"rogue" diets...

[girlbug2]

Indigator, my oral health improved within a few weeks. I wasn't really thinking about it much until, about a week in, I noticed that there wasn't any plaque on my teeth to speak of.

Elder999, I do MMA five days a week (well, krav maga, which is about as mixed a martial art as it gets). That equals about five hours a week of variable level cardio, which appears to keep me in good health. I used to run, but it's hard on the shins and knees. Elliptical machine is a good stand in for Krav when I can't make it to training.

But I have a question for you. Forgive me for not reading your link about hunting as of yet. Wasn't the vast majority of the hunting done by the males in the paleo societies? That is, the division of labor was typically men hunt, women gathered. So if 6 hours or whatever of running was required to keep the hunters healthy, then it follows that the females would have been unhealthy. I have seen no evidence of that, that there was a disparity between the health of the hunters and the gatherers, who surely didn't need to run 6 hours to gather roots and greens. Rather the daily work of women was slow and sustained, surely burning many calories but not particularly cardio (from my memory of college anthropology 101).

So, I could argue that I'm following the gatherer model of the paleo diet, and it is equally valid as the hunter model.

 

[elder999]

Wasn't the vast majority of the hunting done by the males in the paleo societies? That is, the division of labor was typically men hunt, women gathered. .

Again, the best examples we have our recent tribal societies-short answer would be somewhat.Based on that, it's safe to say that women participated in hunts, but women also get pregnant-hard to say what "the vast majority" would be, easier to say the majority. You make a fair case, but only half of one: if women were confined to "gathering" it's fairly safe to say that closer to 60% of their diet would come from the carbs they gathered-which also might have included primitive wild grains, btw-like those that were eventually cultivated as wheat and maize.

Bottom line-it's about workload-this is the reason why the Masai could live on a diet of greens, and milk mixed with blood, and yet have excellent bloodwork: because their athleticism approaches Olympic quality. It's why the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico can live on a diet that mostly consists of corn, and no trace of "the diseases of modern life": because they run Copper Canyon 50 miles at a time. It's why the Inuit that live traditionally have no heart disease or strokes, and otherwise excellent bloodwork, in spite of often appearing to be what a Western doctor would call "obese", while living on a diet that is almost entirely flesh and fat.

And 5 hrs. a week of MMA doesn't qualify, but it's okay-I din't say the "paleo diet" wasn't a good diet-it simply isn't "paleo." ( "Running" isn't hard on the shins and nees: running shoes are.)

 

[Indagator]

FWIW, the diet I have been leaning towards (Bova's Spartan Health Regimen) includes a balance between hunter/gatherer based dietary intake and smaller amounts of agricultural-society dietary intakes. The health benefits seem to be quite good.

And also interesting given the comments on running, the same book also states ways of utilising the impact on the body from running as a way of building up joint strength and so forth. The crazy thing is, it seems to work (if followed correctly).

So nobody has tried bio-oxidative diets or alkalising diets? Figures, lol, they both seem pretty dodgy to me. The worst one I think is where people are ingesting H202 (diluted of course) as a snake-oil style cure-all.

So, Elder999, just to clarify; is your position that the high levels of fitness/ cardio activity is where the health benefits are derived from, as opposed to dietary intake? Or are you saying it's more of a combination?

Call me dense, lol, but I wasn't quite clear on that point.

Thanks guys.

 

[elder999]

So, Elder999, just to clarify; is your position that the high levels of fitness/ cardio activity is where the health benefits are derived from, as opposed to dietary intake? Or are you saying it's more of a combination?

Call me dense, lol, but I wasn't quite clear on that point.

Thanks guys.

IT's a bit of both, as well as environmental-the Inuit are healthy "fat people" because of their cold environment. I don't think "diet" is as much of a factor as food quality and caloric intake, as well as a healthy level of activity. Jack Lalanne is almost entirely vegetarian. Joseph Greenstein was entirely vegetarian. Some MMA athletes are vegans. I've offered other examples: the Masai, the Inuit, the Tarahumara.

Some factors are also genetic and evolutionary, of course. The "paleo diet" says that paleothic man didn't eat dairy, and so we mustn't-it neglects the near constant search for food that was early man's life, and the evolutionary factors since-fact is, that while we are in many ways of the same design basis (we'[re built for running, we're built for running, we're built for running) we've evolved since those times, and dairy is a perfect example.

I'm lactose intolerant. This is directly related to my racial genome: 95% of Native Americans are, 90% of African Americans are, and 90% of Polynesians are. Lactose intolerance takes place because an adult body no longer manufactures the enzyme required to process diary, lactase. It's prominent across racial lines for very easy to discern reasons: people like east Asians, Africans, Native Americans, and Polynesians in their native enviromnments can get ample vitamin D from sunlight, and calcium from leafy green vegetables, so they don't need to use dairy to get these nutrients. Northern and eastern Europeans, however, come from an environment lacking in both of these things, and, over time, evolved to continue producing lactase in adulthood, so they can get vitamin D and calcium from milk. This is an early adaptation-their bodies changed so that they could survive in their environment on the food products that were available to them.

We're no more "paleo" than the "paleo diet" is.

 

[Carol]

Reinhard is a very nice guy and responsive to questions and feedback about his various systems. Shovelglove is a lot of fun and effective as well.

If you are interested in low cost kettlebelling, you should invest in a Kettlestack. I love mine. Truthfully, I can do all of the exercises I enjoy with a kettlebell with a standard dumbbell also, but there are several I much prefer with the Kettlestack.

Awesome feedback!! Thank you very much :asian:

 

[Senjojutsu]

Unfortunately I have not been able to find this Cardiologist’s book.

Perhaps I over-emphasized the doctor’s identification of his paleo-diet factoring.

What he was getting at with “walk for at least twenty minutes” was to preach (warn) us to stop being so sedentary in our modern lifestyles and engage in a base level of activity that would aid pancreatic efficacy – and not be “caveman fit” ready to jog down a deer or two.


Not a scientific finding, sure, but like the old saying:
When I was your age - there weren’t no school buses for us!
I use to walk to school everyday: Barefoot!, in the snow and rain, wind blowing in my face, uphill - BOTH WAYS!! (See if your children were paying attention to your rant to find the logical disconnect)

As an aside this past weekend on a beautiful Fall weekend - I was watching people fighting to get the closest possible vehicle parking space at the local supermarket – you’re going to be walking the shopping aisles you dolts.

Or to ask rhetorically – fifty years ago they weren’t marketing “low fat” items or diet soda offerings – but the incidence of adult obesity and diabetes was so much lower than today?

 

[elder999]

Just found this. It's a persitence hunt:

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