Would eating a Stone Age diet make us healthier?

"Patricia Heil" wrote in message
...


Sigh. The people who invented this know nothing about archaeology
or physiology. Modern humans developed in Africa eating the same
80-90% plant food diet as our modern cousins, the chimpanzee.

Please get your facts straight.

I'll stick to the modern US diet. It may be deficient in the
eyes of a lot of folks, but the life expectancy today
(baring accidents) is over 70 years. The life expectancy of
the stone age hunter gather is estimated to be less than 30
years (baring accidents like being eaten by unfriendly
beasts.).

TerryR

"Diarmid Logan" wrote in message
om...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisw...098937,00.html

Would eating a Stone Age diet make us healthier?

David Adam

Thursday December 4, 2003

The Guardian

If only things were that simple. Supporters of the
so-called Stone Age
diet argue that farming practices introduced about 10,000
years ago
are ultimately harmful to human health, and that if our
hunter-
gatherer ancestors evolved without eating dairy products
or cereals
then we shouldn't eat them either. Instead, they say, we
should only
eat plenty of lean meat and fish, with fruit and raw
vegetables on the
side.

The idea, also called the caveman, hunter-gatherer or
paleolithic
diet, has been around for decades and is regularly
recycled - as it
was in various newspapers earlier this week after the
regime was
discussed at a meeting of the British Society for Allergy,
Environmental and Nutritional Medicine.

According to Lauren Cordain, a nutritionist at Colorado
State
University who presented the idea to the meeting and
published a book
about it last year called the Paleo Diet, those following
the
meat-dominated menu "lose weight and get healthy by eating
the food
you were designed to eat". He says there is increasing
evidence that a
Paleolithic diet can prevent and treat many common western
diseases.
Studies of islanders in Papua New Guinea who still live a
hunter-
gatherer lifestyle show they rarely suffer heart disease.

But other nutrionists argue that, as with the closely
related Atkins
diet, cutting out whole food groups such as cereals is
just not a good
idea.

"I would recommend anybody to eat lean meat and raw
vegetables," says
Toni Steer of the MRC human nutrition research unit at
Cambridge. "But
what you're asking people to do is cut out a food group
for which we
have a lot of evidence to show is good for your health."

Archaeologists say it's not even clear exactly how much of
the various
foods people actually ate during the Stone Age (broadly
defined as
from two-and-a-half million years ago until 10,000 years
ago).

"There was no one Stone Age diet; diets of the past varied
greatly,"
says John Gowlett, an archaeologist at Liverpool
University who also
attended the conference. People in Africa probably ate
less meat than
many people think, he says, while those in the northern,
icy regions
were forced to eat only whatever animals they could catch.

"I'm not convinced that we know what Stone Age man ate,"
agrees Andrew
Millard, who researches ancient health and diet at Durham
University.
"The evidence we have is heavily biased towards the meat
component of
the diet. We get bones from animals they have eaten but we
don't get
the remains of any vegetables they have eaten because they
decay."

Millard adds that there is good evidence that later Stone
Age cultures
in the Near East regularly collected and ate wild cereals
and it's
possible the practice was more widespread.

Mu-Pi wrote:
"Patricia Heil" wrote in message
...


Sigh. The people who invented this know nothing about archaeology
or physiology. Modern humans developed in Africa eating the same
80-90% plant food diet as our modern cousins, the chimpanzee.

Please get your facts straight.

Why don't you enlighten us, Mikey? Clearly we lesser mortals could
benefit from your superior intellect. We await your wisdom...why
should the SP folks be the only beneficiaries?

Carmen

Why go back to ancient diets when we have longer life-span now? Early
humans were prone to the simplest of diseases. I really don't understand
why we have to dig up the stone age and bring back the eating habits of
ancient humans. They didn't have cars, buses, bikes, trains... they had to
keep using their bodies to gather food/survive. We have completely
different lifestyle now. We have information right here in front of us....
eat protein, high fiber/complex carbohydrates and unsaturated fat all in
moderation, and loads and loads more exercise.

"Diarmid Logan" wrote in message
om...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisw...098937,00.html

Would eating a Stone Age diet make us healthier?

David Adam

Thursday December 4, 2003

The Guardian

If only things were that simple. Supporters of the so-called Stone Age
diet argue that farming practices introduced about 10,000 years ago
are ultimately harmful to human health, and that if our hunter-
gatherer ancestors evolved without eating dairy products or cereals
then we shouldn't eat them either. Instead, they say, we should only
eat plenty of lean meat and fish, with fruit and raw vegetables on the
side.

The idea, also called the caveman, hunter-gatherer or paleolithic
diet, has been around for decades and is regularly recycled - as it
was in various newspapers earlier this week after the regime was
discussed at a meeting of the British Society for Allergy,
Environmental and Nutritional Medicine.

According to Lauren Cordain, a nutritionist at Colorado State
University who presented the idea to the meeting and published a book
about it last year called the Paleo Diet, those following the
meat-dominated menu "lose weight and get healthy by eating the food
you were designed to eat". He says there is increasing evidence that a
Paleolithic diet can prevent and treat many common western diseases.
Studies of islanders in Papua New Guinea who still live a hunter-
gatherer lifestyle show they rarely suffer heart disease.

But other nutrionists argue that, as with the closely related Atkins
diet, cutting out whole food groups such as cereals is just not a good
idea.

"I would recommend anybody to eat lean meat and raw vegetables," says
Toni Steer of the MRC human nutrition research unit at Cambridge. "But
what you're asking people to do is cut out a food group for which we
have a lot of evidence to show is good for your health."

Archaeologists say it's not even clear exactly how much of the various
foods people actually ate during the Stone Age (broadly defined as
from two-and-a-half million years ago until 10,000 years ago).

"There was no one Stone Age diet; diets of the past varied greatly,"
says John Gowlett, an archaeologist at Liverpool University who also
attended the conference. People in Africa probably ate less meat than
many people think, he says, while those in the northern, icy regions
were forced to eat only whatever animals they could catch.

"I'm not convinced that we know what Stone Age man ate," agrees Andrew
Millard, who researches ancient health and diet at Durham University.
"The evidence we have is heavily biased towards the meat component of
the diet. We get bones from animals they have eaten but we don't get
the remains of any vegetables they have eaten because they decay."

Millard adds that there is good evidence that later Stone Age cultures
in the Near East regularly collected and ate wild cereals and it's
possible the practice was more widespread.

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003 21:06:26 GMT, Tim Tyler wrote:

Diarmid Logan quoted:

"I would recommend anybody to eat lean meat and raw vegetables," says
Toni Steer of the MRC human nutrition research unit at Cambridge. "But
what you're asking people to do is cut out a food group for which we
have a lot of evidence to show is good for your health."

Grains are *better* than an equivalent quantity of vegetables?

Where is all this evidence?

ISTM that grains are cheap and caloric - and are popular for those
reasons.

If you believe the food pyramid, it's healthier for you to eat a plate of
pasta than a plate of broccoli (or at least, you're supposed to have more
servings of the former than of the latter).

--
Bob M in CT remove 'x.' to reply

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003 21:06:26 GMT, Tim Tyler wrote:

ISTM that grains are cheap and caloric - and are popular for those reasons.

They also store well, especially if refined.

Don donwiss at panix.com.

On Thu, 04 Dec 2003, Patricia Heil wrote:

Sigh. The people who invented this know nothing about archaeology
or physiology. Modern humans developed in Africa eating the same
80-90% plant food diet as our modern cousins, the chimpanzee.

Yes, 6 million years ago we most likely did eat a 80-90% plant food diet.
But then we split off from the apes. Then two million years ago we
developed tools which allowed us to have a higher meat diet. This nutrient
dense food allowed us to get smarter and smarter. The Stone Age diet being
discussed is this diet that we ate from two million years ago until the
Neolithic era, which was 10,000 years ago, or less, depending on where your
ancestors are from.

Don donwiss at panix.com.

"TerryR" wrote in message
...
I'll stick to the modern US diet. It may be deficient in the
eyes of a lot of folks, but the life expectancy today
(baring accidents) is over 70 years. The life expectancy of
the stone age hunter gather is estimated to be less than 30
years (baring accidents like being eaten by unfriendly
beasts.).


Not because of diet. Pleaes get your facts straight.

"Carmen" wrote in message
...
Mu-Pi wrote:
"Patricia Heil" wrote in message
...


Sigh. The people who invented this know nothing about archaeology
or physiology. Modern humans developed in Africa eating the same
80-90% plant food diet as our modern cousins, the chimpanzee.

Please get your facts straight.

Why don't you enlighten us, Mikey? Clearly we lesser mortals could
benefit from your superior intellect. We await your wisdom...why
should the SP folks be the only beneficiaries?

Frankly, Sandy, you are not worth the time. For you to make such a vapid
statement shows that you are stupid rather than ignorant. Sadly, stupidity
is not curable.

Mu-Pi wrote:
Please get your facts straight.

Why don't you enlighten us, Mikey? Clearly we lesser mortals could
benefit from your superior intellect. We await your wisdom...why
should the SP folks be the only beneficiaries?

Frankly, Sandy, you are not worth the time. For you to make such a
vapid statement shows that you are stupid rather than ignorant.
Sadly, stupidity is not curable.

You aren't very good at this, are you Varney? Please stay and play.
You may learn something.
Keep trying - a little hint though first. "Carmen" is my real name,
so do try to keep up. A simple check of Google would have shown you
that. You were the one attempting to conceal your true identity, not
I.

Have a lovely evening Mike.

Carmen