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I've found the fat hypothesis - 'fat makes you fat' - to be false, or at least not to apply to me. I am not exactly anti-carb - I eat potatoes, and a little ri
by endtime 15y ago
I've found the fat hypothesis - 'fat makes you fat' - to be false, or at least not to apply to me. I am not exactly anti-carb - I eat potatoes, and a little rice - but I have been eating a diet that I guess you could call 'Paleo 2.0' for the last 7 months or so. The basic goal is to minimize my intake of grains, fructose, and legumes, and maximize that of saturated fats. I also happen to be vegetarian, so for me this means a diet of mostly dairy and vegetables (and limited fruit). I eat a lot of full fat Greek yogurt (Fage brand, typically), butter, cheese, eggs, very dark chocolate (85+%), potatoes, etc. I eat until I'm full and I never count calories. I probably cheat 1-2 times a week on average, usually by eating something rice- or corn-based (Chipotle, corn chips, an Indian meal with rice, etc.).
I didn't do this to lose weight - I wasn't exactly a big guy - but there were some surprisingly quick effects. After about 5-6 months I'd dropped from around 155 lbs to 135 (+/-2), and I've been stable there for a couple months. My waist went from 33" to 30" and my body fat went from around 21% to 12%. Had a checkup a few weeks ago and, other than very low vitamin D, the doc said I was pretty much in perfect health.
http://archevore.com http://archevore.com is probably a good resource, if you want to know more about the diet itself.
- hnhg 15y agoI've resisted the paleo diet as a fad, but reading what you've written has made me realise it's what I've taken up instinctively as something based on what I feel are the healthier aspects of the Mediterranean diet I grew up with. I don't eat much meat though, and I do have bread now and again in small amounts. The results have been similar to yours.
- zwieback 15y agoFage, butter, cheese, eggs, chocolate. Sounds yummy! Not exactly cheap, though.
- pyre 15y agoI somehow don't think that 'cavemen' were eating cheese. :P
- endtime 15y agoThe point isn't to eat what cavemen ate, it's to look at what their bodies were optimized for and eat things with similar components. Dairy is a very good source of saturated fat, especially for a vegetarian like me.
- o_nate 15y agoAnd the average life expectancy of a caveman was what, maybe 20 years? Cavemen perished too soon to have to worry about the diet-related health problems that we deal with today.
- endtime 15y agoAncient life expectancy numbers are misleading because of very high infant mortality. And even if that weren't the case, your reasoning is faulty. I have more or less the same gut as a caveman, so it makes sense to eat what they were optimized for. The fact that we have surgery and antibiotics and aren't at significant risk of being eaten by saber-toothed tigers isn't relevant to diet.
- o_nate 15y agoThe human digestive system evolved over millions of years, and there is not much that is known with certainty about the human diet over that span of time - however, it is known that humans have a better ability to process starchy foods than other primates. So the assumption that a 'paleo' diet wouldn't include lots of starch is not based on science. Take a look at this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6983330.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6983330.stm
- endtime 15y agoIf you read my comment a little more carefully, you'd know I'm not anti-starch. I avoid anti-nutritious and harmful grains like wheat, but I eat potatoes with zeal.
- endtime 15y agoI'd happily double my food budget for the sake of my health. And potatoes and eggs are cheap. :)
- tsuipen 15y agoOne of the major parts of the Paleolithic diet is consuming at least 65% meat. With this in mind, you can see how your diet is very much not like theirs.
- endtime 15y agoYou'll note that I stated explicitly that I'm not following standard paleo. I gave the following as one of the resources I like: http://www.archevore.com/get-started/ http://www.archevore.com/get-started/ (formerly panu.com, for Paleo Nu).
- tsuipen 15y agoI understand that. My point is why call it Paleo-anything (2.0, etc.) if it only resembles it in a maximum of 35%? And that's not even counting that you eat cheese, butter, yogurt and chocolate. I'm not criticizing your diet, I'm criticizing how you label it. From the little that I've read in your post, it sounds like you're just a healthy ovo-lacto vegetarian.
- endtime 15y agoWell, depends how you define 'healthy', but most vegetarians eat plenty of grains and legumes, if not sugar.