Old and new concepts of healthy diets
Ideas are strongly linked to stories. The power of stories in human culture can be enormous and academia is no exception. Once you start to think about it, you find experts telling tales everywhere. Stories help us to understand new thoughts, but the price we pay is a premature sense of knowing, long before the evidence is compelling.
During the last 50 years there has been much debate on the optimal dietary advice for improving long-term health in the general population, as well as in patients with established cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, overweight, osteoporosis and other problems related to the Western lifestyle. Various concepts have emerged, but none of them is supported by strong and consistent evidence. >>read more>>
Why do we need an evolutionary perspective?
Paleolithic diet (links coming up)
What is it?
Lean meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, root vegetables, eggs, nuts etc.
What is it not?
Grains, dairy products, refined sugar, fats and oils. Today, these provide about 70% of the caloric intake in Western societies. And salt intake is much higher now.
Why bother?
It prevents heart disease, stroke and some forms of cancers. Beneficial effect on overweight, digestive problems and more.
Paleolithic Diet in Medical Nutrition
– incorporating evolutionary biology in nutritional science
Staffan Lindeberg, MD PhD, Department of Medicine, University of Lund, Sweden
