About carbs. page 25

[muaythaimike]

I don't think we can conclude that humans evolved in cold climates. We don't have lots of hairs to account for it.
Our mostly hairless existance points to the possibility that we evolved in a nearly constant warm climate.
Our ancestors did move out from their ecological niche, and would have been successful in whatever niche they found, but ultimately were not able to evolve as fast as we were evolving in the warm tropical regions. Our specific ancestors (as opposed to previous instances of our ancestors) only moved out of Africa some 50,000 years ago. This is still a small time frame compared to when Homo Sapiens arrived on this planet 200K years.

What I was saying is that the cooler climates of Africa could be why we evolved and could also account for losing a lot of the hair, amongst other reasons. If there was less sun and we were dependent on vitamin D production through skin then losing hair would be an advantage. Your point about modern humans moving out of Africa helps my argument because we could not have evolved so much in that small time frame. The changes had to happen before we moved out. I don't know of any other probable reason why pre-humans would change their diet so drastically than the affects of climate change.

I agree with Katt, Africa is home to a lot of large animals that could have been food for humans. When we migrated we could only eat what was available, so that accounts for the wide variation in diet seen all over the planet in different primitive peoples.

[FairyRae]

@fairyrae

I am not an expert in this. I just made the list because it seems natural, trying to fit all the information that I have seen.
If you are effortlessly losing weight on the primal diet, with 100-150gm carbs you are probably not that much damaged. Some people don't get damaged that easily.
You should listen to your body. A lot would also depend on where your weight stabilizes, and how you feel about that weigth level. You may decide at that point that you want to go further down, and are willing to make the modifications required to reach those level. I am sure those modifications are not natural to us. And whenever you stray from those modifications you will go back to your natural level.

There are several levels of damage also. Insulin resistance is only one type of easily handled damage. There are damages due to badly behaving hormone systems. Damages due to bad omega3mega6 ratio. There are also problems due to long term mineral and vitamin deficiencies.

Once you reach the final plateau, then you will be able to experiment, where your problems are. I am sure primal diet will help many of those damages. But there are some damages that are irreparable.

I am not at a very lean level, but the lifestyle changes required to reach those level are not for me. You will have to make a similar decision when you reach your natural level.

Thanks for the detailed reply Anand. And I have totally found focusing on vit/min deficiences has been greatly helpful, and am working more on my omega 3/6 ratio now. I think a peice of me was worried about killing a bunch of beta cells eating 150 g carbs a day after reading the first few posts in this thread...(I certainly don't know nearly enough about this topic.)

Anyway, thanks again for the very helpful info!

[venam]

What I was saying is that the cooler climates of Africa could be why we evolved and could also account for losing a lot of the hair, amongst other reasons. If there was less sun and we were dependent on vitamin D production through skin then losing hair would be an advantage.

Losing hair could also be an adaptation to the heat. If the adaptation was towards getting more vit D all Africans would also be white. If you are black you won't get enough vitamin D from "winter sun" exposure.

[Daemonized]

Losing hair could also have been a factor of our ancestors being more attracted to the less hairy ones too. Early hominids could have been standing outside their cave (or what ever shelter they've constructed) saying in some primitive language "I think that too much hair just isn't sexy!"

[Katt]

Losing hair could also be an adaptation to the heat. If the adaptation was towards getting more vit D all Africans would also be white. If you are black you won't get enough vitamin D from "winter sun" exposure.

No, I don't think they'd all be white. They get a huge dose of UV down in their lattitude. The darker skin also protects against getting TOO much sun. I expect that there are several reasons, that are bound together, for our relative hairlessness. The fact that we process vitamin D through our skin as we do, as well as our development of sweat glands to cool off are two of these.

[Bisous]

There's a compelling national geographic article about how the color of one's skin is related to a balance between vitamin D production and the dangers of folate destruction with too much sunlight:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/li.../l_073_04.html

[Anand Srivastava]

Losing hair could also have been a factor of our ancestors being more attracted to the less hairy ones too. Early hominids could have been standing outside their cave (or what ever shelter they've constructed) saying in some primitive language "I think that too much hair just isn't sexy!"

I am pretty sure that the concept of sexy relates very closely to health. It has everything to do with being able to procreate and make healthy children.

If being less hairy makes you more able to survive in the ecological niche, then it will make you look sexy.

Being hairy in a high temperature is not a good thing. Even Orangutans and other tropical large apes don't have lots of hairs.

The hairlessness is definitely an adaptation to hot climates.

[Satori75]

(Its interesting to note that in the first few pages of the Primal Blueprint, Mark talks about how early prehistoric man was most likely roasting potatoes over a fire......)

You folks should read the Metabolic Typing Diet Book. Potatotes were not created for the dinosars, and you do not have to be in ketosis to burn body fat.. Not everyone feels good and drops fat on a very low carb diet... Furthermore, any athlete who spends quality time in the gym, definately requires more complex carbs.... I am for no/low grains, but potatoes and yams have their place, and will not cause disease... If you have protein, veggies, and some good fat along with it to lower the glycemic load, insulin production is limited...

[Satori75]

(Its interesting to note that in the first few pages of the Primal Blueprint, Mark talks about how early prehistoric man was most likely roasting potatoes over a fire......)

[muaythaimike]

Losing hair could also be an adaptation to the heat. If the adaptation was towards getting more vit D all Africans would also be white. If you are black you won't get enough vitamin D from "winter sun" exposure.

That sounds like a fair statement to make, I guess you could use the same logic to support what you are saying but it just doesn't seem to fit for me. I think another factor is our ability to sweat like Katt says, which is different to other primates who dissipate heat by other means. There must have been a lot of factors that made the change, but I don't think we understand them fully yet.

There's a compelling national geographic article about how the color of one's skin is related to a balance between vitamin D production and the dangers of folate destruction with too much sunlight:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/li.../l_073_04.html

That is a really good article BTW. Great find!!!