Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Great new Paleo Blog

Kurt contacted me today to tell me about his blog which is focussing on paleo nutrition.

The Blog is at

PāNu
paleolithic nutrition - duplicating the evolutionary metabolic milieu


It is a superb resource. Kurt is a medical doctor - a radiologist - who was made aware of the paleo diet after hearing Gary Taubes speak. He is addressing a range of topics really well, including Paleo Booze, intermittent fasting and paleo on a budget.

An excellent resource that is now in my Google Reader!

9 comments:

dr. m.c. said...

you know there's so little evidence for the paleo anti-grain stance, i don't understand the attraction.

I can get being anti-agrarian - farming is at the root of all evil to be sure (not farmers; the city states that set it up) - but there is evidence that v.healthy people in prehistoric north america certainly grew corn for themselves over the summers (i've been on the digs and seen how well balanced the farming on the go blended with fishing for summer camps before breaking up for the winter).

So, on the archaeological evidence, it's hard to get this.

So while anyone who wants to eat this diet, go for it, and be wished joy of it, but to get into these kinds of reaching to pre-history for precedent as if that were science, isn't. The actual record doesn't support it, it seems.

PaNu doesn't rely on prehistory, but it also does not use, it seems, any research back up about digestion of grains. It asserts 'gluten grains bad'


"The evidence is that cereal grains and legumes have antinutrients with clinically significant effects, and the evidence that these are an evolutionarily recent food source supports our observation that we are poorly adapted to them."

it would be good to see the sources that actually show this.



but even without that, anything in overdose mode is problematic, and it's easy to accept that we're top heavy in such grain vs veggies and legumes.

but is there a higher issue here?

say biodiversity and sustainability of any crops that have to be grown to feed the planet. PaNu is ok with eating "grass fed" beef, right? the environmental cost of beef is incredible. So why sweat the little stuff, like one grain vs another grain?

it seems the question of food production, given nutrition needs of all, may be more critical, and yet an equally interesting place to consider best sustainable nutrition practices for everyone?

maybe?
bit of a rant.
mc

dr. m.c. said...

course i could be entirely wrong, too.

mc

Anonymous said...

"The evidence is that cereal grains and legumes have antinutrients with clinically significant effects, and the evidence that these are an evolutionarily recent food source supports our observation that we are poorly adapted to them."

"it would be good to see the sources that actually show this."

Are you being serious? You've not heard of WGA, gliadin proteins, phytates, diabetes mellitus I, rheumatoid arthritis, Multiple sclerosis, autoimmune thyroid disease, 1 B people with iron deficiency anemia, 1% of americans with celiac disease, etc., etc...

If you are an anthropologist, where is the evidence that gluten grains in their wild form were ever more than a trivial food source prior to agriculture? I've looked and cannot find such evidence, but I am open to the possibility it exists if you can direct me to it.

Chris said...

mc

there is a fair bit of research out there on the problems with grains (or at least grains that haven't been well processed - sprouted/fermented/soaked)

Have a look through Stephan's posts here:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/search/label/gluten

or the article here

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Cereal%20article.pdf

Unknown said...

I have to agree with Kurt, from my reading the evidence against grains is quite strong.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/
which you're aware of

http://www.proteinpower.com/

http://paleodiet.com/

Neanderthin - the book by Ray Audette

Kurt G Harris said...

I plan to more completely reference the Grains essay. It was originally written for a less academic audience. I've read hundreds of pertinent abstracts articles and books but will try to put the most pertinent in as references.

You can start with Green's book on celiac disease (on my recommended list and which contains over 400 up to date references), and then read the cordain articles on his website for a start

http://www.amazon.com/Celiac-Disease-Peter-H-r-Green/dp/006076693X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245951629&sr=8-2

Here is a link to 40 Cordain articles:

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/published_research/

Here is a link to the pdf of his best review article with many references:

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Cereal%20article.pdf

Now, among the Cordain articles are some speculations tainted with the lipid hypothesis. Cordain, especially early on, tried to interpret paleo data through the lens of a stainating cardiologist.

I totally disagree with his saturated fat phobia, which is obvious if you read my other essays, but I find his cereal grain arguments pretty sound.

Anonymous said...

Grains are the root of so many health problems, especailly if diabetic. Gary Taubes has done outstanding research into the modern diet and its complications. Corn and Soy should be removed from one's diet. Oil from both sources are mad-made fakes. Eating Clean is the key.

Kurt G Harris said...

Taubes' book is listed first on my recommended list. It is a scholarly work with over 600 references and I highly recommend it.

Reading Taubes' defense of dietary fat and indictment of the sugar and white flour laden insulinogenic standard western diet got me speculating that there might be more to the negative health effects of grains than just the insulin effects.

jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com said...

Add me to the list of folks who think grains are not part of our natural diet. My food choices lean toward relatively low-carb fruit like avocados, tomatoes and bell peppers.