Warning: This post is smack dab in the middle of Snarksville, so if you don't want to be caught in that bad neighborhood, better to take the next train out while there is still some daylight.
Well, the Ancestral Health Symposium was really fun, but the weeks beyond, the aftermath of the Taubes/Guyenet smackdown, has been painful, or pitiful, depending on how you look at it.
Lots of the hoopla happened over on Guyenet's blog, which has since been scrubbed considerably and on several levels. Some of the discussion has been moved over to Hyperlipid. ("Use your quiet indoor voice, or I'll have to send you all outside!") I had a few of Guyenet's minions really go after me on another board, and I don't even really post that much. So yea, I would have to agree with some others that people need to do more reading, or at least get a life.
Guyenet seems like a nice guy in person, but after his post against Taubes, I'll have to say he has a bit of a passive-aggressive streak going there. Good thing he edited, I guess. Here are the clif notes of the controversy.
Guyenet on his blog:
1. Hi, I'm Dr. Guyenet, and I have a PhD
2. I am interested in obesity, and I have thought about this alot.
3. I have REALLY thought about this for a long time, and it makes lots of sense, so I am sure I am right.
4. Fat people are fat because they eat too much
5. Fat people eat too much because they like tasty food
6. Like I said, I know I am right, because even though I haven't actually ever really talked to or listened to fat people, or ever been fat myself, I have a PhD, and I have looked at lots of rat studies and listened to alot of rats.
7. Rats like chocolate, and so do fat people.
8. If fat people quit eating packaged food and chocolate and quit putting seasonings on it, they would be thin like me and my thin paleo peeps.
Inthewoo2 and others on Guyenet's blog:
9. Guyenet, you ignorant slut!
Guyenet's peeps on Guyenet's blog:
10. Inthewoo2 and others, you are just 2-bit tarts and bargain basement sluts!
11. We have PhD's from fine universities and you don't
12. Since we have PhD's like Guyenet, we have also thought about this alot and we know he is right.
13. He da man! you are wrong.
14. You are just a fat person with no PhD.
15. If you say he's wrong, that just proves how much you misunderstand these lofty PhD-type concepts.
16. Now run along before somebody drops a house on you
Taubes at the AHS11 meeting to Guyenet:
17. Guyenet, you ignorant slut!
18. Fat people aren't fat because they eat too much!!!
19. You're not a scientist, you're just a farmer.
20. You're a cherry picker
Guyenet's paleotards all over the internet:
21. It's gettin' real in the Whole Health Source parking lot.
22. Taubes, you ignorant slut!
23. Our homie Guyenet has a PhD so he must be right, despite your so-called evidence.
24. We are sick of hearing N=1's from fat people, after all, they lie and cheat on their food logs.
25. From now on, the sum of all the N=1's from fat people equals 0.
26. We hate puffy, old, red-faced, low-carbing, metabolically-deranged fat people who drag our cult down and raise our insurance rates and eat too many omega 6's and then lie about it!
27. Itsthewoo2, you are still an ignorant slut but we are scrolling past all your uninformed posts anyway. Thought we would announce it right here, to you and everyone else anyway.
Itsthewoo2 on Guyenet's blog:
28. It's like insulin resistance around here.
29. If your cells won't listen, then I'll just yell even louder!
30. GUYENET YOU IGNORANT SLUT!!!!!!!!
Guyenet on his blog a few days after AHS11:
31. I've had time to think and reflect
32. Taubes, you are still an ignorant slut.
33. I was being nice before cause I thought you were one of my peeps
Sooooooo......here's MY blog and here's what I have to say about it.
First, I AM a two-bit researcher from a podunk university (OK, a bunch of them, and some of them not so podunk), so lets just get that out of the way early. I don't give a rodent's-behind how many letters people have behind their names. Since I am into data, I really like the N=1's. I like my own N=1. I might not know all the causes of my N=1, and might not be able to tease out all the factors, but that does not make my N=1 any less so.
DATA DATA DATA! I cannot make bricks without clay!
My N=1 beats out anybody's clinical study. My N=1 beats out anybody's ratscapades. N is for Narcissist. Period.
Here's the original video.
(next: part 3, my N=1)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The Coconut Oil Adjustment Bureau
Oh, no, the dietitians with all those certifications and registrations are donning their hats again, nervously looking at the play-books handed down from their supervisors over at the ADA, and noticing that more and more people are following the road converging to the coconut grove.
My long-time readers remember the comical coconut oil post that resulted in me getting my final warning at the [redacted]people site. If you haven't seen it yet, go here.
Too late. We drank the coconut. Ripples were created. It is impossible to undo. Now the stars are getting into the act. These are dangerous times indeed.
Here's the original movie trailer.
My long-time readers remember the comical coconut oil post that resulted in me getting my final warning at the [redacted]people site. If you haven't seen it yet, go here.
Too late. We drank the coconut. Ripples were created. It is impossible to undo. Now the stars are getting into the act. These are dangerous times indeed.
Here's the original movie trailer.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Study Notes for the Quilt - Why is Oprah Still Obese? Leptin Part 3....
This is Dr. Kruse's most popular blog post, and for good reason! Lots of great information here. See the link.
First off, Dr. K's summary.
"1. Why can’t you lose weight when you change lifestyle
2. What is an uncoupling protein (UCP)
3. The difference between Anthony Colpo and Robb Wolf and the Oprah!
4. Why Oprah is still fat?
5. Dr. Kruse’s screening question for assessing leptin status."
And....the Notes:
1. We just covered leptin resistance in the liver. Now, on to leptin resistance in the muscle cell.
2. UCP - Un-Coupling Protein - in mitochondria. This protein needs leptin and thyroid hormones in order to do its job.
[mitochondria are in your cells. They are little power plants. Think of them like batteries.]
3. Pathway one in the mitochondria: Food goes in => energy in the form of ATP comes out.
4. Pathway two (using UCP3) in the mitochondria: Food goes in => energy in the form of heat comes out.
5. UCP3 helps you deal with unwanted energy
6. This is why the calories-in-calories-out model doesn't really work in a simple way.
7. People who are leptin resistant don't have the second pathway. Excess food is stored instead of thrown off as heat.
8. Anthony Colpo or Robb Wolf can throw anything in their mouths and their mitochondria will take care of it.
9. Oprah can't do this, because her UCP3 isn't functioning optimally. She can't just eat anything.
10. Oprah continues to send any excess to be stored as fat, and meanwhile, her muscles don't get the energy they need.
11. When muscles see too much food, more bad things happen.
excess fat =>ALE's => BAD!!
excess sugars =>AGE's => BAD!!
12. UCP3 not working in muscles in diabetics => fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy
13. A Wolf/Colpo/Dr. Oz exercise recommendation for Oprah won't work until her leptin is sensitive again. [And, go directly to the post and scroll down to the last two paragraphs. It's the leptin prescription and also how to tell when you have become leptin sensitive.]
14. To check leptin sensitivity status, also measure reverse-T3
15. If you are leptin resistant, don't exercise too much until you get leptin sensitive again!
Other resources: ROS definition: Reactive Oxygen Species http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_oxygen_species Here's a cool slide showing what happens inside the mitochondria:
You'll notice the ROS (the O2- superoxide) being formed in the process on the left. On the right, you'll see the two pathways Dr.K mentions. One generates ATP, and the other path uses the Un-Coupling Protein and generates heat. This slide is from a cool (but advanced) paper that you can find here.
Anthony Colpo is an author and blogger and rabidly anti-low-carb.http://anthonycolpo.com/
Robb Wolf is a paleo diet and fitness author and blogger. He's not into eating wheat or grains, but thinks other carbs are fine to eat. http://robbwolf.com/
Oprah, of course, is a fat celebrity who has shared her weight battles with her fans.
ALE's: Advanced lipoxidation endproducts
AGE's: Advanced glycation endproducts
For more good info on ALE's and AGE's, visit http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/
There will be more on ALE's and AGE's in several places in the Quilt.
First off, Dr. K's summary.
"1. Why can’t you lose weight when you change lifestyle
2. What is an uncoupling protein (UCP)
3. The difference between Anthony Colpo and Robb Wolf and the Oprah!
4. Why Oprah is still fat?
5. Dr. Kruse’s screening question for assessing leptin status."
And....the Notes:
1. We just covered leptin resistance in the liver. Now, on to leptin resistance in the muscle cell.
2. UCP - Un-Coupling Protein - in mitochondria. This protein needs leptin and thyroid hormones in order to do its job.
[mitochondria are in your cells. They are little power plants. Think of them like batteries.]
3. Pathway one in the mitochondria: Food goes in => energy in the form of ATP comes out.
4. Pathway two (using UCP3) in the mitochondria: Food goes in => energy in the form of heat comes out.
5. UCP3 helps you deal with unwanted energy
6. This is why the calories-in-calories-out model doesn't really work in a simple way.
7. People who are leptin resistant don't have the second pathway. Excess food is stored instead of thrown off as heat.
8. Anthony Colpo or Robb Wolf can throw anything in their mouths and their mitochondria will take care of it.
9. Oprah can't do this, because her UCP3 isn't functioning optimally. She can't just eat anything.
10. Oprah continues to send any excess to be stored as fat, and meanwhile, her muscles don't get the energy they need.
11. When muscles see too much food, more bad things happen.
excess fat =>ALE's => BAD!!
excess sugars =>AGE's => BAD!!
12. UCP3 not working in muscles in diabetics => fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy
13. A Wolf/Colpo/Dr. Oz exercise recommendation for Oprah won't work until her leptin is sensitive again. [And, go directly to the post and scroll down to the last two paragraphs. It's the leptin prescription and also how to tell when you have become leptin sensitive.]
14. To check leptin sensitivity status, also measure reverse-T3
15. If you are leptin resistant, don't exercise too much until you get leptin sensitive again!
Other resources: ROS definition: Reactive Oxygen Species http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_oxygen_species Here's a cool slide showing what happens inside the mitochondria:
You'll notice the ROS (the O2- superoxide) being formed in the process on the left. On the right, you'll see the two pathways Dr.K mentions. One generates ATP, and the other path uses the Un-Coupling Protein and generates heat. This slide is from a cool (but advanced) paper that you can find here.Anthony Colpo is an author and blogger and rabidly anti-low-carb.http://anthonycolpo.com/
Robb Wolf is a paleo diet and fitness author and blogger. He's not into eating wheat or grains, but thinks other carbs are fine to eat. http://robbwolf.com/
Oprah, of course, is a fat celebrity who has shared her weight battles with her fans.
ALE's: Advanced lipoxidation endproducts
AGE's: Advanced glycation endproducts
For more good info on ALE's and AGE's, visit http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/
There will be more on ALE's and AGE's in several places in the Quilt.
Wheat Belly
Come on, Dr. Davis. I am sure you can show some more convincing research. While it would be nice to see more information about this new strain of wheat, your chart doesn't show any correlation. If you want to show correlation, you need to plot x vs. y, not a line chart against time.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/08/1985-the-year-the-dough-hit-the-fan/
Hey, maybe Dr. Davis' post will go viral. But let's not chase bad data with more bad data, OK?
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/08/1985-the-year-the-dough-hit-the-fan/
Hey, maybe Dr. Davis' post will go viral. But let's not chase bad data with more bad data, OK?
Sunday, August 21, 2011
It is What It Is
Years ago, I was discussing the status of a medical research experiment with a colleague. Things weren't going well. The data weren't co-operating with either our theory or our solution to a sticky problem.
My friend stopped by to take a look at some of the messy data in my lab notebook. And, he offered a helpful comment,
"It is what it is."
Oh yea, it was supposed to be an experiment, and gosh what a mess, and we were proven wrong. But, it is what it is. That is also why you aren't supposed to tear the pages out of lab notebooks. But you also have to be careful about adding pages to the notebook that don't belong there.
Dr. Feinman just wrote another blogpost about the problems with "intent to treat" methods of analysis. Please visit and take a good read here.
I am glad he decided to take another look at the ITT method and how misleading it can be. This isn't the first time either he or I have brought the problem to the attention of others via blogging. And I am sure it won't be the last time I cover it.
You can read my earlier post here.
I am reminded that when a particularly ill-informed "expert" admonished people and told them that they should be reading the research, she probably didn't understand the problems with much of it. Well, go ahead and read the research, and you might be even more uneasy about what to eat than ever.
My friend stopped by to take a look at some of the messy data in my lab notebook. And, he offered a helpful comment,
"It is what it is."
Oh yea, it was supposed to be an experiment, and gosh what a mess, and we were proven wrong. But, it is what it is. That is also why you aren't supposed to tear the pages out of lab notebooks. But you also have to be careful about adding pages to the notebook that don't belong there.
Dr. Feinman just wrote another blogpost about the problems with "intent to treat" methods of analysis. Please visit and take a good read here.
I am glad he decided to take another look at the ITT method and how misleading it can be. This isn't the first time either he or I have brought the problem to the attention of others via blogging. And I am sure it won't be the last time I cover it.
You can read my earlier post here.
I am reminded that when a particularly ill-informed "expert" admonished people and told them that they should be reading the research, she probably didn't understand the problems with much of it. Well, go ahead and read the research, and you might be even more uneasy about what to eat than ever.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Study Notes for the Quilt - Leptin Part Deux....Liver
This post is about leptin resistance in the liver cells. Here's Dr. K's reader's summary:
"Readers Summary:
1. Liver is the engine of metabolism and not the thyroid
2. What does the liver do in normal metabolic conditions and in leptin resistance
3. Where does cholesterol (LDL subtypes) fit into this leptin story.
4. How does Metabolic Syndrome commence and why does it happen.
5. Why your regular labs may be completely normal while your slowly dying."
Pretty good, then again, maybe after reading all the posts over and over, it is starting to look easy. Here's the link.
And now, the notes:
1. Contrary to popular opinion, your liver controls metabolism, not your thyroid gland.
2. When you eat, 60% goes to the liver for longer-term storage, 40% goes to the muscles and other places to be used right away.
3. If the muscle cells are leptin-sensitive, all the 40% is used. Yippie!
4. If the muscle cells are leptin-resistant, the leftovers go to the liver.
5. go to the liver => make fat => stored in fat cells or in the liver
6. If your fat gets full of even more fat => more leptin (bad)
7. If your liver gets full of fat =>inflammation =>BAD
8. Uh Oh, here's more trouble! If the liver cells are leptin-resistant, they tell any extra fat to go away. ("Go away! We aren't taking any more of your LDL's") =>LDL's stay in the blood (bad) => liver crams more fat into LDL's.
9. Carbs go towards the making of small dense LDL
10. Protein and fat go towards the making of large fluffy LDL
11. If you are testing your blood lipids, the most important number is the sdLDL. It should be as low as possible. SdLDL particles are easily damaged and can cause plaque.
12. eat too many carbs => make sdLDL => damage =>all sorts of diseases => BAD
13. eat too much protein and fat => make fluffier LDL => fat storage (location depends on other hormones)
14. Too much Fructose => makes even MORE sdLDL!!!!! (so don't do this)
15. When our liver is leptin-sensitive, it sends its stored fuel to muscles, etc. when needed.
16. When our liver is leptin-resistant, it doesn't send the stored fuel to muscles, but stores it as more fat.
17. Liver leptin resistance => fatty liver => inflammation => metabolic syndrome + large waist + fatigue + can't lose weight no matter how little you eat + exercise doesn't help weight loss.
18. So, you can have all these problems with a normal thyroid test.
19. Waist size and hs-CRP are better measures of health, but start looking at hs-CRP early on.
Here's more to research:
LDL, or Low-Density Lipoprotein. (Most of the lit still portrays LDL as "bad".) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-density_lipoprotein
Here's some information about a prominent inflammatory chemical: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_6
Here's some general info about the liver: http://www.umm.edu/liver/liver.htm
"Readers Summary:
1. Liver is the engine of metabolism and not the thyroid
2. What does the liver do in normal metabolic conditions and in leptin resistance
3. Where does cholesterol (LDL subtypes) fit into this leptin story.
4. How does Metabolic Syndrome commence and why does it happen.
5. Why your regular labs may be completely normal while your slowly dying."
Pretty good, then again, maybe after reading all the posts over and over, it is starting to look easy. Here's the link.
And now, the notes:
1. Contrary to popular opinion, your liver controls metabolism, not your thyroid gland.
2. When you eat, 60% goes to the liver for longer-term storage, 40% goes to the muscles and other places to be used right away.
3. If the muscle cells are leptin-sensitive, all the 40% is used. Yippie!
4. If the muscle cells are leptin-resistant, the leftovers go to the liver.
5. go to the liver => make fat => stored in fat cells or in the liver
6. If your fat gets full of even more fat => more leptin (bad)
7. If your liver gets full of fat =>inflammation =>BAD
8. Uh Oh, here's more trouble! If the liver cells are leptin-resistant, they tell any extra fat to go away. ("Go away! We aren't taking any more of your LDL's") =>LDL's stay in the blood (bad) => liver crams more fat into LDL's.
9. Carbs go towards the making of small dense LDL
10. Protein and fat go towards the making of large fluffy LDL
11. If you are testing your blood lipids, the most important number is the sdLDL. It should be as low as possible. SdLDL particles are easily damaged and can cause plaque.
12. eat too many carbs => make sdLDL => damage =>all sorts of diseases => BAD
13. eat too much protein and fat => make fluffier LDL => fat storage (location depends on other hormones)
14. Too much Fructose => makes even MORE sdLDL!!!!! (so don't do this)
15. When our liver is leptin-sensitive, it sends its stored fuel to muscles, etc. when needed.
16. When our liver is leptin-resistant, it doesn't send the stored fuel to muscles, but stores it as more fat.
17. Liver leptin resistance => fatty liver => inflammation => metabolic syndrome + large waist + fatigue + can't lose weight no matter how little you eat + exercise doesn't help weight loss.
18. So, you can have all these problems with a normal thyroid test.
19. Waist size and hs-CRP are better measures of health, but start looking at hs-CRP early on.
Here's more to research:
LDL, or Low-Density Lipoprotein. (Most of the lit still portrays LDL as "bad".) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-density_lipoprotein
Here's some information about a prominent inflammatory chemical: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_6
Here's some general info about the liver: http://www.umm.edu/liver/liver.htm
Sunday, August 14, 2011
I'm so bored with the Paleo's - Part One
OK, not really, not all of it Just Yet. After all, this is only part one. But I stole refer to the title of Dr. Kurt Harris' blog post:
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/11/2/im-so-bored-with-the-kitavans.html
I had planned and started this blogpost much earlier before Dr. Harris did Paleo 2.0 and changed the name of his website, but I have had trouble finishing it. Seems like I'm not the only ones bored with the Paleo's. Now that all hell has broken loose after the Ancestral Health Symposium, I felt a need to finish this post so that I could jump right into part 2.
Its just that the Paleo scene kind of reminds me of the macrobiotic scene. A bunch of passionate people who are mostly getting healthier while being on the diet, but every time they want to eat something, they have to run it up the flagpole and get a report by the expert. And then its based on this pseudo-scientific "metric", whose validity cannot be argued.
My first reaction to Loren Cordain's popular diet book is that it seemed kind of trendy, with little data. Now it may be true that he actually has lots of data somewhere else, and I probably would have preferred to delve into the more "scholarly" stuff first instead of the popular book. But it seems like some people are being overly dogmatic about something that we really don't know about for sure. When I read his book, I thought I was being talked down to.
Just look at the state of the current nutritional research. We have gotten it so wrong using epidemiological data from a generation ago. Now we are piecing together this clue and that clue from so far ago and we are to expect it to be any better? And maybe it is, but I think we have enough trouble sorting out what is helpful or hurtful with our current diets. Basing our arguments on what might have been the case thousands of years ago doesn't make it clearer, I think it just baits the detractors.
I have never studied ancient history much, only when it pertains to what I am currently interested in. But, I have found here and there in my travels, reasons why I continue to not be much interested:
First, I find much of the older literature to be amazingly sexist. Studies are written through the lens of university-trained European males. I find many of them laughable. They focus on men's activities, men's economic systems, and then might add a side paragraph about women, but usually only as it relates to child care. And the ancient data seems to pertain mostly to what they were eating over there in ancient Europe, wherever ancient Europe actually was thousands of years ago.
Over on Mark's Daily Apple, there is much use of that mostly-naked barefoot male hunter logo with spear. I was wanting to see women with nets and burden baskets, or yes, even a spear. Or, how about men with burden baskets? I sure see lots of the modern kind at the local Frye's. Why are the Paleo's not called gatherer-hunters? It is just starting to have a similar look and feel as the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign, with their various women archetypes that I am somehow supposed to identify with, but don't.
Second, I am really into baskets, and once I picked up a huge scholarly text on Native American basketry. They had everything in there. Baskets from every tribe, all different styles, sizes and shapes, all the wrapping and coiling techniques. Baskets for cooking, baskets for babies, baskets for gathering, baskets for trapping (yes, baskets that women used for um, you know, hunting.) It was arranged by geographical area. So, I went to the geographical area of my youth, and found written there that these Native Americans didn't make baskets because they found no evidence. And I am thinking to myself, "What a crock!" I remembered the woods where I played as a child, with the large vines crawling up to the tops of the trees. We would loosen them and swing from tree to tree, just like Tarzan. I was always sure that the Native Americans in this area would have seen the twined trees and figured out how to make baskets, just as I had done by looking at them. And now, just because a University-trained peer-reviewed basket researcher hadn't seen one, they didn't exist?
Happily, several decades later, I came across this great find, an account of a twined slipper found in a cave nearby, dated over 8000 years old. Yes! Of course they knew how to make baskets. Baskets for walking.
http://www.s8int.com/sophis5.html
Now lets swing over to a more present time for a third reason. I now live in an area formerly populated by a Native American tribe known for their basketry. This culture is relatively unique in that they were "gatherer-hunters" till around the early 1900's, so they could be interviewed by modern researchers, and quite a few artifacts of their culture are still around. I have been able to talk with their direct descendants and also experts in the culture, and come away with a very different type of "gatherer-hunter" culture than what is re-enacted in Paleo-land. The Chumash diet included lots of fish and seafood, as many expect, but also quite a bit of carby acorns. Nuts and carbs at every meal.
When I first moved here, I went for a long hike up Mishe Mokwa. Along the way, I met a young man who seemed to have quite a bit of knowledge about the area, and he introduced me to yucca flowers. They were quite sweet and tasty (especially after I had run out of water), and before that I had never known they were edible. Now it turns out that the Chumash spent a good chunk of time each year travelling to places where yucca grew, and they made a kind of sweet yucca cake that was suitable for trade. So this idea that gatherer-hunters didn't have sweet things just isn't true everywhere. They were eating things we wouldn't even think to try. The Native Americans in California also ate roots and tubers, and we know little about them today because the habitat has been destroyed and much of the knowledge lost.
Day-to-day activities involved getting shellfish, grinding and leaching tannin out of acorns, and cooking acorns in baskets. During certain times of the year, they went inland to get the acorns, chia and yucca. These don't sound like tasks that require lots of running and spears. If you don't believe me, go ahead and try to catch some chia seed with a spear. Them little buggers are hard to nail down! There were few large animals either, maybe an occasional deer or bear.
It seems like in Paleo-land, there are plenty of armchair researchers who seem to know all about what grows in this area, and what time of the year all the carby fruits ripened, what time of they year they danced around and ate all these carbs and got fat for the winter. But I say, if the diet is a good sound diet, all this stuff way in the past shouldn't really matter.
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/11/2/im-so-bored-with-the-kitavans.html
I had planned and started this blogpost much earlier before Dr. Harris did Paleo 2.0 and changed the name of his website, but I have had trouble finishing it. Seems like I'm not the only ones bored with the Paleo's. Now that all hell has broken loose after the Ancestral Health Symposium, I felt a need to finish this post so that I could jump right into part 2.
Its just that the Paleo scene kind of reminds me of the macrobiotic scene. A bunch of passionate people who are mostly getting healthier while being on the diet, but every time they want to eat something, they have to run it up the flagpole and get a report by the expert. And then its based on this pseudo-scientific "metric", whose validity cannot be argued.
My first reaction to Loren Cordain's popular diet book is that it seemed kind of trendy, with little data. Now it may be true that he actually has lots of data somewhere else, and I probably would have preferred to delve into the more "scholarly" stuff first instead of the popular book. But it seems like some people are being overly dogmatic about something that we really don't know about for sure. When I read his book, I thought I was being talked down to.
Just look at the state of the current nutritional research. We have gotten it so wrong using epidemiological data from a generation ago. Now we are piecing together this clue and that clue from so far ago and we are to expect it to be any better? And maybe it is, but I think we have enough trouble sorting out what is helpful or hurtful with our current diets. Basing our arguments on what might have been the case thousands of years ago doesn't make it clearer, I think it just baits the detractors.
I have never studied ancient history much, only when it pertains to what I am currently interested in. But, I have found here and there in my travels, reasons why I continue to not be much interested:
First, I find much of the older literature to be amazingly sexist. Studies are written through the lens of university-trained European males. I find many of them laughable. They focus on men's activities, men's economic systems, and then might add a side paragraph about women, but usually only as it relates to child care. And the ancient data seems to pertain mostly to what they were eating over there in ancient Europe, wherever ancient Europe actually was thousands of years ago.
Over on Mark's Daily Apple, there is much use of that mostly-naked barefoot male hunter logo with spear. I was wanting to see women with nets and burden baskets, or yes, even a spear. Or, how about men with burden baskets? I sure see lots of the modern kind at the local Frye's. Why are the Paleo's not called gatherer-hunters? It is just starting to have a similar look and feel as the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign, with their various women archetypes that I am somehow supposed to identify with, but don't.
Second, I am really into baskets, and once I picked up a huge scholarly text on Native American basketry. They had everything in there. Baskets from every tribe, all different styles, sizes and shapes, all the wrapping and coiling techniques. Baskets for cooking, baskets for babies, baskets for gathering, baskets for trapping (yes, baskets that women used for um, you know, hunting.) It was arranged by geographical area. So, I went to the geographical area of my youth, and found written there that these Native Americans didn't make baskets because they found no evidence. And I am thinking to myself, "What a crock!" I remembered the woods where I played as a child, with the large vines crawling up to the tops of the trees. We would loosen them and swing from tree to tree, just like Tarzan. I was always sure that the Native Americans in this area would have seen the twined trees and figured out how to make baskets, just as I had done by looking at them. And now, just because a University-trained peer-reviewed basket researcher hadn't seen one, they didn't exist?
Happily, several decades later, I came across this great find, an account of a twined slipper found in a cave nearby, dated over 8000 years old. Yes! Of course they knew how to make baskets. Baskets for walking.
http://www.s8int.com/sophis5.html
Now lets swing over to a more present time for a third reason. I now live in an area formerly populated by a Native American tribe known for their basketry. This culture is relatively unique in that they were "gatherer-hunters" till around the early 1900's, so they could be interviewed by modern researchers, and quite a few artifacts of their culture are still around. I have been able to talk with their direct descendants and also experts in the culture, and come away with a very different type of "gatherer-hunter" culture than what is re-enacted in Paleo-land. The Chumash diet included lots of fish and seafood, as many expect, but also quite a bit of carby acorns. Nuts and carbs at every meal.
When I first moved here, I went for a long hike up Mishe Mokwa. Along the way, I met a young man who seemed to have quite a bit of knowledge about the area, and he introduced me to yucca flowers. They were quite sweet and tasty (especially after I had run out of water), and before that I had never known they were edible. Now it turns out that the Chumash spent a good chunk of time each year travelling to places where yucca grew, and they made a kind of sweet yucca cake that was suitable for trade. So this idea that gatherer-hunters didn't have sweet things just isn't true everywhere. They were eating things we wouldn't even think to try. The Native Americans in California also ate roots and tubers, and we know little about them today because the habitat has been destroyed and much of the knowledge lost.
Day-to-day activities involved getting shellfish, grinding and leaching tannin out of acorns, and cooking acorns in baskets. During certain times of the year, they went inland to get the acorns, chia and yucca. These don't sound like tasks that require lots of running and spears. If you don't believe me, go ahead and try to catch some chia seed with a spear. Them little buggers are hard to nail down! There were few large animals either, maybe an occasional deer or bear.
It seems like in Paleo-land, there are plenty of armchair researchers who seem to know all about what grows in this area, and what time of the year all the carby fruits ripened, what time of they year they danced around and ate all these carbs and got fat for the winter. But I say, if the diet is a good sound diet, all this stuff way in the past shouldn't really matter.
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