RE: evolution and diet (was: FITNESS: Diet and Exercise)

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Thu Apr 17 2003 - 21:37:49 MDT

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    Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote,
    > For example, ordinary studies will examine the effect
    > of more or less sodium, or more and less potassium,
    > and so on, but it's the paleo diet theory that
    > would tell you to look at the sodium-potassium *balance*
    > because that's the factor - not the absolute level of
    > anything - that's widely out of range compared to Paleo
    > days.

    I respectfully disagree. The sodium-potassium balance has been known from
    blood studies of electrolytes and from neurology biochemistry of how neurons
    trigger muscle movement. We know how important this balance is because we
    know how these chemicals are used in the body.

    I don't see how paleo diet could detect anything about balances. Why did
    they pick on the sodium-potassium balance? Why not pick any other two
    random nutrients and maintain their balance to match what was found in the
    paleo diet? For example, why not balance sodium-iron or copper-potassium to
    match what was found in the paleo diet?

    When I wrote _Nutrients_Catalog_, I documented a whole bunch of nutrient
    ratios in Appendix C. These were all based on scientific experimental data.
    I don't recall any paleo studies being referenced as leading to these
    ratios. FYI:

            - at least 100mg vitamin B1 (thiamine) per every 1000mg vitamin B3a
    (niacin)
            - at least 100mg vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) per every 1000mg vitamin B3a
    (niacin)
            - at least 1000mg vitamin C1 (ascorbic acid) per every 1000mg vitamin B3a
    (niacin)
            - at least 1mg vitamin Bc (folic acid) per every 300mg vitamin B5
    (pantothenic acid)
            - at least 100mg vitamin Bw (biotin) per every 300mg vitamin B5
    (pantothenic acid)
            - at least 3000mg vitamin C1 (ascorbic acid) per every 1000mg cysteine
            - at least 50mg magnesium per every 1000mg calcium
            - at least 1300mg phosphorus per every 1000mg calcium
            - not more than 2000mg phosphorus per every 1000mg calcium
            - at least 14mg zinc per every 1mg copper
            - approximately 1700mg potassium per every 1000mg sodium 

    --
Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC
<www.HarveyNewstrom.com>

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