In Reply to: Re: On being a healthy skeptic posted by Thinker on August 17, 2007 at 20:19:27:
So you want to make the point that no one should rely on just one study? Why? Because you think I don't understand that basic principle?
You really seem a bit patronizing towards me, as if I don't understand the limits to individual studies. Anyone who would make a life style change based on one study is a fool. That's not why I posted the article, which I've explained already.
And as for my comment on the paleolithic diet, that was intended to give a bit of context to the quotations I provided on the body's ability to heal itself. I don't really consider it critical thinking to react to my mention of that particular diet with a few links from a quick internet search in order to make a point that is obvious to most.
As for that diet itself, the so-called expert you quote makes an obvious error in equating the Atkins diet or the Zone diet to the other diets he lists, which by the way are just different names for the same diet. In otherwords, the Neanderthal, Cave Man and Paleolithic Prescription are all exactly the same thing. It is also called the stone-age diet. It is not a diet invented by some hack to sell books, but is the natural diet our ancestors ate for millions of years.
The paleodiet, to simply summarize, can be thought of as the diet our ancestor ate before the Agricultural revolution. It is not a diet in the same sense as the Atkins, South Beach or any other modern diet.
If you accept the fact of Darwinian natural selection and understand the basics of genetic adaptation, you will recognize that our early ancestors, in any time period before agriculture started about 10,000 years ago, ate nothing but fruit, vegetables, lean meat, and seafood. Of course, the earlier you go back the more likely you will find ancestor lines that ate only fruit. But that is to miss the point. Over time those earliest ancestors did become omnivores. Hominids from about 2 million years ago until about 10,000 years ago did eat just the 4 food groups just mentioned, and probably nuts and seeds too. That means those are the foods humans are most genetically adapted to eat, the food of hunter-gatherers, not farmers.
Historically, our ancestors ate no cereal grains such as wheat, corn, rice,oatmeal etc., whole or otherwise, no dairy, no processed foods, etc. Our genetic make-up has been adapted to that basic diet over a few million years, whereas the modern agricultural based diet has only been around a blink of an eye in evolutionary time, not allowing much time for our bodies to adapt.
The result, which has been scientifically verified, is that human health in general has deteriorated since the advent of agriculture. The switch to a largely grain based diet resulted in the development of all kinds of chronic disease.
Now I realize that some of these comments will elicit arguments and even derision. Anyone interested will take a closer look at these things, perhaps study it in more than just a superficial way. I most likely will not respond further, as I generally do not have time for extended debate here. From time to time I post articles that interest me, and rarely add commentary or response. Your response to my initial article illustrates my reasons well. The conversation has digressed from the points in the article I was initially interested in, and I see no end in sight as you or others likely take exception to further issues I've raised here.
Of course, I could be wrong and no one else is interested in this subject. But from experience here, I have a feeling there will be those who see my views as a threat to their beliefs and feel it necessary to defend their faith in response to me.