| | Hi Ed,
I wrote, "I think more studies are needed with the Paleo diet -- specifically with respect to the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrate -- because the dietary recommendations seem a bit too general." You replied, The recommendations seem too general to you because you are used to a paradigm-free, single-number solution.
With Pritikin, the single-number solution is the total dietary fat -- with the admonition to, above all else, control this one factor, this one overriding thing. Actually, not. Pritikin also eliminates sugars -- no white or brown sugar, no honey, no molasses, no syrup, and if you eat raisins or dried fruit, you must eat them in small quantities only. He also cautions against too much fruit in general and too much salt. He also wants you to limit total protein from all sources. He recommends something like 65 grams per day for the average person. And he limits cholesterol to no more than 100 mg/day, and he recommends a high amount of fiber.
Here are his basic dietary principles:
Eat two kinds of whole-grains daily, such as wheat, oats, barley, brown rice, or buckwheat.
Eat some raw vegetable salad and some raw or cooked green or yellow vegetables every day.
Eat a piece of citrus fruit and up to three additional pieces of fresh fruit daily.
Add beans or peas three times a week if you like them. Once a week will do if you don't like them.
Eat sweet potatoes or hard yellow squash once or twice a week if you like them.
Eat six ounces of low-fat, low cholesterol animal protein per week -- but not more than one-and-one-half pounds. He recommends no more than three to four ounces a day.
Eat three full meals daily.
Maintain your ideal weight.
So, his diet isn't quite so simple as limiting fat to 10% of total calories. It's not a single-number solution; that's a caricature. With the original Atkins diet, the single-number solution is the total dietary carbohydrate -- with the admonition to, above all else, control this one factor, this one overriding thing.
What each of these 2 diets miss, is a paradigm. Before we start talking about which micro- or macro-nutrient we should focus most or all of our attention on, we should ask many, many other questions.
What do we know about humans? How do humans work? What have they been eating for literally hundreds of thousands of years? What do contemporary primitive people eat? What is the noted disease incidence and prevalence in such populations? Are there important genetic differences between them and us? How does all of this information integrate with the larger body of the science of biology? Etc., etc., etc. Well, before deciding on his diet, Pritikin did a lot of epidemiological research on populations throughout the world, observing that those who ate his kind of diet rarely if ever got heart disease. In other words, he arrived at his diet inductively by observing its results in practice.
I asked, "How much meat is permitted -- how much required -- how much fruit and vegetables are permitted -- how much required -- how much nuts are included -- how much required, and what kind?" This string of questions is answered -- albeit indirectly -- on p. 22 of Loren Cordain's book, The Paleo Diet:
1. Eat a relatively high amount of animal protein ...
2. Eat fewer carbohydrates than most modern diets recommend, but eat lots of good carbohydrates--from fruits and vegetables ...
3. Eat a large amount of fiber ...
4. Eat a moderate amount of fat, with more ... monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats than ... saturated fats, and nearly equal amounts of omega 3 and omega 6 fats.
5. Eat foods with high potassium content and low sodium content.
6. Eat a diet with a net alkaline load.
7. Eat foods rich in plant phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Some good recommendations here, but I'm uncomfortable with 1. and 3., especially 3. Just how do you get more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats than saturated fats, given the high meat content of this diet? Wouldn't you have to add a lot of vegetable oil to your food, especially if, as you say, Cordain recommends limiting nut consumption? Polyunsaturated vegetable oils can cause cancer, if eaten in large amounts. And fats of this kind cause blood platelets to become sticky and aggregate into clumps, inhibiting blood circulation. Fats (other than omega 3's) can also make the body less sensitive to insulin. One of the reasons my glucose is so low (both fasting and non-fasting glucoses are in the 70's) is that my diet is so low in fat. A reading of 70's is exceptional for someone my age. Ask any doctor or healthcare professional. I'd be surprised if you could get this low a reading on the Paleo diet. And here are the AMDRs (acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges) for the Paleo diet (from p 11):
Protein: 19-35%
Carbohydrate: 22-40%
Fat: 28-47%
If you work real hard to understand these limitations (from just p. 11 and p. 22 of one key book), then you will discover direct answers to your string of questions. This is a pretty broad range, don't you think? -- 19-35%, 22-40% and 28-47%?
I wrote, "Early man probably didn't eat a lot of nuts, if only because they were difficult to find and to shell. Nowadays, we can buy nuts already shelled and consume large quantities of them with ease, which can easily lead to overconsumption." Good point. Cordain says to eat nuts in moderation, focusing on Walnuts and Macamia nuts -- and not going nuts on other nuts but, instead, using them in prepared dishes or to garnish a salad, for instance. The only caveat I'd have with walnuts is that they contain a lot of arachidonic acid, which has been associated with cancer. But if the amount consumed is small, I suppose it's not an issue.
I wrote, "And I wonder too just how much meat he [early man] ate, because it probably was not easy to find and hunt down an animal. I would think he was probably more of a gatherer than a hunter." If the remaining 225 hunter-gatherer societies investigated in 2000 offer an indication of what was eaten, then one-third (by weight) of a man's diet was meat -- while our genes were adapting to our environment. This translates to just over half of all calories from meat. Well, that's modern hunter-gatherers. How do we know that paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed that much?
I asked, "Also, do you follow the Paleo diet consistently, and if so, what changes have you noticed in your weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, etc., since you first adopted it?" I've only followed the Paleo diet consistently when I didn't even know about it (I used to eat that way for bodybuilding competitions). Now that I know about it -- and it's superiority over every other kind of eating -- I haven't followed it (consistently). Wow, you were in body-building competition? How did you do? Back when I (unknowingly) followed it, my body fat percentage got down to 4.6% (based on 7-site skinfold-thickness measurements). The skin on my abdomen was almost as thin as the skin on the back of my hand. Amazing. How did you feel otherwise? Did you have plenty of energy? Did you feel good? Lately, I've only made half-hearted changes to my diet. Each meal I eat contains at least a serving of fruit, if not both a serving of fruit and 2 or 3 servings of veggies. Dairy, grains, and legumes (all not on the Paleo diet) are in my diet, but in only heavily-moderated amounts. I haven't had my vitals, or a blood test, in over a year. Interesting.
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Any exercise carried on beyond the least amount required to stimulate an optimal increase is not merely a waste of effort, it is actually highly counterproductive.
