"Dieting is so easy, a caveman could do it. At least that is the attitude of people practicing the Paleolithic, or “Paleo,” diet.
This “caveman” diet is based on the notion the human body has not fully adapted to agriculture and foods that were available to pre-historic humans are still the only suitable food for our bodies.
Paleo dieters live mostly on meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds. This simple diet is very high in saturated fat, but there is an increasing amount of evidence showing saturated fat may not be as bad as was once thought.
In his paper “Enjoy Saturated Fats, They’re Good for You (video link),” Dr. Donald Miller, Jr. explains, “Now we are eating a greatly increased amount of carbs in cereal grains, dairy products, beverages, refined sugar and candy, along with processed vegetable oils and dressings that did not exist in our diet for 99.9 percent of human history. During this time the human genome became adapted to follow a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. Nevertheless, health authorities today say that we should do the opposite and follow a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet.”
Brian Arehart is a sophomore in the respiratory therapy program and he has been on the paleo diet—or at least a similar regimen, what he refers to as the “grain-less diet”—for about a year.
“Once you look at the science and the physiology—what happens inside the body—low-carb and paleo are pretty much the same,” Arehart said.
Miller examined modern day hunter-gather civilizations such as the Inuits of the Arctic and Maasai and Rendille tribes of Africa and found they “live long, healthy lives free of heart disease and cancer,” and their diets consist of 63 to 75 percent saturated fats.
“The biggest hurdle is getting over the fear of fat,” said Arehart, who gets 60 to 80 percent of his calories from fat. “I’ll have to admit that when I first started doing that I was a little nervous because since the cradle … you’re told that fat and cholesterol are the devil, when they are not.”
In “Enjoy Saturated Fats,” Miller points out, “There were 500 cardiologists practicing in the U.S. in 1950. There are 30,000 of them now—a 60-fold increase for a population that has only doubled since 1950.”
Comedian and health writer Tom Naughton’s 2009 documentary “Fat Head” addresses this paradox.
“The problem with linking obesity to most diseases is like saying, ‘well the real problem with lung cancer is bad breath or smelly clothes,’ rather than blaming cigarettes. Meaning we are blaming an associated symptom rather than the underlying cause of these heath conditions,” Eric Oliver, Ph.D., said in the documentary.
“When you’re on a grain-based diet, which is what the USDA wants you to be on with six to 11 servings … your blood glucose goes sky-high then drops like a roller coaster all the way down,” Arehart said. “But somehow it’s supposed to be good for us.”
Arehart said after cutting grains out of his diet he has more energy and an improved ability to concentrate.
“One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed is that I don’t get hungry … I forget about food sometimes which was just completely foreign to me,” Arehart said."
In defense of the Alaskan native tribes, to understand why they consume mostly fat and little else, yet have sterling bills of health, is the SOURCE of fats they consume: marine oils. The animals they consumed were either direct algae-eaters, or fed on direct algae-eaters, and algae is the originating source of marine Omega-3.
If our bodies were literally floating in a sea of Omega-3 like theirs is (was), we too would have sterling bills of health. As it is, we're struggling to find reliable, affordable, and accessible sources of the grass-fed, pastured, organic Nirvana here on land.
You want their kind of health? Eat what they eat (ate)--sea life, including seals, whale, and the better-known and more easily-found sources in the grocery stores, but make sure they AREN'T farm-raised, or your hard work will all be for naught. Farm-raised fish are fed a grain-based processed fish food, which changes their overall Omega status to one of mostly Omega-6. Access to algae and exercise is severely limited at best.
Allergic to fish? Look to calamari and seal oil (both available online)--neither one originate from shellfish or fin fish. Don't like that idea? Look to algae oil (also available online).
Vegetarian or vegan? Deva's got you covered.
The connection to algae is what makes Primal Toad's limited-ingredient emergency food lists so intriguing and valid--when he mentions king crab (or any seafood), he's mentioning mostly bottom-feeders, which eat a lot of algae (whether directly or indirectly), and have higher Omega-3 amounts according to the NDB.
If you think about it, Omega-3 is older than the Paleo diet...or the Paleo era itself, when you consider we all came out of primordial ooze (directly or indirectly)--primordial ooze is WHAT? Algae, which is full of building blocks of life. Golden algae is full of both building blocks AND Omega-3.
"I remember the old spirulina weight-loss craze back in the 80's" you may be thinking--stop thinking about it. Spirulina actually have little Omega-3 compared to other algae, and are not a suitable substitute to actual sea life or the oils from algae consumers. Spirulina was thought to give you more energy much like algae oil is now used (experimentally) for vehicle fuel, and aid in weight loss--good idea, but the wrong kind of algae was used.
One last question: What do the ancient Alaskan natives and Asian natives from any era have in common? They both consume(d) whale, dolphin, seal, and other marine inhabitants we consider taboo for one reason or another, yet both have a reputation for excellent health.
Are we tabooing ourselves into an overall health crisis? How long will it be before we start farming whales, seals, dolphins, and other environmental knee-jerk reaction receivers, only to produce a much-inferior version than Nature can crank out?
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