Here’s an article on a retro diet.
My problem with this isn’t the diet per se (though I do like me them carbs) as the need for exercise. I read somewhere recently that there were huge health benefits to walking five miles a day. I can believe it, but who has the time? The only way I can imagine doing that is if I raised my desk and worked from a treadmill instead of a chair.
The thing that I find most irritating about the criticism (as well as in the health-care debate) is the declaration of life expectancy as a useful parameter. I don’t know what the life expectancy of paleolithic people was, but I’ll bet that diet was not a big factor in determining it. It’s important to understand that average life expectancy isn’t the age at which most people die. If it really was thirty, it was likely due to a) high infant mortality and b) a very violent lifestyle, in which the men were likely to be killed either hunting or fighting other humans, at a fairly young age. I suspect that if you manage to become an “elder” (i.e., someone in your thirties) you’d live a long time.
My boss at work set up a stand-up desk with treadmill. He’s talked his three ‘manager’ direct reports into doing the same thing. He says it’s the only thing that keeps him from going nuts during endless conference calls.
Several of the ‘line troop’ types have gone to stand-up desks, without the treadmill.
Me, I just sit and wait to die. (Well, not really, but I don’t plan on trying to walk and write code at the same time.)
You can do the treadmill thing if you want to, but merely standing at your desk is nearly as good as slow walking from a health & hormonal point of view. Humans are pretty efficient walkers. One of the partners at my old firm was a health nut who did the treadmill thing (and also had a chin-up bar in her office doorway), but I don’t think it’s necessary.
You’re absolutely right about that. A better way to look at health is life expectancy per decade. So if you reach 20, what’s your odds of reaching 30? Hunter-gatherer cultures had the highest per-decade mortality during the first decade of life, and then it evened out and was pretty stable from the teen years into the eighties.
Moreover, the paleolithic people who did reach 80 or 90 (and there are many examples of those who did) were much healthier, stronger and more active than the elderly in our society by a wide margin. They could still hunt buffalo, harpoon whales, and do other hard physical labor. Geriatric morbidity was condensed, usually only during the last year or two of life.
Oh, by the way, it’s a fiction that paleo cultures were low carb. Most of them were very high-carb cultures. We’ve only recently (~10,000 years) domesticated grains, but paleolithic cultures have enjoyed wild starches since the invention of fire (at least ~100,000 years, but possibly much longer). These were also tropical cultures, and enjoyed fruit year round.
Of the dozen or so still-surviving paleolithic cultures studied by Weston Price in the 1920s, only the Native Americans living north of the Arctic Circle were “low carb.” The rest made wide use of carbohydrates, and it was often the majority of their daily calories. The Zulu had the highest percentage of calories from carbs at 90% of total intake, but most were in the 40%-60% range.
I believe the paleo cultures managed with that kind of carb intake mainly by (ahem) working it off in physical labor.
ak4mc,
Not really. As long as you avoid MSG, sugar, and a few other things that screw up your leptin and ghrelin responses, your appetite will always match your caloric burn. So they didn’t need to “burn off” the carbs, they just stopped eating when they had enough.
Diet had a tremendous affect on paleolithic lifespans. For instance, if the diet of a smilodon fatalis happened to be you, your life expenctancy plummetted.
Seriously, when you read accounts of early western visitors to places like Borneo, they often wrote of the rubust health, etc., of the natives. The reason is that if you weren’t robustly healthy, you tended to die pretty quickly. The paleolithic economy and environment had little margin for supporting either the sick, aged, or otherwise inactive.
Also, per Brock, I suspect that if you hung out with paleolithic man, they put on a lot of weight when the cereal crops, fruits, and nuts were in bloom, and then lost a lot of weight during the winter or drought, or what have you. This is what the Bushmen of the Kalahari did. The idea the people just ate only until they weren’t hungry doesn’t make sense. In the wilds, most animals gorge themselves as much as possible, because there is no telling when the next meal will turn up.
Why would humans be any different?
It definitely seems likely that H. sapiens did NOT evolve to eat cereal grasses (wheat, rice, etc). Going high-carb with fruits, vegetables, roots, etc is difficult due to the low-density carb nature of those foods.
I’ve gone from a not-very overweight 5’9″, 169lbs to a fit 143lbs in about 3 months since I’ve been primal. You don’t need to walk 5 miles a day. Once you’ve been off the pasta/grains and realize how they affect you, you won’t even crave them anymore. Just stick with the diet at least 80% of the time and you’ll be fine.
I was surprised to see that, with the exception of a little cheese now and then, I’m already on this diet.
I’m low carb, but in my case I have to be; I’m a diabetic. (and any type 2 diabetic who goes high carb is on a short road to disaster). I also stay away from processed foods (mainly because I just prefer my own cooking)
Walking 5 miles a day? That’s very easy to do, actually. Get a pedomiter, wear it all day, and see how many miles you walk on an average day, without any extras at all. Just an average day. I’d be amazed if it’s less than two miles, and its likely more. Also, you can add to it in small ways. One of my favorites is parking well out in the parking lot whenever I go anywhere. That can easily add a third of a mile per stop, and in many cases it’s faster; no more searching for a space, and it avoids door dings, too.
I’m in real estate in a rural, mountainous area, so my job involves a lot of walking over rough ground. Ten miles a day is not uncommon for me, though most days it’s just a few miles. If I add those miles to my other daily walking (going to stores, etc) I’m already over five miles per day.
I’m currently on a shape-up program, becuase I had a rude awakening a few weeks ago in Florida; I ended up stiff, sore, and exhausted after an eighteen mile combined hike and jog, and it wasn’t even continuous (I had a three hour break to go surfing.) Twenty years ago, in my late teens, that kind of a day wouldn’t have bothered me, but this time it did. So, I’m trying hard to get back into shape. I did a 15 mile mountain hike yesterday, at altitudes up to 9000 feet, with no soreness or ill effects, so I’m getting there, but I’ve got a ways to go.
I’m not into working out; I just don’t have the time or the patience to hit the weight room every other day. But, doing do-it-yourself jobs around the house and property helps, and saves money too. As for walking and jogging, I find I enjoy it, if, and only if, I’m in a scenic area. I live in one so its easy for me, but many of us have options such as the beach.
Another option is mountain biking; it’s easy and fun, if you have access to an area to do it in (or you can put a rack on your car and and make a fun day out of it).
In a nutshell, my suggestion for exercise is this; find something you like to do, and don’t over-commit, timewise. If it’s fun, it’s not exercise, and there are all kinds of options out there.. kayaking, rock climbing, surfing, the list would be nearly endless.
As for this paleo diet? I’m undecided. From my perspective, as a diabetic, it looks good. And I’m so trying that “meatza”!!! (okay, okay, AFTER I get my ass back in shape, but I’m trying it!)
Feh, eat right, exercise, check off all the boxes, die anyway. But you’ll have a cute corpse.