Caveman Diet Misinformation on MSN

March 18, 2002

Hey All,

Today MSN is featuring a short column on the caveman diet.

Interested, I read it, and was disappointed. The article extolled

the same low fat, moderate protein, high carb nonsense that

mainstream nutrition has espoused for the last 50 years. If people

would simply do a little research, most of what the modern nutrition

pundits say about traditional and paleo diets can easily be proven

incorrect, or at least highly dubious. For example, most pro-paleo

MD's state that traditional game meat is very low in saturated fat,

yet very high in PUFA and MUFA. A simple search of the USDA Nutrient

bin/nut_search.pl) yields the following analysis of 100g of roasted

bison meat: saturated fat-0.91g MUFA-0.95g PUFA-0.24g. The saturated

fat to PUFA ratio is 3.8:1, while the SFA to MUFA is nearly 1:1.

These numbers are just for muscle tissue, to say nothing of organ

meats that are very high in fat that is mostly SFA. What kind of

research do these doctors and authors of books conduct? I find it

greatly upsetting that so many people follow the advice of such

persons to their detriment. I was an ardent supporter of the low fat

diet for nearly 6 years. My wife and I eliminated all the fat we

could from our diets, sometimes consuming less than 20g each day. We

were sure we were following the best diet for our bodies, even though

we often didn't feel very healthy. As a result of this long term

abuse, I now have a combined cholesterol of 116 and I am very worried

about CVA's. Popular " wisdom " had steered us wrong, as it most often

does. My point is simply not to trust any information you are

exposed to without conducting your own small bit of research to see

if it makes any sense. We don't all have to be lipid scientists, but

we should always be responsible for determining what is good for our

own health.

Dan

Recommended Posts