Hi Janet–

You’re my second recommendation to make rillettes.  If they’re truly that easy, maybe we’ll give them a try.  I’ll foist the actual making off on the bride, then perhaps she’ll blog about it.
Thanks–

MRE

Hi Simon–

Hmmm, making rilettes, eh?  I’ll see if I can talk the bride into giving it a try.

I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers–

MRE

You say you have an opinion — I’d like to hear it!

Hi Peggyjo–

I’ll probably be posting on my opinions before long.

Best–

MRE

I am aware of your relationship with him, and I’m guessing you probably know his arguments better than just about anyone, so I thought I’d ask your opinion.

Basically, I don’t understand how his basic premise can be to eat only foods similar to what were available in paleolithic times, because that’s what we’re adapted to consume, and then recommend things like CANOLA oil over natural saturated fats!

Nor do I see the logic in arguing that we should eat lean meats and a low saturated fat diet, because the animals humans ate back then only had semi-high levels of fats, including saturated fats, for a small part of each year. But then go on to recommend fairly large amounts of fruits, a food that for most paleolithic people was probably available even less often than higher fat animals.

Am I missing something or have you argued similar points with him? I just don’t understand how he can logically come to such conclusions. Just because humans ate smaller amounts of fats for most of the year, wasn’t fat still a prized food that was eaten readily whenever they could get their hands on it? Maybe these already robust paleolithic humans would have been even more healthy if they were able to eat as much good fat as most of us are if we try to.

Finally, here is my view on nutrition. If you have a moment to comment on it too, I sure would appreciate it:
1) The foods available during paleolithic times and foods similar to those available today are, without a doubt, the healthiest for us to eat.
2) There is no magic ratio of protein to fats to carbs, or even saturated to monounsaturated to polyunsaturated fats for humans to consume. As long as we get some of each type in natural wholefood forms, we’ll be ok. In other words, humans, being omnivorous by design, are extremely adaptable to different ratios of nutrients, AS LONG AS THE FOODS ARE ALL NATURAL AND MOSTLY PALEOLITHIC. The main point here is just because humans didn’t get to eat a lot of animal fat (from healthy free-range animals) as often as they would have preferred back then, it does not mean that if they ate more of this fat they would be less healthy for it.

3) The key is as long as we choose paleolithic foods as much as possible, we can eat varying amounts of them according to tastes, time of year, etc and be fine.

Sorry so long….

Daniel Chong

Hi Daniel–

Loren Cordain is a smart man who has done a tremendous amount of research.  He happens to buy into the idea that saturated fat is atherogenic; I don’t buy into that argument.  His data on the fat composition of wild animals that he has evaluated show that they contain a lot of monounsaturated fat and not a whole lot of saturated fat.  From this he has decided that early man, who consumed a lot of animals,  must have eaten primarily monounsaturated fat and not a lot of saturated fat.  I would argue that most of the animals that early man ate, in fact, that early man hunted to extinction, contained a lot more saturated fat than do game animals today.  Who knows how much saturated fat was found in mammoths, mastodons, cave bears, ancient bison, giant sloths, and all the other large game animals that don’t exist today.

Since Dr. Cordain believes that monounsaturated fat is the ideal fat, it makes some sense that he would recommend canola oil, which contains a fair amount of monounsaturated fat.

I agree with you that foods available today that are similar to those available in Paleolithic times are the ideal foods.  I don’t necessarily agree that as long as we stick to these foods we will never have a problem irrespective of how much of them we eat or whatever the ratios of fat/protein/carbohydrate.  Honey and high-carb fruits were certainly available in Paleolithic times, and it would be a mistake to assume that they could be eaten to the exclusion of everything else and promote health.

We had a patient in our practice in Little Rock whose history is illuminative.  Our patient was a real back-to-the-earth type.  She was a single mom with a couple of kids.  She bought a little farm and raised all her own produce, milked a goat for milk, and ate eggs from her free-range chickens.  The majority of her calories came from vegetables that she grew herself, organically.  She was a little overweight when she started this venture and gained more and more weight over the couple of years before coming to see us.  When we analyzed her diet we discovered that she was eating primarily carbohydrates with a little fat and protein from the goat milk and free-range eggs.  So, despite the fact that all her carbohydrates were from organically-grown vegetables, she was overweight and pre-diabetic.  We increased her protein and fat and markedly reduced the amount of carb she ate, and she responded beautifully.

Hope this answers your questions.

Best–

MRE

Hi Odille–

You’ll get no argument from me on this one.  Not only has the consumption of sugar risen markedly, the rise in the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup has been even greater.  HFCS is now a part of virtually every processed food.  It’s best to be avoided if at all possible.

Cheers–

MRE

Hi Scott–

Just had the similar airport experience that I’m going to post about soon.  The really sad thing about the scenario you describe is that many of these people are drinking their sugar-laden coffees with skim milk and eating low-fat muffins and believing all the while that they are doing something healthful.  It beggars belief.

Cheers–

MRE

You folks surely like rielletes ?

Hi Simon–

I do like rilletes.  I’ve only eaten such in France, however.  Don’t know if there is availability here.

Cheers–

MRE

Hi James–

I’m sure you could make a lot more money as Stick Man than the white hat job in SA.

Let’s hit the links

Cheers–

MRE