Savage_Rob
Serious Thumper Alliance Member
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Mechanically Inclined Amateur
Posts: 6972
Texas (Dallas area)
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While I haven't read the book in the beginning of this thread, I hardly think that bans me from having any pertinent knowledge or opinion on the subject as that book is not likely to be the sole source of knowledge in the universe. It is on my list to read though. I must also confess to only skimming the first 37 pages of this thread prior to posting. If these things piss you off, you're wasting your energy; just stop reading. My opinion is generally as follows. Please excuse me if it seems more rambling and less coherently structured as I did not outline it prior to writing this post.
From a simple philosophical dietary standpoint, I can understand fully that our nomadic hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved eating what they could catch and their bodies could process raw. This would be mostly vegetables and fruits on a daily basis and as much meat as they could catch or scavenge. Note that this would be lean game meat; not farm raised. There would be the occasional supplements of eggs, nuts or the like. Fish would be more easily gained than many meats, depending upon locale. In general they did not eat grains as our teeth don't handle most of them well raw, nor do our digestive tracts. Dairy was not a part of a human diet after you were weaned from your mother. We certainly weren't chasing down animals to milk them. Raw corn, while edible, is much like raw potatoes. It's okay in small amounts but will usually give humans gastric issues if eaten in quantity. Man did find that grains were often more edible if they had been found after having soaked for a sufficient time in water. In fact, sometimes they even got a buzz (witness the beginnings of beer and other spirits). As man began to harness and use fire, he found he could make grain more palatable by cooking it. This was still at a time when man was nomadic. However, man began to return and to linger where these supplies of wild grain were found and eventually began to time the harvests and then to plant (witness the start of agriculture and towns). As these towns grew, grain became more and more the primary source of nutrition. Some meat and eggs became a bit easier to come by as some animals became domesticated during the later stages of nomadic life (i.e. goats) and dairy began to see its first uses. Note that these latter developments began to add fat to the diet from both dairy and farm-raised meats. I believe the paleo diet (or caveman diet, as it is sometimes called) is quite likely the healthiest for those of us who can afford to sustain it. As a species we took something along the line of two million years evolving eating it. Grain, dairy and domesticated meats have only been on the scene for something like ten to twenty thousand years, which hasn't given us a lot of time to adapt. This is not to say that evolution isn't still at work. There's a group of Laplanders whose primary source of protein for the past five thousand years or more has been cheese. This single group has a slightly higher lactose tolerance than the rest of the human race. Back to affordability... The unfortunate fact is that we can't effectively feed the populace of the planet healthily on a paleo diet. Grain is a necessary supplement. It seems to me likely that GMO plants might present an option to make them more agreeable to human digestion. Personally, I have compromised a bit. I tend to eat mostly lean meats, fruits, vegetables and the occasional eggs and nuts. However, I do cook them more often than I eat them raw (except for fruit). I eat grain-based foods to some extent. Usually, they would be high-fiber, high-protein versions (certain Fiber One cereals) or plain oats. I sometimes have short-grain brown rice or quinoa but not often. I occasionally eat low-fat cheese but rarely any other dairy. I use unsweetened almond milk. I also like the occasional potato or sweet potato, cooked. It works for me. I am attempting to slowly switch to more raw vegetables but some will likely always be cooked. I have been at the point for years where I can pass up breads and such quite easily. One main focus of mine is to dramatically reduce the amount of salt and sweeteners I use. I already use less than most people I know but I believe we have all become accustomed to far too much salt and sweet (natural or artificial) in our diets and we honestly don't taste the real food underneath it very well at all.
When it comes to cravings, it's largely a function of blood sugar levels. These processed/refined carbs, whether sugar, flour (wheat, oat, corn, rye, rice, etc.) or otherwise, hit your blood quickly and spike the blood sugar levels. After that, comes the crash, which causes lethargy and cravings (like any addiction). Sources of calories (even carbs) that digest more slowly and are effectively time-released into the blood, keep the levels more stable and don't result in crashes and cravings. They need to have higher levels of fiber and protein, which digest more slowly. That's why eating a serving or two of oats (simple cut or rolled, not refined flour) has an entirely different effect than the same amount of calories in something like basic white bread, flour, sugar, etc. Of course, if you load down the oats with butter and sugar, you kind of defeat the purpose.
I hereby relinquish the soapbox and return you to your regularly scheduled programming...
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