Too bad grains are needed to sustain current world population. all these mouths to feed creates a zero sum health game to an extent. We super humans need inner city folk consuming empty calories to keep our free range grass fed organic meat affordable.
Although I haven’t looked into the long term effects of grains vs diets without grains, I do think that “we eat grains” is not the explanation for the recent increase in obesity. We have been eating grains for many thousands of years, and if grains were the primary cause of obesity, then we should have been just as obese 200, 500, 1000 years ago.
Indeed, if anything, meat has become a larger part of the diet in recent years as people in developed countries shift from cheaper to more expensive foods. One of the big changes in Chinese diets in recent years is reportedly an increase in the amount of meat consumed as the country becomes richer and obesity more common.
Also note the large number of obese vegetarians out there… that sure is damning evidence.
The way we process grains could very well be part of the story (refined white breads, high fructose corn syrup, and such), but grains themselves don’t make sense as part of the obesity story. And of course the sedentary lifestyles have a lot to do with it.
As for grain based diets creating chronic inflammation. That’s an interesting story that I don’t know much about and need to look more closely at the research. Assuming it’s true, I could see that those effects would possibly only show up after life expectancies have increased (so after 1930, for example), but they wouldn’t explain youth obesity or changes in young people’s health so much.
Ok the bolded part isn’t an argument from evolutionary biology, that’s paleo nutjob theory.
I think there is a lot of merit to what PA says, but the last 3k years have also shown evolutionary changes that have helped us to adapt to a grain, and dairy based diet. Of course, some have adapted to it more than others. (Total calorie count is also an important variable, neolithic man didn’t have whole foods).
Yeah read the book. TL;DR version:
Old evolutionary theory: Humans evolved slowly over millions of years to get where we are today, and the advent of agriculture reduced selection pressure
Cochran and Harpending: Actually, the advent of agriculture forced humans into a very different world, which accelerated human evolution as humans adapted to grain-based diets, sedentary lifestyles, and new social structures. Some adopted grain based diets early, others did significantly later, and it is these same people that have high rates of diabetes and alcoholism.
The dairy question is complicated. Yeah the lactase persistence allele is a relatively new development, and has allowed us to adapt to dairy. There may be downsides to dairy due to the resident hormones causing unintended effects, but there are also benefits (the hormones in it make you big and strong).
I’m not sure about meat in general but consuming 5 grams of Creatine Monohydrate daily is very beneficial to our cognitive functioning. Creatine Monohoydrate is found in red meat.
Creatine? That’s a blast from the past. I used to take that in high school. Got totally swoll then started having back spasms. Good times.
haha creatine: producing water weight gainz since 1995. I used it in college, got water weight swole. it was great until every muscle in my body cramped at the same time after playing a double header. you still using that stuff Sam?
Is this why men are smarter than women?
Yes.I drink lots of water on a daily basis,generally a lot of the cramps happen as a lack of hydration. Creatine is one of the safest supplements out there and actually it works.The effects on cognitive function and preventing cognitive decline has also been proven.
^yea i’ve heard good things. it was probably a dosing issue. i was an idiot back in college and didn’t pay attention to things like dosing instructions or “health warnings”. does it stress the heart tho?
The only thing I would add, which people keep missing (and I’m not sure why), is grains are NOT what people are eating, they are eating derivatives (grain oil and grain syrup). Nobody is adapted for that, it’s easily the largest driver of the metabolic syndrome epidemic.
Grain oil is the biggest deal. It’s roughly 20% of American calories, and they don’t even know what it is when I say “grain oil”. It’s the #2 ingredient in like every food with ingredients, just look (bread, candy bars, salad dressing, french fries, etc). It’s a bizarre fat that decreases HDL, and strangely might also increase triglycerides. Fats just don’t normally cause that reaction, and it’s cause homo sapien biology does not know how to process it.
Grain syrup is roughly 15% of calories. Bread, coke, every sauce, in everything everywhere.
What has changed? The diet was grains 10k years ago, and it’s grains today. It’s just that nobody wants to eat that boring grain-based food supply, so they sneak these liquefied grains into everything (see stats below). If we don’t want people sick and dying, we either A) reduce the population so they can eat more meat and plants, or B) reverse the industrial revolution as it relates to food. Humans will never do either, so it’s check mate, game over.
USDA 100 year food supply report , categorized intelligently (note crowding out by grain derivatives)
1910 / 2010 / percent of calories
Paleolithic foods 35% / 28% (animal fat decreased)
Neolithic foods 49% / 36% (grains decreased)
Industrial foods 16% / 37% (grain derivatives increased)
Clear relationships: delta between current foods and foods on which we evolved increased, health not surprisingly decreased. Not complicated. Humans just dumb, circular because they get dumber on this diet. 
^No at all. I wouldn’t assume it has any correlation with heart activity.I think in high doses it does put a strain on the kidneys but that is if you are taking very high dose for a very long period of time.
Yo Turn ,check out www.examine.com it brings scrutinizes supplements based on scientific credibility and not bro science.
^ Sam is correct. Creatine will get you dem gainz. No need for any other supplements besides a good multivitamin. Everything else can be gotten from a good diet. No need for whey protein- eat some chicken breast, salmon, or steak- way better.
I go back and forth on vitamins. My current stance is they’re only needed if you’re lifting hardcore. For regular civilians, you may as well eat the money.
^Yes, and No. Having deficiencies in vitamins can be the result of many things not necessarily lifting .Also, the whole vitamin hype is overrated,most vitamins presented in capsule form have very poor absorption.
i’ll go out on a limb saying at least 2/3 of you pastey office dwellers probably have a vitamin D deficiency
^Yup ,I used to have it too.Weird as soon as I had the Vit D deficiency taken care of ,I sleep much better at nights.
mmm…pastry
Speak for yourself, I get plenty of Vitamin D from the refrigerator light.
I wonder how much meat Kit Jukes’ ancestors ate?
Look at homo habilis, forehead goes straight back from eyebrow…
Now look at Kit, his face is like way down in the lower 1/3 of his head!!!
