From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Apr 16 2003 - 01:36:29 MDT
gts wrote:
> Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
>
>>Is the question how much meat is healthy in
>>the human diet?
>
>
> No, that is not the question if the subject is Paleolithic diets. This is a
> very important point.
>
> The real question is "What is the diet to which we are best genetically
> adapted?"
>
> The assumptions underlying paleodiet theory are 1) the basic principles of
> evolutionary theory are correct (e.g., natural selection, adaptation) and 2)
> modern nutritional science is incomplete and fraught with contradictions
> (e.g., the debates between conventional nutritionists about low-carb vs
> low-fat diets are not even close to resolution.)
>
> The conclusion then is that evolutionary science is a more reliable guide to
> making diet choices than nutritional science. For example if humans spent a
> few million years without dairy and only 10,000 years with dairy then it's
> likely that humans are not very well adapted to dairy. If the dairy industry
> disagrees then they need to explain how we survived for approximately 4
> million years without dairy while having larger and stronger bones. The
> burden of proof is on them, because the *default* diet is natural and
> paleolithic.
>
Uh, don't you need to examine the human body and what does and
does not work optimally for health, longevity, energy levels,
stamina etc.?
Evolution will only fine-tune for a diet that is
a) avaliable;
b) sufficient to reach breeding age and a bit more to raise the
young.
Presumably (a) is much more flexible now and (b) is not nearly
sufficient for our shared dreams and wishes.
Evolution let to big brained creatures led to agriculture which
led to such an increase in our numbers and health that we
dominate the planet (among many other factors). But this
argument says little either about what is the optimal diet for
our kinds of bodies in our kind of circumstances with our goals.
I would much rather bet on nutritional science than some
spurious guesswork about evolutionarily preferred diet.
- samantha
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