Hysterical. Food, real food, the stuff we evolved to eat over millennia is now an “addictive drug.”

But isn’t it a bit of a double standard when some people say carbs are addictive, because they cause the release of endorphins, like heroin, yet fat isn’t, even though it causes the release of dopamin, like cocaine? Besides, since I went paleo, my supposed ‘carb addiction’ evaporated overnight. Now I don’t miss grains or sugar, even though I used to eat half a pound of chocolate every day.

Then again, Neanderthal lived for 400,000 years, twice what we’ve accomplished so far.

First, projection is not argument. You have no idea what our earliest ancestors cherished. Part of evolution is about evolving food choices, choices which drive physical evolution, which in turn drives choices, drives evolution, and so forth ad infinitum.

Second, explaining how much you have studied is also not argument. It’s equivalent to saying “I think this because I’ve thought a lot about it.” Well, I certainly hope so. And, there are plenty who have studied more than you and have opposite conclusions. So, pointing that out gets us nowhere.

Please tell me what forms of starch would have been eaten prior to the advent of cooking, which at very best was the coming on the seen of erectus about 1.8 million years ago. That leaves a gap of over 4 million years.

During that time, early hominids would have had ample opportunity to scavenge carcasses for meat, frat, and especially bone marrow and brain that stone tool making could have accessed 4 million years ago, and indeed, the fossil record amply demonstrates the boneyards and telltale cut marks on bones & skulls.

I don’t doubt that starch played a role, but not until cooking. We had to evolve the large brains first, necessary to harness fire and then to invent cooking. Then, starchy tubers makes a lot of sense as a mainstay of our evolution from primitive erectus to modern human. There is some mention of this in the addendum to my latest post.

http://freetheanimal.com/2009/11/saturated-fat-and-coronary-heart-disease-part-ii-the-paleo-principle.html

As for fruit, it’s seasonal except in the tropics. I doubt it played a major role in actually increasing brain size and shrinking guts.

BTW, I notice you completely ignored the videos of chimpanzees (our 6-million years ago ancestors) cooperatively and tactically hunting meat, ripping it limb from limb and eating it raw to great screeching tribal fanfare.

“This is your argument?

Bugs are a nice start. Very slow, packed with proteins, very abundant and large in the jungle. We are talking millions or years here, not a few generations.”

Is that your argument? You are saying that an obligate herbivore species suddenly decided to eat lots and lots of big, fat, and juicy cockroaches? They went and picked up the cockroach, bit its head off with relish, crunched down on it, sucked that grayish pus-like juice out of it, and crunched down on the rest? In order to fuel a multi-million year evolution of the body and brain, they would have needed to eat a lot of these cockroaches on a daily basis. Furthermore, if this is what evolved us into humans, then we would, though evolution, naturally desire and relish cockroaches (and crickets, etc) today. This would be part of your biology, part of you taste buds, and part of your mental and emotional well-being. You would have evolved to be a cockroach-eater.

This calls for an experiment. To whoever believes this, test it for yourself. Go out and capture yourself a meals worth of cockroaches, crickets, and other large, juicy bugs and eat them live, as you catch them. If you can do that naturally, without having to habituate yourself to it first, and you enjoy and relish the whole process from catching the cockroaches and especially to eating them, then you just might be a cockroach eater.

Because of things like this, and others I have mentioned, and others I have not mentioned, I find the starch hypothesis far more likely. There are some questions I still have about that, such as what starches did they find 2 – 5 million years ago. I also find the fruit hypothesis compelling, perhaps even more so than the starch hypothesis, since many fruits have a similar caloric density to starches (think of bananas compared to potatoes), and are readily available in the tropics (where we think we evolved), and is relished by the brain and the tongue.

I have kept an open mind on this ever since I started researching this topic several years ago, and I have read a lot of material on both sides of the debate, including the bibles (Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, The China Study, Good Calories Bad Calories), and articles, other books, and lectures put out by the WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation), and individual doctors (Dr. Barnard, Dr. McDougall, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, etc). I am well aware of many of the arguments on both sides, and have concluded, through honesty and an open mind, and personal experimentation, that people like Dr. Campbell, Dr. McDougall, and Dr. Barnard are the closest to the truth that we have right now. And keep in mind, I was staunchly in the pro-meat camp, once telling people that vegans were crazy and that it was impossible that I ever would be one. But what can I say? The whole foods, low fat, vegan group made their case, and I was receptive to it.

I think it is also worth pointing out, that aside from the accusation, these individuals (Dr. Campbell, Dr. Ornish, Dr. Barnard, etc), are not mainstream. Vegan or near-vegan is far less mainstream than Atkins. Dr. McDougall, for example, has probably been at this the longest – longer than Dr. Barnard, Atkins, etc – and yet he is relatively unknown. Everyone has heard of Atkins, but how many have heard of Dr. McDougall? Atkins was a flash-in-the-pan. He came on-scene, told people what they wanted to hear, made billions, got discredited when people started realizing they were still fat and sick, and in many cases getting worse, and then died. Dr. McDougall, meanwhile, has been telling people what they need to hear, starting long before the Atkins flash-in-the-pan, continuing throughout and to this day, and yet how many people know who he is? Atkins became worth billions within a few years; Dr. McDougall has been at this for an entire career and has not even made one million. School teachers can save up more than a million in their career. So I find it very ironic when some Atkins supporters claim that Dr. McDougall and Dr. Campbell are mainstream. None of these people are mainstream, not even billionaire Atkins (because he was only a flash-in-the-pan).

Enough said.

How many people’s loved ones are sick or dead because these guys want to engage in their endless studies to scare the shit out of people and have them bouncing off walls with indecision over diet, when they could simply be eating real food.

No quarter. I won’t be satisfied until they start charging admission to take a piss on Keys’ grave.

We’ve all listened to the BS for so long. Now that we know the real story, it’s hard to stay cooped up. If we only had back all those years of stupidity and deception. This is the one for sure benefit of getting older