39 replies to this topic

[Matman32]

I've been eating paleo-ish for about 4 years now. It helped me tremendously with crohn disease. I started with a more meat centric diet and progressively switched to a more plant based one that includes rice (to which I add tons of turmeric). I now eat red meat and chicken once every few days and concentrate on fish and eggs (and swiss cheese is surprisingly easy to digest). I also eat natto a lot, fermented soy beans that purist would not eat. My take on this is it can be a great diet whatever the macronutrient ratio as long as you includes loads of fibers. Going low carb for too long without thinking about quality fibers won't be sustainable. I would advice sweet potatoes as the best carbs (very good fiber and micronutrient content as well as anti-cancer properties). My blood sugar and pressure are both on the low side consistently.

[aza]

In general "Hunter-gatherer diets were characterized by an identical carbohydrate intake (30%-35% of the total energy) over a wide range of latitude intervals (11°-40° north or south of the equator). However, with increasing latitude intervals from 41° to greater than 60°, carbohydrate intake decreased markedly from approximately equal to 20% to 9% or less of the total energy." http://www.nrjournal...0091-1/abstract

Although i don't believe its likely that many hunter gatherers ate below 20% carbs due to carbs obtained from muscle glycogen. For example, the inuit got some of carbs from animals as well as a few plants "Carbohydrate accounted for only 15 to 20% of their calories, largely in the form of glycogen from the meat they consumed."

From what i can tell, the optimal amount of animal products for humans in anywhere from 80%plants/20% animal products to 35% plants/65% animal products. I think its a possibility that it may not even matter so long as whole foods are eaten and there are not any micro-nutrient deficiencies. Ive repeated this a few times but i think the most sensible thing to do is match exercise with carb intake. Since i do strength training and hiit cardio primarally i keep my carbs right around what modern hunter gathers tend to eat

 

Hunting for meat may be difficult but the payoff is generally worth it calorie wise, hunter gatherers aren't amateur hunters. I imagine it would mainly consist of a few well placed arrows/spears and tracking the target a few kilometres until it stopped. The ache for example apparently hunted most days and traveled around 10km on average, with a small amount of running.

A few other interesting things, this study "http://www.ncbi.nlm....es/PMC3402009/  Comparison with ancestral diets suggests dense acellular carbohydrates promote an inflammatory microbiota, and may be the primary dietary cause of leptin resistance and obesity

 

and this http://www.stevenham...least-100g.html

In Eaton and Konner’s origin paper, ‘Paleolithic Nutrition — A Consideration of Its Nature and Current Implications’, they estimated that hunter-gatherers had an average fibre intake of 45.7g based on nutrient analysis of wild plant foods and plants providing 65% of total calories [1] In a more recent paper Eaton, et al estimate hunter-gatherers consumed an average fibre intake of 86g

I think the number is overblown just a little because apparently for some tubers, hunter gathers spit some fibre back out after chewing. Not sure how common that is though. Its probably safe to say that fibre intake should be between 40g and 86g.

 

 

[TheFountain]

I think my body may be adapting now. I think it just takes a little while to make the full transition. 

[ForeverBulking]

I think my body may be adapting now. I think it just takes a little while to make the full transition.

Ok after a few weeks I could honestly say carbs and fats just don't mix. I attempted to eat all my potatoes and sweet potatoes with a lot of olive oil and or cocnut milk but I felt like shit. Then I decided to cut the oil, and just eat unlimited meat, veggies, fruit, and sweet potatoes and I feel much better. More energy, lighter.

[TheFountain]

 

I think my body may be adapting now. I think it just takes a little while to make the full transition.

Ok after a few weeks I could honestly say carbs and fats just don't mix. I attempted to eat all my potatoes and sweet potatoes with a lot of olive oil and or cocnut milk but I felt like shit. Then I decided to cut the oil, and just eat unlimited meat, veggies, fruit, and sweet potatoes and I feel much better. More energy, lighter.

 

That's an interesting suggestion. 

[ForeverBulking]

A little update; I have been doing the lowish fat high starch potato diet for about 3 months now. During this time I ate an average of 3000 calories daily, I have a very active job, lift weights, and play soccer. I ate 3 meals daily, including 2-3 pounds of white/sweet potato, a couple cups of beans, 2 cups (uncooked) of oats, and bananas as my main calorie source. I also ate lots of veggies, some fruit, and about 150-200 grams of meat daily. I had nuts sporadically. At family gatherings or parties I went in with a McDougall mindset and concentrated on eating mostly starch in unlimited quantities with the caveat of no gluten grains. I estimate I got about 500 grams of carbs on average.

 

I didn't gain or lose a single pound, and besides the constant trips to the bathroom (stools and urine), I felt good. My sleep was good, and my energy levels were excellent. So I decided to get bloodwork. My cholesterol levels were good. Total is 162, LDL is 100, HDL 62, and trigs were 39 (despite consuming about 120 grams of sugar daily?). However, I was diagnosed prediabetic with an A1c of 5.7! Wow, no one in my family has diabetes, and none of them try to eat "healthy." Yet I am the prediabetic. The one who exercises the most, the leanest, is prediabetic for experimenting with a high starch, low fat diet. Guess that ends my experiment.

[HaloTeK]

A little update; I have been doing the lowish fat high starch potato diet for about 3 months now. During this time I ate an average of 3000 calories daily, I have a very active job, lift weights, and play soccer. I ate 3 meals daily, including 2-3 pounds of white/sweet potato, a couple cups of beans, 2 cups (uncooked) of oats, and bananas as my main calorie source. I also ate lots of veggies, some fruit, and about 150-200 grams of meat daily. I had nuts sporadically. At family gatherings or parties I went in with a McDougall mindset and concentrated on eating mostly starch in unlimited quantities with the caveat of no gluten grains. I estimate I got about 500 grams of carbs on average.

 

I didn't gain or lose a single pound, and besides the constant trips to the bathroom (stools and urine), I felt good. My sleep was good, and my energy levels were excellent. So I decided to get bloodwork. My cholesterol levels were good. Total is 162, LDL is 100, HDL 62, and trigs were 39 (despite consuming about 120 grams of sugar daily?). However, I was diagnosed prediabetic with an A1c of 5.7! Wow, no one in my family has diabetes, and none of them try to eat "healthy." Yet I am the prediabetic. The one who exercises the most, the leanest, is prediabetic for experimenting with a high starch, low fat diet. Guess that ends my experiment.

 

I would say 3 months is not enough time to determine anything in terms of a change in diet.  Also, what is your bodyfat percentage?  I would say that you might want to increase fruit intake at the expense of so much starch.  It may also be the case that your body does not respond well to potato starch.  Also, you can always try to increase your fat consumption of EVOO to see how that effects your labs.  

 

Good luck.

[TheFountain]

Mark Sisson says it takes about 3 weeks to go from being a sugar burner to being a fat burner. 

 

So keep that in mind while transitioning. 

When beginning this kind of diet. 

[DanielEdward]

Julianne Moore , Jared Leto and Kylie Minogue eat low-carb, no dairy, and look great in their 40's/ 50's. It seems a joyless diet. You're not even allowed oatmeal. If it holds back ageing though...

[TheFountain]

Julianne Moore , Jared Leto and Kylie Minogue eat low-carb, no dairy, and look great in their 40's/ 50's. It seems a joyless diet. You're not even allowed oatmeal. If it holds back ageing though...

I don't think Jared is Low carb as he is vegan. 

 

I am sure he partakes of his fair share of grain consumption.