The Paleo Diet in a Nutshell

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tex
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The Paleo Diet in a Nutshell

Post by tex »

Hi All,

For anyone considering looking into the Paleo Diet, or someone who needs a refresher, this site gives a pretty good coverage of the rationale behind the diet, and allows you to learn just about all the basic information you need, in just a few minutes of reading. It lists allowed, and disallowed foods. Note that tomatoes, for example, are not specifically disallowed, but are not listed as allowed, either, and yes, Polly, carrageenan is specifically not allowed. LOL.

http://www.healingcrow.com/dietsmain/paleo/paleo.html

Tex
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It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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Post by Jean »

Wayne,

Just to be picky, tomatoes are listed on that website as acceptable in the fruit section.

I have wanted to ask for a long time why root veggies like yams and potatoes aren't allowed on a paleo diet? Seems to me that hunter-gathers would have dug up many root crops, especially in tough times. Native Americans did and I'm sure many other cultures did too. I'm not convinced legumes were ignored either. Things like alfalfa are a very nutritious food.

Just wondering! Jean
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Post by tex »

Well hide my glasses and call me blind. It sure is. I guess I looked on the vegegable list, and didn't see it. Duh! Thanks for pointing that out.

Presumably, yams and 'taters weren't commonly available back in those days. Apparently, they had a rather restricted growing range, which may not have been selected for human habitation. Here's a site about wild potatoes:

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/potato.htm

I would assume that a lot of paleo food sources are no longer avilable. Since life first appeared on this planet, some 3.8 billion years ago, it has been estimated that more than 99.9% of all species have gone extinct. IOW, only one species in a thousand, is still alive today. Obvioiusly, extinction is not a modern day contrivance, contrary to the implicatons of most ecological special interest groups.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/lif ... 117862.300

On the other hand, a few new species turn up every year, (usually species that have been thought to have been extinct for many years), and with the advent of production agriculture, plants and animals are continuously being modified, in order to help feed the masses. Usually, though, these modifications have questionable health benefits, as we are all aware.

I'm not sure why legumes are not allowed either. They were obviously around in paleo times, and they were availalable in the right places, (where early humans lived):

http://www.naturalhub.com/natural_food_ ... _seeds.htm

Hopefully some of our resident cave dwellers can clarify this point.

Love,
Wayne
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It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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Post by Matthew »

After seeing a program on PBS many years ago about native people that grew and ate potatoes high in the Andes my assumption is that the potatoes and tubers we eat today are a far cry form what even a recent ancestors ate. The potatoes shown in the program were very small, not much bigger than golf balls and were much more fibrous than what we see now and in any crop varied in color from tan to brown to purple. With this in mind a can only assume that those football sized potatoes found in the grocery store today are far higher in high glycemic carbs and much lower in mineral and vitamin content in that they have been engineered for the SAD diet .

Legumes might have been available but unless cultivated in fields would have taken lots of time and energy to walk about enough to come up with enough calories to make it worth it.

We have always had free will to eat what ever was available . Their is no way to really know what our ancestors ate since most of those foods no longer are available but we can take some clues and wading through the abyss I have found some of those clues apparently work for me. Certainley the Paleo diet is open to a lot of interpertation. I am sure our ancestors had no written diet and even Loren Cordain gives open permission to cheat.

Simply, experiment and do what works for you.

That’s my take on it anyway. :-)

Matthew
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Post by celia »

Thanks Wayne. I am amazed by your wealth of knowledge. I slowly want to get a cave! Celia
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