Dr. Mcdougall rips apart the paleo diet - your thoughts? page 7

[ChocoTaco369]

Chaco- Seasonal foods.
Seriously. Over most of the world starchy roots and tubers are not naturally available for consumption year round. So, at some times of the year the diet would have necessarily been lower in starchy matter and higher in fresh vegetation, berries, fruits, etc., and in meat. They ate what was available. Starch was not on the menu year round except in a very narrow range of climates.

If you can't find roots and tubers, that means fruit is in season. Neither run away from you, require tools to kill or try and kill you back.

For the majority of human existence, we lived near the equator and near bodies of water. That means a temperate climate that was relatively stable. Lots of people reference Inuits and other cold-faring societies, but the fact is they were fairly societies. We required technology to relocate to cold-weather climates. We did most of our evolving along the African equator. This seasonal arguments don't hold up so well in context when you realize for most of our history we didn't go through huge temperature shifts. Roots and tubers are staple foods in Africa, far more so than meats.

[cori93437]

Not quit accurate...
Even so, there are gaps between fruits and tubers where the majority of forage-able foods would be green vegetation or mushrooms. or other less sugary/starchy type foods. And where foragers would rely on insect protein rather heavily rather than hunted meats.
And people groups were moving around quite a bit throughout out our evolution from quite early on as well... Not all of them lived in areas where specific tuber consumption is highest. Stop concentrating so much on single populations. Even near the equator there is a wide variance in foods and food availability. You act like there were just potatoes in the pantry every day. Not nearly the case.
Also there was not technology in relocation for early man... it was called group growth. An area or group can only support a certain number of people before either foods get scarce (also due to yearly shifts in climate) or due to group sized someone decided to move off and form his own group (splitting). People then walk. Yep... just walk a few miles in a new direction until a new good spot was found.
No one moved from the equator to cold climates in one fell swoop... it was gradual and over many generations adapting to small shifts as they moved incrementally.

[Lewis]

So, paleo = atkins = bad. Let me try!

McDougal loves starch -> wheat contains starch -> McDougal gives me the shits

Sheer ignorance on his part. This stuff just isn't around in the wild for much of the year over much of the planet. Besides, stable isotope analysis on bone shows that these people were eating at the top of the food chain, actually similar to an Arctic fox.

There's no need to pay any attention to people who want to pronounce on subjects they know nothing about and on which they can't be bothered to look at the research that's out there.

Why they can't just admit that their sqeamishness about eating meat is driving their whole agenda and leave it at that I don't know. God knows -- maybe their carb addiction, and the deficiencies in neurotransmitters that would be underlying it, is driving the whole thing!

If one of these people had the guts to say, "I know this isn't in line with our evolutionary history; I know it'll probably be bad for my health; but, you knwo what, I'm going to do it anyway just because I want to" I could respect him.

[The Return of Dado]

I don't want to turn this into a vegan attack but am curious what your guys' thoughts are after reading this article from him bashing everything about the paleo diet

McDougall Newsletter: June 2012 - The Paleo Diet is Uncivilized (And Unhealthy and Untrue)

Is there a chance Mark Sisson would respond to this article? I know the 'starch solution' book has just been released by dr. Mcdougall.

also, this is a pretty interesting article as well:

Paleo Diet Review: Pros and Cons -- Natural Health Newsletter

I've always been curious about the consumption of meat and the acidic nature of it.

fuck this guy

[onalark]

You act like there were just potatoes in the pantry every day. Not nearly the case.

Just to play Devil's Advocate -- it isn't hard to store tubers in such a way that they'll last longer. Bury 'em in sand and you get several months "shelf life". Creating caches of them probably wasn't hard for Grok. Hell, this is why root cellars exist.

[noodletoy]

The Hunter-gather Diet Is Repulsive

that was the end for me, so i didn't even bother clicking on the 2nd link. strident agenda much? jeebus.

[cori93437]

Just to play Devil's Advocate -- it isn't hard to store tubers in such a way that they'll last longer. Bury 'em in sand and you get several months "shelf life". Creating caches of them probably wasn't hard for Grok. Hell, this is why root cellars exist.

Grok wasn't alone.
Storage would likely attract more animals than just leaving the tubers where they grew.
Plus if early man wasn't gardening tubers he likely wasn't really finding more than he needed to eat anyway.
Maybe a day or two worth at a time... but not the quantities needed to see the people through the seasonal fluctuations.

[Moochy]

Sheer ignorance on his part. This stuff just isn't around in the wild for much of the year over much of the planet. Besides, stable isotope analysis on bone shows that these people were eating at the top of the food chain, actually similar to an Arctic fox.

There's no need to pay any attention to people who want to pronounce on subjects they know nothing about and on which they can't be bothered to look at the research that's out there.

This is true

[Dracil]

Grok wasn't alone.
Storage would likely attract more animals than just leaving the tubers where they grew.
Plus if early man wasn't gardening tubers he likely wasn't really finding more than he needed to eat anyway.
Maybe a day or two worth at a time... but not the quantities needed to see the people through the seasonal fluctuations.

I was watching Going Tribal recently and saw the reverse actually happen with a nomadic tribe as they were migrating. They dug up the squirrel's tubers cache and stole it.

Dairy products was big with these nomadic tribes herding their hundreds of animals per family (horses, cattle, goats, and sheep)

(This was in Mongolia)

[curlygirl]

my initial thought was 'who cares?'

upon reading, my thoughts morphed into 'this n=1 works for me, so who cares'

<--- this.