Re: grains, gluten, poor health, and a lesson learned first hand
- From: RF <RF@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:11:00 -0800
"In the "paleolithic" phase, participants ate a diet of:
Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, canola oil,
mayonnaise, and honey... We excluded dairy products, legumes, cereals,
grains, potatoes and products containing potassium chloride..."
For at least 35 years I have eaten neither meat, fish nor poultry. I have not eaten eggs or mayonnaise for years. I have an intolerance to tree nuts, unfortunately. I have taken canola oil only a few times in my life and in recent years I have taken honey very sparingly. That leaves just fruits and veggies from the paleo diet. I have eaten lots of fruit, veg, legumes, cereals, grains, potatoes (but mostly sweet) and yogurt; occasionally milk and cheese. All of my vital organs are in A1 shape and I have lots of energy, partly due to my CR diet and I can read tiny print, and my computer screen, without glasses. So I say, there is absolutely NO need to follow a paleo diet. Avoiding processed foods and eating healthy organic minimally-cooked foods of the type I have listed is at least an equally good way to maintain good health.
That's my 2c worth :-)
Pramesh Rutaji wrote:
gluman@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:.The small fraction of people who experience glutin reaction is genetic. Wheat and rye and barley in that order grains have glutin. Any other grain based product such as corn or oat buckwheat rice etc. are fine. Glutin free products in all food categoriessuch as pasta and breads etc.
are avaiable.
Grains slower HDL, decrease LDL particle size, and increase trigs, all indications of poorer health.
=====
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Feb 11.
Metabolic and physiologic improvements from consuming a paleolithic,
hunter-gatherer type diet.
Frassetto LA, Schloetter M, Mietus-Synder M, Morris RC Jr, Sebastian
A.
Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco School
of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Background:The contemporary American diet figures centrally in the
pathogenesis of numerous chronic diseases-'diseases of civilization'.
We investigated in humans whether a diet similar to that consumed by
our preagricultural hunter-gatherer ancestors (that is, a paleolithic
type diet) confers health benefits.Methods:We performed an outpatient,
metabolically controlled study, in nine nonobese sedentary healthy
volunteers, ensuring no weight loss by daily weight. We compared the
findings when the participants consumed their usual diet with those
when they consumed a paleolithic type diet. The participants consumed
their usual diet for 3 days, three ramp-up diets of increasing
potassium and fiber for 7 days, then a paleolithic type diet
comprising lean meat, fruits, vegetables and nuts, and excluding
nonpaleolithic type foods, such as cereal grains, dairy or legumes,
for 10 days. Outcomes included arterial blood pressure (BP); 24-h
urine sodium and potassium excretion; plasma glucose and insulin areas
under the curve (AUC) during a 2 h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT);
insulin sensitivity; plasma lipid concentrations; and brachial artery
reactivity in response to ischemia.Results:Compared with the baseline
(usual) diet, we observed (a) significant reductions in BP associated
with improved arterial distensibility (-3.1+/-2.9, P=0.01 and
+0.19+/-0.23, P=0.05);(b) significant reduction in plasma insulin vs
time AUC, during the OGTT (P=0.006); and (c) large significant
reductions in total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and
triglycerides (-0.8+/-0.6 (P=0.007), -0.7+/-0.5 (P=0.003) and
-0.3+/-0.3 (P=0.01) mmol/l respectively). In all these measured
variables, either eight or all nine participants had identical
directional responses when switched to paleolithic type diet, that is,
near consistently improved status of circulatory, carbohydrate and
lipid metabolism/physiology.Conclusions:Even short-term consumption of
a paleolithic type diet improves BP and glucose tolerance, decreases
insulin secretion, increases insulin sensitivity and improves lipid
profiles without weight loss in healthy sedentary humans.European
Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 11 February
2009; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2009.4.
PMID: 19209185
Paleolithic Diet Clinical Trials Part III
I'm happy to say, it's time for a new installment of the "Paleolithic
Diet Clinical Trials" series. The latest study was recently published
in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Dr. Anthony
Sebastian's group. Dr. Sebastian has collaborated with Drs. Loren
Cordain and Boyd Eaton in the past.
This new trial has some major problems, but I believe it nevertheless
adds to the weight of the evidence on "paleolithic"-type diets. The
first problem is the lack of a control group. Participants were
compared to themselves, before eating a paleolithic diet and after
having eaten it for 10 days. Ideally, the paleolithic group would be
compared to another group eating their typical diet during the same
time period. This would control for effects due to getting poked and
prodded in the hospital, weather, etc. The second major problem is the
small sample size, only 9 participants. I suspect the investigators
had a hard time finding enough funding to conduct a larger study,
since the paleolithic approach is still on the fringe of nutrition
science.
I think this study is best viewed as something intermediate between a
clinical trial and 9 individual anecdotes.
Here's the study design: they recruited 9 sedentary, non-obese people
with no known health problems. They were 6 males and 3 females, and
they represented people of African, European and Asian descent.
Participants ate their typical diets for three days while
investigators collected baseline data. Then, they were put on a seven-
day "ramp-up" diet higher in potassium and fiber, to prepare their
digestive systems for the final phase. In the "paleolithic" phase,
participants ate a diet of:
Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, canola oil,
mayonnaise, and honey... We excluded dairy products, legumes, cereals,
grains, potatoes and products containing potassium chloride...
Mmm yes, canola oil and mayo were universally relished by hunter-
gatherers. They liked to feed their animal fat and organs to the
vultures, and slather mayo onto their lean muscle meats. Anyway, the
paleo diet was higher in calories, protein and polyunsaturated fat (I
assume with a better n-6 : n-3 ratio) than the participants' normal
diet. It contained about the same amount of carbohydrate and less
saturated fat.
There are a couple of twists to this study that make it more
interesting. One is that the diets were completely controlled. The
only food participants ate came from the experimental kitchen, so
investigators knew the exact calorie intake and nutrient composition
of what everyone was eating.
The other twist is that the investigators wanted to take weight loss
out of the picture. They wanted to know if a paleolithic-style diet is
capable of improving health independent of weight loss. So they
adjusted participants' calorie intake to make sure they didn't lose
weight. This is an interesting point. Investigators had to increase
the participants' calorie intake by an average of 329 calories a day
just to get them to maintain their weight on the paleo diet. Their
bodies naturally wanted to shed fat on the new diet, so they had to be
overfed to maintain weight.
On to the results. Participants, on average, saw large improvements in
nearly every meaningful measure of health in just 10 days on the
"paleolithic" diet. Remember, these people were supposedly healthy to
begin with. Total cholesterol and LDL dropped, if you care about that.
Triglycerides decreased by 35%. Fasting insulin plummeted by 68%. HOMA-
IR, a measure of insulin resistance, decreased by 72%. Blood pressure
decreased and blood vessel distensibility (a measure of vessel
elasticity) increased. It's interesting to note that measures of
glucose metabolism improved dramatically despite no change in
carbohydrate intake. Some of these results were statistically
significant, but not all of them. However, the authors note that:
In all these measured variables, either eight or all nine participants
had identical directional responses when switched to paleolithic type
diet, that is, near consistently improved status of circulatory,
carbohydrate and lipid metabolism/physiology.
Translation: everyone improved. That's a very meaningful point,
because even if the average improves, in many studies a certain
percentage of people get worse. This study adds to the evidence that
no matter what your gender or genetic background, a diet roughly
consistent with our evolutionary past can bring major health benefits.
Here's another way to say it: ditching certain modern foods can be
immensely beneficial to health, even in people who already appear
healthy. This is true regardless of whether or not one loses weight.
There's one last critical point I'll make about this study. In figure
2, the investigators graphed baseline insulin resistance vs. the
change in insulin resistance during the course of the study for each
participant. Participants who started with the most insulin resistance
saw the largest improvements, while those with little insulin
resistance to begin with changed less. There was a linear relationship
between baseline IR and the change in IR, with a correlation of
R=0.98, p less than 0.0001. In other words, to a highly significant
degree, participants who needed the most improvement, saw the most
improvement. Every participant with insulin resistance at the
beginning of the study ended up with basically normal insulin
sensitivity after 10 days. At the end of the study, all participants
had a similar degree of insulin sensitivity. This is best illustrated
by the standard deviation of the fasting insulin measurement, which
decreased 9-fold over the course of the experiment.
Here's what this suggests: different people have different degrees of
susceptibility to the damaging effects of the modern Western diet.
This depends on genetic background, age, activity level and many other
factors. When you remove damaging foods, peoples' metabolisms
normalize, and most of the differences in health that were apparent
under adverse conditions disappear. I believe our genetic differences
apply more to how we react to adverse conditions than how we function
optimally. The fundamental workings of our metabolisms are very
similar, having been forged mostly in hunter-gatherer times. We're all
the same species after all.
This study adds to the evidence that modern industrial food is behind
our poor health, and that a return to time-honored foodways can have
immense benefits for nearly anyone. A paleolithic-style diet is a very
effective way to claim your genetic birthright to good health. Just
remember to eat the organs and fat. And skip the canola oil and
mayonnaise.
SOURCE: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/02/paleolithic-diet-clinical-trials-part.html
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