-----Original Message-----
From: Paleolithic Eating Support List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Jim Swayze

[Jim]  There is so much room within which one can operate while still being
paleo, that I still don't get the "one size fits all" concern.

[Ron] For most Europeans, perhaps.

[Jim] Interesting.  So you're saying that there are groups of people, mostly
non-European (but some Europeans as well), who have evolved to the point
where they *require* grains and/or beans and/or dairy in order to be
healthy?  That's a new thought to me.  I've always assumed that anyone can
thrive on a base paleo diet and that some populations *may* be able to add
non-paleo foods to varying degrees of success.

[Ron] No, but I am saying that some people live long, healthy lives eating
non-paleo foods. For instance, my mother-in-law is 95, is still very active,
and is amazingly fit for her age. She is also sharp as a tack. She went
gluten free and dairy free about 20 years ago, but otherwise eats a pretty
conventional diet. 

Also, a fellow I have coffee with every morning is 89 years old. He was a
pilot during the last 2 years of World War II. He was shot down in the North
Sea, and he and several of his flight crew survived for 13 days in an open
life raft before they were picked up. He still flies his little single
engine, 4 seat aircraft. He is fit and very sharp and his reflexes are
amazing.  I saw him catch a honey container before it hit the ground, after
it fell off a counter beside him. Yet he eats a very conventional (SAD)
diet.  

***

[Jim]  It seems to me a very strong argument can be made that concentrated
sources of sugar, whether starch or honey or fruit, were not a dietary
staple for humans over the long course of our history. 

[Ron] I would agree that is probably true for most humans. 

[Jim] Innocent question.  What populations thrive on high carbohydrate
intake?
[Ron] I wouldn't claim to know about any populations that thrive on high
carb intake, but my mother-in-law is certainly a carb hound, and so is my 91
year old mother. 

***

[Jim]  Potatoes never.  Not only are they nearly 100% carbohydrate, but they
are poisonous.  Not even remotely arguably paleo, in my opinion.

[Ron] They can become poisonous from exposure to sunlight, but I don't know
which natives cultivated them and whether they did so for long enough to
adapt to eating them. Do you? 

I don't either.  Thus caution.


[Ron] Yet your statement above sounds more like condemnation. I don't
pretend to have all of the answers but I think that there is a trap in
thinking that we have the dietary answer for everyone.  For myself, I fare
best on a diet that keeps me in mild ketosis and is bereft of grains and
sugar. Fruits and most berries don't taste good to me. I love the taste of
fat, and, unfortunately, sugar. I can indulge in a few cookies and in a
single day my weight will increase by several pounds..... probably mostly
water. Yet I observe others who seem to fare well on the standard American
diet, and I suspect that they are also in that 20% of the population who do
not make zonulin.  

Todd Moody, a previously active poster on this list, used to talk about his
experience as incongruent with the experience of others on this list and I
suspect that he was correct, except that he was inclined to carry too much
weight. Could he have had some, but not all the genetic traits necessary for
a full adaptation to a high carb diet? I don't know, but I remain open to
the possibility. 
best wishes, 
Ron