Read Online The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Loren Cordain
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5-ton mammoth? Why didn’t Paleolithic people play it safe, gathering berries and nuts and snaring rabbits, rodents, and small birds? Again, the wisdom of the old ways becomes clear.
The basic idea of foraging for food—whether you’re a human, a wolf, or even a house cat chasing a mouse—is simple. You’ve got to receive more energy from the food you capture than you use in trying to capture it. If you run around all day and use up 1,000 calories, but come home with only ten apples worth a grand total of 800 calories, you’re going to be very hungry. So when Paleolithic people went looking for food, they tried to get the most bang for the buck. The best way to do this, they found, was with a large animal. It takes a lot more energy to run down and capture 1,600 one-ounce mice than it does to kill a single deer weighing 100 pounds (1,600 ounces). But there’s a much more important reason why larger animals were preferred. It’s called “protein toxicity.”
We can only tolerate a certain amount of protein at a time- about 200 to 300 grams a day. Too much protein makes us nauseated, causes diarrhea, and eventually can kill us. This is why our Paleolithic ancestors couldn’t just eat lean muscle meat. They needed to eat fat along with the lean meat, or they needed to supplement the lean meat with carbohydrates from plant foods. Early explorers and frontiersmen in North America knew this, too. They were painfully aware of the toxic effect of too much lean protein; they called the illness “rabbit starvation.”
On average, large animals like deer and cows (or, for Paleolithic people, mammoths and wild horses) contain more fat and less protein than smaller animals like rabbits and squirrels. The squirrel’s body is 83 percent protein and 17 percent fat; the mule deer’s body is 40 percent protein and 60 percent fat. If you ate nothing but squirrel, you would rapidly exceed the body’s protein ceiling, and like those early pioneers, you’d end up with rabbit starvation. On the other hand, if you only had deer to eat, you’d be doing fine. You would not develop protein toxicity because you’d be protected by the deer’s higher fat content. This is why Paleolithic hunters risked their lives hunting larger animals.
In the Paleo Diet, you’re protected from protein toxicity, too—by unlimited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. You’re also protected by the good cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fats and by our most powerful deterrent to heart disease—omega 3 fatty acids. With these safeguards in place, protein is your friend. High levels of protein speed up your metabolism, reduce your appetite, and lower your cholesterol. You will benefit from eating lean protein at every meal. I can assure you that as long as you eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, there is no such thing as too much protein.
Restoring the Balance in Your Diet
My research team and I have found that, ideally, a little more than half—55 percent—of your calories should come from lean meats, organ meats, fish, and seafood. The balance should come from fresh fruits and vegetables, some nuts, and healthful oils.
In the average American diet, not only is the balance of plant to animal food off-kilter, it’s almost exactly the opposite of what we are genetically programmed to eat. In the typical American diet, 24 percent of the calories come from cereals, 11 percent from dairy products, 18 percent from refined sugars, and 18 percent from refined oils. These foods represent 71 percent of the energy consumed in the typical American diet—yet virtually none of them are to be found on the Paleo menu of lean meats, fresh fruits, and vegetables. In the American diet, about 38 percent of the calories come from animal foods, most of them high-fat and unhealthy meats (hot dogs, fatty ground beef, bacon, lunch meats, etc.)—a far cry from the Paleo Diet.
How “Progress” Has Hurt Us
The Agricultural Revolution changed the world and
The basic idea of foraging for food—whether you’re a human, a wolf, or even a house cat chasing a mouse—is simple. You’ve got to receive more energy from the food you capture than you use in trying to capture it. If you run around all day and use up 1,000 calories, but come home with only ten apples worth a grand total of 800 calories, you’re going to be very hungry. So when Paleolithic people went looking for food, they tried to get the most bang for the buck. The best way to do this, they found, was with a large animal. It takes a lot more energy to run down and capture 1,600 one-ounce mice than it does to kill a single deer weighing 100 pounds (1,600 ounces). But there’s a much more important reason why larger animals were preferred. It’s called “protein toxicity.”
We can only tolerate a certain amount of protein at a time- about 200 to 300 grams a day. Too much protein makes us nauseated, causes diarrhea, and eventually can kill us. This is why our Paleolithic ancestors couldn’t just eat lean muscle meat. They needed to eat fat along with the lean meat, or they needed to supplement the lean meat with carbohydrates from plant foods. Early explorers and frontiersmen in North America knew this, too. They were painfully aware of the toxic effect of too much lean protein; they called the illness “rabbit starvation.”
On average, large animals like deer and cows (or, for Paleolithic people, mammoths and wild horses) contain more fat and less protein than smaller animals like rabbits and squirrels. The squirrel’s body is 83 percent protein and 17 percent fat; the mule deer’s body is 40 percent protein and 60 percent fat. If you ate nothing but squirrel, you would rapidly exceed the body’s protein ceiling, and like those early pioneers, you’d end up with rabbit starvation. On the other hand, if you only had deer to eat, you’d be doing fine. You would not develop protein toxicity because you’d be protected by the deer’s higher fat content. This is why Paleolithic hunters risked their lives hunting larger animals.
In the Paleo Diet, you’re protected from protein toxicity, too—by unlimited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. You’re also protected by the good cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fats and by our most powerful deterrent to heart disease—omega 3 fatty acids. With these safeguards in place, protein is your friend. High levels of protein speed up your metabolism, reduce your appetite, and lower your cholesterol. You will benefit from eating lean protein at every meal. I can assure you that as long as you eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, there is no such thing as too much protein.
Restoring the Balance in Your Diet
My research team and I have found that, ideally, a little more than half—55 percent—of your calories should come from lean meats, organ meats, fish, and seafood. The balance should come from fresh fruits and vegetables, some nuts, and healthful oils.
In the average American diet, not only is the balance of plant to animal food off-kilter, it’s almost exactly the opposite of what we are genetically programmed to eat. In the typical American diet, 24 percent of the calories come from cereals, 11 percent from dairy products, 18 percent from refined sugars, and 18 percent from refined oils. These foods represent 71 percent of the energy consumed in the typical American diet—yet virtually none of them are to be found on the Paleo menu of lean meats, fresh fruits, and vegetables. In the American diet, about 38 percent of the calories come from animal foods, most of them high-fat and unhealthy meats (hot dogs, fatty ground beef, bacon, lunch meats, etc.)—a far cry from the Paleo Diet.
How “Progress” Has Hurt Us
The Agricultural Revolution changed the world and
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