I don’t know; I’ve never studied the issue.
I’m thinking about it after reading a report of a death after a “routine” wisdom tooth extraction. Mine were extracted over 40 years ago, long enough that I don’t remember if they were causing a problem, or if they were seen on an x-ray and the dentist said, “We gotta those out before they cause problems.”
Dentist Jay Friedman says at least 2/3 of wisdom tooth extractions in young people are unnecessary.
h/t Dennis Mangan
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Not Dr. Warinner
Christina Warinner has a new TEDx talk on the paleo diet. Dr. Warinner has a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard, so I’ll call her an anthropologist. The written TEDx intro mentions she is a paleontologist, and she mentions “archeologist” in her talk. Anyway, I’m sure she’s very bright and put much thought into her presentation. She spoke at my old stomping grounds, the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
Dr. Warinner is probably addressing the smarter half of the general population, who holds the idea, at least superficially, that the paleo diet is meat-based. (The dumber half of the public isn’t watching TEDx videos.) Dr. Warinner doesn’t define “meat-based.” Is half the plate filled with meat, fish, or eggs? 75% of the plate? Half of total calories?
I’m not familiar with all the popular modern versions of the paleo diet. Perhaps some are in fact meat-centric, whatever that means. But the ones I’m more familiar with, like Dr. Cordain’s and mine, prominently feature vegetables, fruits, and nuts. You could easily fashion a plant-based paleo diet, filling 80 or even 90% of your plate with plants. (A vegan paleo diet isn’t realistic. Cultures not eating animals would die out from B12 deficiency.)
I’d swear I heard Dr. Warinner say “we’re not adapted to eat meat.” Surely she mis-spoke.
She mostly debunks popular misconceptions of the paleo diet. Most of us deeply familiar with the paleo diet would have little to disagree with her about.
Here are some of Dr. Warinner’s major points:
Dr. Warinner suggests we all incorporate three concepts from the paleo diet:
Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: Miki Ben-Dor, a Ph.D. candidate, had many more objections to Dr. Warinner’s speech. Paul Jaminet made a few comments about it, too (see middle of his post, after the comments on Marlene Zuk’s PaleoFantasy). Wendy Schwartz weighs in, too. Angelo Coppola does a good job countering most of Dr. Warriner’s criticisms.
Posted in Paleo Diet, Paleo Theory, Uncategorized
Tagged caveman diet, Christina Warinner, Marlene Zuk, Miki Ben-Dor, paleo diet, paleolithic diet, TEDx
…according to David Gorski at Science-Based Medicine.
Gee, I hadn’t noticed that fear. Maybe it’s subconscious.
Dr. Gorski makes some good points along with others I disagree with. I expect the commentators at SBM will address many of the controversial points. They’re a smart readership.
One uncommon observation of his is that the “complementary and alternative medicine” believers tend to embrace the paleo diet and lifestyle. I’ve noticed that also. To the extent that the CAM folks are often unscientific or anti-scientific, those of us examining the paleo diet from a scientific viewpoint have to be wary of “guilt by association.”
A major point that Dr. Gorski didn’t address is that living hunter-gatherers studied over the last century or two don’t have nearly as much cardiovascular disease and death as modern Western societies. That’s a common meme in the paleosphere, started by the prominent paleo book authors. (I’ve not reviewed the original sources.) I’m talking about lower rates of heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, peripheral arterial disease, and premature death. Note that the mere presence of atherosclerosis may not correlate with these hard clinical endpoints.
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Tagged atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, caveman diet, Marlene Zuk, paleo diet, Science-Based Medicine
The New Yorker has a review of Bee Wilson’s book, Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. The book touches on everything from daggers to toothpicks to chopsticks. It’s about the evolution of cutlery. Even if you don’t have the time or interest for the book, the review by Jane Kramer is interesting. An excerpt:
This new cutlery [forks and various knives] transformed the way people ate. By the late eighteenth century in Europe, people were slicing their food into bite-size morsels and carrying them to their mouths with forks—those formerly weird things, Wilson calls them. And they hardly needed to chew such tiny pieces, which in most cases were already softened by pounding, overcooking, or long, gentle braisings. At the same time, the modern overbite began to appear prominently in upper-class Western European jaws. Do not confuse this with the seriously inconvenient condition known to the world as buck teeth (without which we would have no orthodontists, and no mortified adolescents with mouthfuls of rubber bands and wire braces). Wilson’s modern overbite refers to “the way our top layer of incisors hangs over the bottom layer, like a lid on a box,” as she nicely puts it, and is “the ideal human occlusion” for the way we now eat. Why this happened and how long it took to happen is open to some debate, but it’s clear that until it happened most humans had the bite of other primates—“where the top incisors clash against the bottom ones, like a guillotine blade.”
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2013/03/18/130318crbo_books_kramer#ixzz2NVA79mWJ
Bee Wilson is a food writer and historian, not an anthropologist or orthodontist.
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Tagged evolution of cutlery, forks, history of cutlery, overbite
Dogs May Have Been Domesticated 33,000 Years Ago according to an article at Yahoo!News. The DNA in the old skull found in Siberia was a closer match to dogs than to wolves. Apart from the DNA evidence, the skull appeared more similar to a dog’s than an wolf’s. Earlier evidence suggested dogs were first domesticated in the Middle East or East Asia.
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Tagged dogs, domestication, evolution
See her pertinent post, an excerpt from her book.
I’m not convinced, but readily admit I’ve not studied the issue in detail. I’ve got a raging sweet tooth, so maybe I’m biased. Is Dr. Ballantyne’s proscription of stevia another over-application of the Precautionary Principle?
h/t Aglaée Jacobs, RD (twitter: @aglaee_paleoRD)
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…according to an article in Nutrition Journal. Fruit is a prominent component of the paleo diet. It can be good for us, containing phytonutrients, fiber, etc. But fruit has the potential to increase blood sugars, too, which may be harmful over the long run. So whadda you do?
Researchers took newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics and split them into two groups. One group was told to eat at least two pieces of fruit daily, the other was told to eat no more than two pieces.
The researchers conclusions:
A recommendation to reduce fruit intake as part of standard medical nutrition therapy in overweight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes resulted in eating less fruit. It had however no effect on HbA1c, weight loss or waist circumference. We recommend that the intake of fruit should not be restricted in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Read the full research report.
PS: I haven’t read the full report yet.
Perhaps the most destructive as well as most misunderstood concept in fitness today among researchers, the commercial health facilities, and the general public alike is the confusion of exercise and recreation.
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“To him in whom the primitive virtues of courage, energy and love of adventure have not been slapped, there is scarce a joy comparable to that of roaming at will through wild region, viewing the glories of the unspoiled earth and feeling the inexpressible thrill of manliness sore tested by privation and hazard but armed and undismayed”.
—Horace Kephart, Camping and Woodcraft, 1917
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…why do modern cultures have so many dental problems?
An oldie but goodie from Dr. Stephan Guyenet:
Our ancestors had straight teeth, and their wisdom teeth came in without any problem. The same continues to be true of a few non-industrial cultures today, but it’s becoming rare. Wild animals also rarely suffer from orthodontic problems.
Today, the majority of people in the US and other affluent nations have some type of malocclusion, whether it’s crooked teeth, overbite, open bite or a number of other possibilities.
I rarely hear dentists or orthodontists talk about these ideas. Wonder why.
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Tagged ancestral health, dental problems, evolution, malocclusion, teeth
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Diabetic Mediterranean Diet Advanced Mediterranean Life
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