Out of Pod Experience

Lard. Yum.

I'm not sure I'd call following one man's work to be looking into a topic fairly... but it's a good topic.

I hate to sound like 'that kid' but the problem here is really corporate influence. We don't raw truth broadcast to us directly, we get people who want to make money on books, diet programs, pre-packaged foods, etc. On the other side we get people who don't want to LOSE money by letting it get out that various synthetics from preservatives, packaging, or the effects of food processing methods cause harm.

I operate on the basic understanding that everything you eat hurts you in some way. Pick anything you want and google "too much X" and there's nothing that can't hurt you. Water will kill you. Green leafy veggies will push everything through your intestines too quickly to absorb everything you could. Same is true in the other direction where things people think are terrible can be beneficial, remember everyone flip flopping on eggs? LOL.

Variety lets different parts of the body recover from harm, and makes sure you get lots of what you need. Mercury in tuna for example only becomes an issue for someone who eats way too much damn Tuna. So anyone trying to tell me to 'NEVER' eat one thing, or 'EAT LOTS' of another thing gets ignored real quick. The only things I believe a person should stay away from are the things that are too common (High fructose corn syrup in everything, ridiculous amounts of salt in everything, etc.) and I only encourage eating the things that are too uncommon like Avocado, sweet potatoes, etc.

my 2¢

If we look at history, humans ate lots of meat before agriculture, so how can the possibly be bad for us. and they ate it ALL not just the lean parts.

People have just become weak! That is all...

The caveman diet is actually very healthy and cuts out processed grains and carbohydrates entirely. The key difference between what cavemen had to select from in the way of meat, and what we have slaughtered, cleaned, and wrapped for us are a night and day difference in terms of fat and nutrient content. The hunter/gatherers of old had a choice of lean protein, and more lean protein, not to say that those animals didn't have fat, just that they had much less than cattle. The modern cow by contrast is very fatty and unhealthy, compounded by the fact that fighting for survival is not necessary in cattle, making the animal even more unhealthy to consume.

The modern sedentary human needs little in terms of caloric intake assuming the necessary nutrients are present in what little is consumed. We can get away with a couple servings of protein, fruits, vegetables, with some nuts here and there in a day, totalling 1200 to 1600 calories in a day. Hunter/gatherers by contrast had to consume 4,000 or more calories per day to maintain a healthy diet, in colder regions that number only increases.

It's not only an issue of people becoming weak, but the animals we primarily consume being bred to be weak. This is exemplified by the modern turkey, modified to be so meaty that it can't even reproduce without human assistance, somewhat ironic with the explosion of fertility clinics and treatments.

Edit: It's also entirely false that hunter/gatherers had a short life expectancy. The average life expectancy was quite low due to people being killed by predators, illness or injury untreatable without complex surgical intervention, and a decent infant mortality rate. Once an individual in the group had made it past his first few years of life however (and assuming no life threatening injury or illness), it was not uncommon to reach 70 or 80 years of age, and die either naturally, or due to starvation because their teeth would fall out and they could no longer eat enough to keep up their strength and remain with the group.

What do humans naturally want to eat.
in the natural world without processed food its fatty salty meats, or sweet fruits and vegetables.
grain, wheat, vegetable oil are not in there in. wheat and grain = carbs, which humans almost never air
the food pyramid says to eat 8-10 servings of the things humans were not naturally eating so it doesnt make sense.
why was the food pyramid and other health decisions made without CLINICAL testing but rather observations?
how come since fat intake has dropped and carb intake increases suddenly all these issues in health have arisen?

A possible explanation is corporate influence. If it was a "healthier" number of carbs ie 2-4 servings per day, people wouldn't be able to have their favorite cereals for breakfast with a wonderbread sandwich for lunch and pastas at dinner. Also, looking at your average hamburger it's fairly exactly proportioned to the food pyramid in carbs, meats, and veggies.

There are typically pickles, lettuce, and onions on hamburgers. Tomatoes as well cue the "pizza is a vegetable" thread.