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Warpy

(113,131 posts)
5. "Paleo" diet faddists have to be among the most obnoxious ones
Sun Jun 24, 2012, 09:23 PM
Jun 2012

People in the Paleolithic ate anything that wouldn't poison them and some of the stuff that did, especially in lean times. That means eating grass, leaves, tree bark, grubs and bugs. They also ate whatever seeds they came across as high quality foodstuffs, and that means grains and beans.

The invention of agriculture simply caused them to expand on the highest quality foodstuffs, while abandoning the low quality items like grass and leaves over time as poor quality foods that were not worth the space and effort to cultivate.

The whole thing is just a bunch of silly moralists trying to justify another food fad. While most people could stand to decrease protein and carbohydrate intake in favor of high fiber fruits and vegetables, trying to claim that's what our ancestors ate and were healthier for (never mind they were old and dying at 40) is just plain silly.

The real eye openers are the Andrew Zimmern episodes in which he visits Kalahari Bushmen and Australian Aborigines in the outback and samples their daily diet. It's very stark fare, prepared with fire only to make it so it can be chewed and it's very close to what our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have dined on.

So give him hell, Odin. I'll be reading with great glee.

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