I’m writing to you because I too come from the Weston A Price camp, and also because it looks like Mr. Eades is probably not coming back to this post anytime soon- (Lord knows he’s busy fighting the battle at Tim’s blog right now). You raise some very good points that I wish were addressed more often.

I think it’s been shown, by Weston Price and others, that people can be healthy with a fair amount of carbs in their diet (unlike the Egyptians, whose soldiers were rationed 5 loaves of bread a day). But the fact remains that humans have ZERO dietary requirement for carbs, unlike fats and proteins. For people who are looking for a cure to their sickness, we’re interested in a human’s optimal diet, not just one that can sustain a healthy person. And if you find that you cannot possibly bear to subsist on less than 30 g of carbs a day, I would take caution as to why your body or mind seems to be dependent on something you biologically have no need for. All vitamins and minerals present in fruits and vegetables are also present in meats, and often more so, as discussed by Barry Groves in the book “Trick and Treat”. As far as I’ve heard, there are no harmful effects from eating only meat, especially if it is left undercooked.

Notice I said carbs in moderation are okay for a “healthy person”. What I’m inferring from Eades and Groves is that we, in this day and age, do not really fit in that category, because most of us have been exposed to massive over-consumption of carbs in our lifetimes. I’m assuming the argument is that our bodies have been exposed to the insulin surges of sugars and such so often that we are hormonally hooked on carbs, unless we severely restrict them. I consider this an unfortunate flaw in our design that, prior to the agricultural revolution, we never had to face. I know that 10,000 years (4,000 for Europeans) seems like enough time for us to adapt, but that point is debatable among evolutionary scientists.

As for the diet of pre-agricultural man, I simply have a hunch the meat theory is correct. Our guts are designed for meat, much like a dog’s, and are very far from an ape’s. The disappearance of large land mammals suggests we humans (and previous hominids) had a voracious appetite. And most people don’t realize that vegetables were not that easy to come by, calorically weak, and hard to digest without the use of fire. Fruits only appeared when in season, and usually weren’t as sweet or large as today’s modern breeds. In short, people didn’t have access to a 365 day a year supermarket, with such a wide variety available at all times. I think paleolithic man had little value for plant foods, and they were seen as merely filler. Also, here is an article that mentions a way that they can tell what humans ate from the bones.

But the fact that the Swiss were able to eat a substantial amount of bread and yet not get cavities is a point worth investigating. I’ve read that tooth decay does not start with the bacteria but with the loss of the tooth enamel, as a result of the blood being low in minerals. (From Rami Nagel’s “Cure Tooth Decay”, I think). Perhaps there were differences between the Swiss and the Egyptians in this aspect. In Protein Power, Eades mentions that carbs somehow leach calcium from bones (I think), and high blood sugar levels inhibit growth hormone production. Also, the Egyptians were not getting enough fat soluble vitamins or protein, all involved with bone formation. Also, the fact that they got a lot of their carbs from fructose (sweet melons, fruits, honey) is a very significant difference, though I think that has more to do with the obesity and artery disease than the teeth.

In closing, the Swiss could be good role models for us, but who among us is dedicated enough to really make bread like that? Notice in every case of Weston Price using whole grains to heal people, the grains were freshly ground and soaked/fermented. This is why I argue it is easier to exclude the grains altogether. Grains also have plenty of things that set off autoimmune reactions, especially if you have a leaky gut. Again I argue, over-consumption of carbs is the problem, and we have all been subjected to that for most of our lives. What Eades or Groves don’t emphasize enough, but I think is really important, is the issue of gut flora, covered by Natasha Campbell-McBride in “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”. Over-consuming carbs (well, starches and double sugars) actually changes the pH and environment of your intestines and makes it more habitable to bacteria that aren’t supposed to be there, whom eventually punch holes in your gut, inhibit your stomach acid production, and mess up your whole digestive process. I think it is imperative then to starve these carb-loving bacteria. People like the Swiss had good bacteria protecting them which we don’t, for lack of fermented foods and even the chlorination of our water.

P.S. I agree that maybe Eades puts too much emphasis on the proteins, vs the fats. I think he was hesitant in his first book to support saturated fats that much, or to suggest such a high calorie diet for a weight less regime, but I think he has changed his stance a little since then, as with other things. (Also he had good reason to not recommend fats from animals that are grain-fed: Arachidonic Acid). On the other hand, perhaps the WAPF does not stress proteins enough; although when you eat fatty foods, the two usually go hand in hand.

The traditional diets of the Swiss Alps vary little from village to village but they still include a significant amount of carbs and they have great teeth, physiques, absense from modern disease.
The nutrition of the people of the Loetschental Valley, particularly that of the growing boys and girls, consists largely of a slice of whole rye bread and a piece of the summer-made cheese (about as large as the slice of bread), which are eaten with fresh milk of goats or cows. This meal is like 28 grams carbs 18 grams fat. Despite consuming signicant amount of carbs they still have great teeth! This can also be attested to by the fact that many of the famous Swiss guards of the Vatican at Rome, are said to have the finest physiques in all of Europe. They are, in Price’s own words, “the admiration of the world and are the pride of Switzerland”, and have been selected from this and other Alpine valleys to be guards.

So you take people on a high carb junk diet or high carb fat deficient diet and say its the fault of carbs.

There is no consistent image of what paleo man ate and there is no proof that we evolved in paleo times to a low carb diet. I know the evidence that people use to say that paleo man ate a low carb(aka carnivore) its based on half truths.. that is, archeological evidence, more specifically, animal bones found at nearly every homo sight. The problem is that we cannot say that these low carb foods are all that was eaten, plants do not leave behind bones like that! We do really know exactly what paleo people ate and there were many different “paleo men”, some not effected by the ice age at all! Even if paleo people had a low carb diet, this doas not prove that we evolved for this! What we can do is look to digestive biochemistry and nutritional needs. But sadly you resort to deceitfull comparisons and taking studies on low carb diets to show how much healthier they did vs high carb. Consistently ignoring the quality and qunatity issue. You throw the baby out with the bathwater. The world is not black and white, its not high carb vs low carb.

Fats, while I don’t eat them predominently, I believe from not only my experience but from my book knowledge, that good quality fats build and heal, including saturated fats. You emphasize too much on protein as if more is better. Human breast milk knows perfectly what a growing human needs. Amino acids, Fatty acids AND carbohydrates. If you are getting quality bioavailable protein than requirements are low, carbs are not bad and do not cause bad teeth and we need minerals and fat soluble vitamins to activate them.

I only wish health and peace upon everybody and honest research.

Ever read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price? Apperantly not.

The native people of the Swiss Alps subsist on their traditional foods, the eat some vegetables and meat about once a week but the diet predominates of equally sized whole rye bread and cheese, normaly an equal porportion of cheese is put on top of the rye bread. Just for the record I am not necessarily recommending this diet. Despite the carbohydrate intake in the rye and cheese, Price found that they had great teeth and bone health. Of course paleo man had great teeth as well as Inuit(Eskimo) who eat almost no carbs at all, but this IS NOT an argument against carbohydrate consumption(in the form of whole foods) with a nearly equal porportion of animal foods.

Theres the anti fat anti cholesterol crew and then you have the anti carb crew, both are the same.

I would also like to comment on the diabetes comment… I am not sure why it is suggested that Hatshesput had diabetes. There is some evidence that has been interpreted to come from the medical papyri that the Egyptians may have recognized diabetes, but this is contested. There are no physical remains yet published that suggest diabetes. If you have any sources on this beyond the New York Times article and speculation, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks.

As I see it both the medical and the anthropological literature are full of papers correlating carbohydrate consumption with dental caries. I don’t know why it should be any different with the ancient Egyptians. I assume the wear of the teeth from grit in the bread would accelerate the process, but if Egyptians had perfect teeth while eating the amount of carbohydrate they ate, they would be unusual.

From my reading on the subject and from my attendance of a number of paleopathology conferences, there is little doubt that ancient Egyptians suffered from heart disease and obesity. If so, why wouldn’t they have had diabetes as well, since these disorders go hand in hand?

The Paleolithic diet seems intuitively correct, and I basically eat that way by default, but my question is:

With an optimal diet, wasn’t life expectancy still around age 40 or less for paleolithic peoples? And if so, can we conclude that diet is not the most important factor in increasing life expectancy?

e.g. The queen died at 50 with diet induced disease, but is that worse than dying at 40 in relatively good health?

THANK YOU!!! There were some issues I hadn’t thought about, and I really appreciate your easy-to-read, straight-to-the-point, humorous take on the high-carb issues. Gramercies! Would you be interested in reading it sometime?

Sure. Post the link if it is online.