Grains

Just a little message from the book Paleo Manifesto by John Durant:

"We Americans would have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if we had never discovered the (overly) simple fact that a gram of fat contains more calories than a gram of protein or carbohydrate, which seems to suggest that, all things equal, any overweight animal should eat more carbohydrate and less fat to lose weight. Yet carb-heavy grains are exactly what farmers feed to livestock to fatten them up as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Let me repeat that, just for good measure: grains -- the base of the USDA food pyramid for humans -- are what American farmers use to fatten up their livestock." (my emphasis)

Nuts, Seeds and Grains

The kind of bread we are consuming today is a far cry from the bread consumed by ancient populations. This sentence can be applied to any kind of nuts, seeds and grains.

Hungry Planet - Greenland

The Madsen family (Inuit), living in Cap Hope, Greenland, and their one week worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Hungry Planet - United States

A family from the United States, the Revis, living in Raleigh, North Carolina, and their one week worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Gluten and Gastrointestinal Symptoms

Article by David Evans from HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE

Diets containing gluten cause gastrointestinal symptoms in non-celiacs
This study was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology 2011 Mar;106(3):508-14; quiz 515

Hungry Planet - Turkey

Here is a family from Istanbul, Turkey and their food for a week, from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.

Hungry Planet - China (Traditional and Modern)

Two wonderful families from China, one living in a village near Beijing, on a more traditional diet. The other family lives in the city (Beijing) with consequences on their diet.

Hungry Planet - Mali

For us, living in the civilized world, this is a bit of an extreme example of a diet. Here is the Natomo family, from the book Hungry Planet.

Hungry Planet - Bhutan

For today's detailed diet study I chose this Bhutanese family from Hungry Planet.

Nutrient Density

This presentation by Mathieu Lalonde, PhD gives an insight into the nutrient density of different food groups. The conclusion is very surprising:

Bad Science

Here is an interview with Gary Taubes explaining why we came to believe the current dogma that obesity is caused by eating more and exercising less.

The Bigger Picture on Nutrition

"Believing that your hypothesis must be correct before all the evidence is gathered encourages you to interpret the evidence selectively. This is human nature. It is also precisely what the scientific method tries to avoid. It does so by requiring that scientists not just test their hypotheses, but try to prove them false."
                                                                                    - Gary Taubes

Cancer and Alzheimer

This is just a short post about the incidence of cancer in isolated populations compared to the "civilized world". The evidence shows that the number of cancer rises with the consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugar. You can read more about cancer and diet in this article: What causes cancer?

The Fiber Myth

The fiber hypothesis is based on the study of a single investigator named Denis Burkitt, former missionary surgeon in Uganda. He proposed that a diet high in fiber, as he observed among native populations in Africa, is the key to prevent chronic diseases especially colon and rectal cancer.

Grains - Health Hazards

Our best guide for a healthy diet is evolution. The longer we've been consuming a certain type of food as a species, the less harm it is likely to do. If we want to avoid chronic disease, the best way would be to restore "biological normality - that is ... the conditions to which presumably we are genetically adapted." (George Rose - Sick Individuals and Sick Populations, 1985)