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I'm not a Paleo dieter, but I am familiar with the gist of their claims. I do not understand how this study is a response to those claims. The 137 mummies stu

I'm not a Paleo dieter, but I am familiar with the gist of their claims. I do not understand how this study is a response to those claims. The 137 mummies studied are from "Individuals from ancient Egypt, ancient Peru, the Ancestral Puebloans of southwest America, and the Unangan of the Aleutian Islands were imaged." Of those we have 3 agricultural civilizations (Egytp, Peru, Pueblo) and one hunter gatherer (Aleutian). So 3/4 of the studied civilizations don't argue agains the basic Paleo claim at all. I can't see from looking the the links what the results from the Aleutian cohort were.

darkarmani 14y ago
No-true-paleo fallacy.
- bullsbarry 14y ago
  Not at all. The point OP was making is that these 3 cultures are decidedly NOT paleolithic, and it's disingenuous to use them as examples of the effects of the paleolithic diet on cardiovascular health.
- ef4 14y ago
  The no-true-scotsman fallacy implies a shifting or pedantically narrow definition. That's not applicable here. Paleo fans are very clear that they're trying to emulate pre-agricultural diets. That's the sine qua non of the Paleo fad. So it's totally legitimate that they would object to evidence about agricultural societies.
thomaspaine 14y ago
>Probable or definite atherosclerosis was noted in 47 (34%) of 137 mummies and in all four geographical populations: 29 (38%) of 76 ancient Egyptians, 13 (25%) of 51 ancient Peruvians, two (40%) of five Ancestral Puebloans, and three (60%) of five Unangan hunter gatherers (p=NS). I think the point is that atherosclerosis was just as prevalent in the hunter gatherer society as it was in the agricultural ones. Sample size is admittedly small though.