio. The same is true for dairy
    products. It's better to lose these foods from the diet and replace the lost
    calories with those from nutrient-dense foods.

    It is no coincidence that doing so also forces one to abide by a nearly
    perfect paleolithic diet. We became genetically adapted to this diet over a
    period of about 2 to 4 million years.

    (To be perfectly paleo one must also eliminate legumes and a few other items
    like tomatoes.)

    > Baby mammals multiply their weight a few times on milk. How
    > can you say it has little value?

    Milk has value to mammal babies because mother's milk (including human
    mother's milk) is rich in colostrum and other valuable nutrients important
    to *newborns*.

    But no mammal other than homo sapiens consumes milk in adulthood. In fact
    the human body downregulates the production of lactase (the enzyme that
    metabolizes lactose, aka milk sugar) in the first couple of years of life.
    Many humans (and the majority of them outside of Europe and America)
    downregulate the production of this enzyme so much that they become lactose
    intolerant in adulthood. Obviously the human genome does not expect milk in
    adulthood.

    Moreover homo sapiens is the only species on earth that steals and drinks
    the milk of other species. From a naturalist's perspective, adult human
    consumption of cow's milk is downright bizarre. It's almost vampire-like.
    Unfortunately 10,000 years of dairy farming and billions of dollars of
    advertising by the dairy industry have convinced many of us that it's
    perfectly natural.

    > Grape juice or whole wheat bread: which would you rather live on?

    One cannot live on either of these foods alone.

    -gts



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