Anyone try the Paleo Diet described in the Post today (1/2)?

[Anonymous]

I had a health care provider rave about it to me, esp the benefit of coconut oil and coconut products. Anyone try this way of eating? I'd love to feel better, get sick less and yep, lose a few pounds. Too good to be true?

[Anonymous]

it sounded ridiculous and faddish to me, honestly. i don't know why they devoted so much space to it.

[Anonymous]

I have to disagree about it's being a fad. Our bodies evolved in response to a particular diet, which does not include fatty meat, dairy, or any grain products. That said, I think it's a difficult diet to follow. And I also disagree about the coconut oil and coconut products. Coconut oil is loaded with saturated fat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Our bodies evolved in response to a particular diet, which does not include fatty meat, dairy, or any grain products.

But the article pointed out out that our bodies have evolved subsequently to accommodate such foods. Lactose-tolerance in adults was one cited example.

[Anonymous]

What our bodies have or have not evolved to do may not resemble what we want out of life today. Left to its own devices, the human race had females pump out babies every few years, starting in their teens. After the fertile years are over, death comes pretty quickly. Meanwhile, many of the offspring have died, too. Make a lot, lose a lot.

I also think the article's claims that there were no fat cavepeople is a load, or at least unverifiable. The fact that artists choose to draw them as thin doesn't mean they actually were. Plus, and even if the artists are right, were they thin because that's what was good for them, or because that's what resources allowed?

The article talked about how alcohol isn't paleo. Pretty funny, given that a few days later there was a graf or two about finding someplace where the inhabitants had made some sort of fermented beverage about 9,000 years ago. And really, are we surprised? Fermentation is easy -- getting things not to ferment requires refrigeration.

Despite those caveats, I am all for mindful eating, and if eating this way makes you feel better, go for it. Just don't blather on about how the diet that works for you is the one that works for everyone.

[Anonymous]

It's silly. I think the average life span during the Paleo period was about 30.

[Anonymous]

That's because women died in childbirth, or from accidents, disease, etc. There is little evidence that older hunter-gatherers suffered from the "diseases of civilization" that affect us today (heart disease, diabetes, etc.). I don't think that most people advocating this diet (well, at least not my dad, who was one of the people who came up with this idea in the 1980s) propose throwing out the good aspects of civilization, such as modern medicine. And, as to the lactose-tolerance issue, it may be that some genetic changes have occurred since we began to live in agrarian societies but the vast majority of evolutionary changes occurred prior to that time.