This Is the Average Man's Body (The Atlantic Monthly)

A friend over at Facebook alerted me to this article in an off-hand way - he jokingly asked his friends and followers, "Who would you rather?" among the four nationalities presented in the article below (United States, Japan, Netherlands, France). Of the four men (averages formed into a avatar), the "Todd" from the U.S. is 5' 9" tall, with a 39" waist and a body mass index (BMI) of 29 - 30 is obese.

As a personal trainer and athlete, I see these "average men" and feel sad that we have fallen so far from our potential - the average man in the U.S. is a fraction from obese . . . and that's AVERAGE!

I am not blaming the individuals . . . although there is always the option to change one's lifestyle. I also know from my years as a trainer how difficult that can be even for those who want to do so. If it were easy or simple, no one would go through the torment of being overweight in a fat phobic society (that is, ironically, overweight and obese on average).

A big part of the problem is the processed nutrition-void foods we eat, the marketing atmosphere we live in, the endocrine disrupting chemicals in the air and water (and in food packaging, water bottles, no-stick pans, aerosols, and so on), and the urbanization of human life (taking us away from a life spent working on the land, doing physical labor) - all of these things and more have contributed to this Todd avatar, from the U.S., at least, being a pudgy man.

We can only change it for ourselves, and lead by example . . . . How are you leading? What are you teaching your kids about health and fitness?

This Is the Average Man's Body

Graphic renderings of modern males

James Hamblin Oct 10 2013



Todd is the most typical of American men. His proportions are based on averages from CDC anthropometric data. As a U.S. male age 30 to 39, his body mass index (BMI) is 29; just one shy of the medical definition of obese. At five-feet-nine-inches tall, his waist is 39 inches.

Don't let the hyperrealistic toes fool you; Todd is an avatar. I gave Todd his name, and gave his life a narrative arc, but he is actually the child of graphic artist Nickolay Lamm as part of his Body Measurement Project.

Todd would prefer perfection—or at least something superlative, even if it's bad—to being average. But Todd is perfect only in being average. With this perfection comes the privilege of radical singularity, which is visible in his eyes.

Though in his face this reads lonesome, Todd does have three international guyfriends. They met at a convention for people with perfectly average bodies, where each won the award for most average body in their respective country: U.S., Japan, Netherlands, and France. The others' BMIs, based on data from each country's national health centers, are 23.7, 25.2, and 25.6.

I named them all Todd, actually, even though it could be confusing, because not everyone's name is a testament to their cultural heritage.

 

This is how Lamm made the Todds. It's also what zombie Todds look like.



And here are Todds from the right.

 

Most people look better from their left, but Lamm rendered the Todds from their right, just because he can. To these men, Nickolay is God.

Avatars of various ethnicities are important, because obesity depends on culture and genetics. The weight of every person's destiny is equal, but some countries are fat, and others are not. The World Health Organization cares about that, because understanding the differences should help to explicate causes.
 

(World Health Organization; based on 2008 data)

So does history. Fifty years ago, American Todd would not have been round. The trend is not unique to men, either; Lamm just chose to work with white male renderings. The same CDC data puts the female BMI in this age group at 28.7.

U.S. Obesity, National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, 1960-2000

Americans are also losing ground in height. For most of two centuries, until 60 years ago, the U.S. population was the tallest in the world. Now the average American man is three inches shorter than the Dutch man, who averages six feet. Japanese averages are also gaining on Americans'. Anthropologists tie these recent changes primarily to diet and lifestyle, as we've turned habitable wilderness into excess. 

(All images by Nickolay Lamm)

George Maat, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, has said that within another 50 years, the Dutch Todd could be six-foot-three. Several years ago the Netherlands was compelled to increase building code standards for door frames. If in the last half-century the American physical form has been expelled from international imagination as an ideal, we might presently look at the situation not just as failure, but with optimism for what we might become.

Paleo Lifestyle and The Paleo Manifesto

The other day I posted a defense of the ketogenic diet (no carbs for the most part), and so today I find myself sharing an article on a nutrition approach that is more palatable for a lot of people, but still much lower in carbs than the average American intake - the paleo diet. Research by leaders in the field (Loren Cordain, who essentially founded the paleo diet) and up to the National Institutes of Health have found that the paleo approach is more effective at weight loss (at least in post-menopausal women), creating healthy lipid levels and reducing cardiovascular risk factors, and treating type-II diabetes than other diets (especially the low-fat approaches).


Men's Journal offered a brief assessment of a new book on the paleo diet by John Durant, called The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health. Along with the single paragraph, they included a link to an article from December 2012 on the paleo lifestyle. First the brief review from MJ, then I have added the publisher's ad copy, then below that the older MJ article on paleo living.

Book Review: 'The Paleo Manifesto'

'The Paleo Manifesto' by John Durant

John Durant, one of the first proponents of living like a hunter-gatherer, has written the rules of the lifestyle he's been advocating for years. In his new book, as you might expect, he calls for a meat-heavy diet but also argues for occasional fasting, getting standing desks, sleeping a lot, and swimming in icy water. Durant's research piles on the studies and the opinions of experts who look at the weight-loss diets of captive gorillas and sleep habits of astronauts, making a compelling argument for the paleo movement.

– Tyghe Trimble

Here is the ad copy from Amazon:

In The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health, John Durant argues for an evolutionary – and revolutionary – approach to health. All animals, human or otherwise, thrive when they mimic key elements of life in their natural habitat. From diet to movement to sleep, this evolutionary perspective sheds light on some of our most pressing health concerns. What is causing the rise of chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and depression? Is eating red meat going to kill you? Is avoiding the sun actually the best way to avoid skin cancer? 

Durant takes readers on a thrilling ride to the Paleolithic and beyond, unlocking the health secrets of our ancient ancestors. What do obese gorillas teach us about weight loss? How can Paleolithic skulls contain beautiful sets of teeth? Why is the Bible so obsessed with hygiene? What do NASA astronauts teach us about getting a good night’s sleep? And how are Silicon Valley techies hacking the human body?

Blending science and culture, anthropology and philosophy, John Durant distills the lessons from his adventures and shows how to apply them to day-to-day life, teaching people how to construct their own personal “habitat” that will enable them to thrive. The book doesn’t just address what we eat, but why we eat it; not just how to exercise, but the purpose of functional movement; not just being healthy, but leading a purposeful life. 

Combining the best of ancient wisdom with cutting edge science, Durant crafts a vision of health that is both fresh and futuristic.

You can read an excerpt from Chapter 2 at Scribd, which is embedded below.

The Paleo Manifesto by John Durant - Excerpt by Crown Publishing Group

Finally, here is the article Men's Journal posted in December of 2012. Part of the paleo lifestyle, or primal living, is fitness - the human body was not designed and does not function well when it sits in an office chair all day (get a standing desk) or sitting on a couch all night (really, the television is not that interesting). From the article below, here is a great example of primal fitness, with the added benefit of being in nature (which offers a huge pile of physical, mental, and spiritual health benefits):

Another proponent of paleo fitness is Erwan Le Corre, a 41-year-old Frenchman who founded MovNat, fitness that focuses on natural human movement. You can see him on YouTube running barefoot through the desert, rolling through brush, hurtling over rock ledges, and swimming downstream while pushing a 500-pound log. Le Corre calls this the workout the world forgot. "Modern lives are so separated from nature and what is natural that a system like MovNat is not only refreshing, it's also powerfully effective at connecting people with their bodies," he says.

Awesome! You can read more about this style of training at Outside Magazine and at Men's Health. Okay, then, so here is the article.

The Paleo Diet and the Case for Primal Living

By Tyler Graham | Dec 2012

Can living like a caveman prevent disease and make you lean and fit? Some doctors argue that one of the hottest wellness trends is also one of the healthiest.

Photograph by Bartholomew Cooke

Perhaps you've heard of the paleo movement – eating and exercising as our ancient forefathers did – and dismissed it as a fad, a farce, a caveman version of the Atkins diet. But over the past few years, the philosophy has exploded from obscure scientific theory into one of the biggest trends in wellness, influencing everything from medicine to running shoes to the latest thinking on how we should eat and move to stay lean and healthy.

Many experts now believe that Western civilization's skyrocketing rates of degenerative disease – diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's, to name a few – stem from our adoption of a diet high in processed foods, exacerbated by our sedentary lifestyles. In 1985, a pair of researchers published a provocative paper leveraging the fact that, while the human species has existed for about 2 million years, grain production is only 12,000 years old, and the rise of processed foods – new to humans on an evolutionary scale – mirrors our uptick of weight gain and chronic disease. Cavemen didn't suffer from most of these diseases, primarily because their diet consisted mostly of meat, vegetables, and some fruit. They rarely died of heart attack or stroke, but from old age, viruses, or calamity like extreme weather. Today, those who still eat a traditional diet, like the Arctic Inuit and Kenyan Maasai, are virtually immune to these diseases too.

After 1985, the paleo movement started collecting members slowly but steadily, until it exploded about two years ago, launching a bevy of self-help books, snack foods like jerky and coconut chips, and the Paleo Physicians Network, with more than 2,000 members and a mission to educate doctors about treating patients based on our evolutionary nature. Crossfit, the minimalist fitness craze, has adopted paleo as its unofficial nutrition mantra – no carbs, lots of meat and vegetables. "It's about getting complete and total control over your health," says Mark Sisson, author of 'The Primal Blueprint.' "It's about having more energy at 50 than you did at 35. It's so empowering that followers become the biggest proselytizers. Everybody wants to know how they lost their 70 pounds."

More profoundly, the human genome has remained relatively stable since our hunter-gatherer days, while our diets have changed drastically. We now eat massive amounts of sugar, which triggers our bodies to store fat. Most processed foods are made from sugar, grains, and industrial vegetable oils high in trans fats, which the National Academy of Sciences declared unsafe in food in any amount. Most of what we eat is grown with pesticides, linked to cancer, birth defects, and brain disorders, and treated with carcinogenic preservatives.

As we subsist on more sugar, grains, and chemicals, we move less and spend more time hunched over steering wheels, computer screens, and smartphones. Those who exercise often jump on a treadmill or weight machine, training their bodies and isolating muscles in unnatural ways. Few of us have the muscle mass, lung capacity, or reaction time to sprint up uneven hills, duck branches, hop boulders, and pull ourselves up a ledge to avoid a bear. But that's how the paleo crowd thinks we should move.

Of course, paleo has its detractors. 'US News and World Report' cited it as the worst of 24 popular diets, based largely on the notion that "duplicating such a regimen in modern times would be difficult." They also noted that the benefits of the paleo diet are largely unstudied, a point the paleo community contends. But last summer, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health helped mute the debate when it found a paleo-style diet, high in fat and low in carbs, to be the most effective for weight loss.

If you're health conscious, there's a good chance you've already adopted some of the paleo approach. For example, paleo followers have long supported barefoot running as a way to strengthen muscles in the feet. High-intensity training, TRX suspension straps, and extreme races like Tough Mudder and Spartan Race are all paleo-approved. And limiting carbs to load up on grass-fed meat and organic produce is key to living primal. Ready to go full steam? Here are five steps to adopt the paleo approach:

Eat Like a Caveman

One of the most prominent voices in the paleo movement is journalist and author Gary Taubes, who argues that it's not calories alone that cause weight gain, but sugar and refined carbs, which spike our blood sugar and trigger the hormone insulin, telling our bodies to store energy as fat. When we eat cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and pasta for dinner – supplemented by soda, chips, and fries – these processed foods cause larger waistlines and diabetes, heart disease, and possibly even cancer over time. While medical experts used to think eating fat made people fat, "it has been clear for some time, from multiple trials, that the percent of calories from fat in the diet has minimal relation to weight gain or obesity," says Dr. Walter Willett, of the Harvard School of Public Health. Instead, says Willett, low-fat, high-carb foods, once believed to aid heart health and weight loss, are the real problem. Eating more healthy fat and fewer foods that spike insulin is the first step to primal eating. Second is to avoid industrial oils like soy and corn, rich in trans fat and inflammation-causing omega-6s. When you eliminate sugar, refined carbs, and industrial oils, you essentially eliminate all fast and convenience foods.

Move Like a Hunter

Movement in the Paleolithic era was never prescribed: The body adapted to challenges at hand, whether running from a predator, hauling a carcass, or building a shelter. We were always on the go, often at maximum output for short times. "Our caveman ancestor wouldn't have run every day because that's stupid," says Sisson, a former marathoner. Another proponent of paleo fitness is Erwan Le Corre, a 41-year-old Frenchman who founded MovNat, fitness that focuses on natural human movement. You can see him on YouTube running barefoot through the desert, rolling through brush, hurtling over rock ledges, and swimming downstream while pushing a 500-pound log. Le Corre calls this the workout the world forgot. "Modern lives are so separated from nature and what is natural that a system like MovNat is not only refreshing, it's also powerfully effective at connecting people with their bodies," he says. MovNat has thousands of followers, including members of the Special Forces.

Avoid Daily Toxins

There are toxins everywhere in our daily environment, and some of them, like pollutants in the air, can't be avoided. But others can. Since tap water can be contaminated with pollutants like arsenic and pharmaceuticals, read your local water reports and filter if necessary, and try to avoid drinking water out of plastic bottles. Eat organic foods when possible, buy food in bulk or glass, and use natural cleaners, detergents, and skin products.

Limit Modern Stressors

Our ancient ancestors had plenty of stress, whether hunting for food or keeping warm and dry in inclement weather, but it may not compare with the stress we've created in modern-day life. One of the biggest forms of modern stress? Sitting for most of the day, which takes a toll on our muscular and cardiovascular health. Fight it by using a stand-up desk or taking a walk every hour. Forgo the drudgery of soulless cardio equipment with TVs and muscle-isolating Cybex machines for activities that reinforce pleasure, whether it's forcing your body to move in unexpected ways by playing tennis or helping your muscles adapt to uneven surfaces by hiking. Choose outdoor exercise to get sun and vitamin D, which increases levels of relaxing serotonin. Never underestimate the power of play – but know it's also important to prioritize sleep over staying up late to work on your iPad or surf the Web.

Adopt a Primal Attitude

Primal living is more than a diet or new way of working out – it's a lifestyle. Once you eat and move in a way that's optimal for your body's design, you never go back. And there's a mind-set that goes along with that. Sisson believes it's important to get out of your comfort zone and try new things, whether that's building a tree house for your kids or learning to surf. Filter out negative, sensationalized news, and nurture small social networks rather than trying to collect 1,000 friends on Facebook. Most important, learn to unplug and recharge in the digital age of evolution.

See also:
• Seven Rules for Eating Paleo
• Five Primal Workouts to Reboot Your Fitness

Mark McManus's 10 Reasons We Should Eat More Broccoli

Mark McManus (of MuscleHack) gives 10 excellent reasons to make broccoli a more consistent part of out diets. Because I am dedicated to your health, especially the male readers, I am going to give you 2 additional reasons to eat more broccoli.

11. Cruciferous vegetables, including cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower all contain diindolylmethane (or DIM), a plant indole that helps the body metabolize estrogens (eliminate them, especially estrodial and 16-hydroxy estrogens) more efficiently. Consumption of cruciferous vegetables has been associated with risk reduction for several estrogen-related cancers, including prostate cancer.

12. Broccoli contains other chemicals, glucosinolates, including glucoraphanin, that are known anti-cancer nutrients. Researchers have also found that those who consumed glucoraphanin-rich vegetable showed signs of an improved metabolism

And now on to the article.

10 Top Reasons You Need Broccoli In Your Diet

by Mark McManus on September 18, 2013 updated September 18, 2013

Want to get healthy or even lose weight? Broccoli needs to be included in your diet.

Here’s 10 reasons why broccoli is good for you!

(1) Broccoli is the king of low carb vegetables – 1.1 grams of net carbohydrate per 100g! (after fiber subtracted) Sometimes I fill my plate up with broccoli and drench it in melted butter or cheese.

(2) A chemical in vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage can boost DNA repair in cells and may stop them becoming cancerous

(3) Eating steamed broccoli reduces the risk of a heart attack by boosting the body’s ability to fight off cell damage, researchers have found.

(4) Did you know broccoli contains more vitamin C than an orange? (ounce for ounce) Vitamin C is great for your hair, skin, teeth, fighting infections and keeping red blood cells healthy.

(5) Did you know broccoli contains as much calcium as a glass of milk? (ounce for ounce) Calcium helps to keep you heart beating regularly and promotes sleep.

(6) Broccoli is also a good source of folate. Folate is necessary for the production and maintenance of new cells.

(7) Broccoli is also a good source of iron. Iron is an essential component of haemoglobin and, therefore, iron is required for normal blood formation and oxygen transport around the body.

(8) Broccoli is also a great source of fiber.

(9) Broccoli is also a good source of potassium. Potassium plays an important role in the physical fluid system of humans and it assists nerve functions.

(10) Broccoli is also a good source of vitamin K. Vitamin K is known to be needed to coagulate blood and to maintain proper bone density. It also plays a key role in proper development of the fetus.

If you’re gonna eat low-carb, broccoli should be a regular feature in your diet. Whether you’re focused on gaining muscle or losing fat, broccoli will greatly assist you in your goal.

This article ran in the New York Times back in August. Men are suffering from all types of eating disorders at higher levels than ever before (although part of this might be a more tolerant atmosphere than in the past in which to come forward, so the numbers have rapidly increased), and binge eating is no exception.

In fact, I would suggest that binge eating disorder in men (which means without purging) has been much more common than anyone has known - but it was just seen as having a "manly" appetite. The article acknowledges that men and women are about equal in their experience of binge eating.

Binge Eating Among Men Steps Out of the Shadows

By ABBY ELLIN

FIRSTHAND Andrew Walen, a recovering binge eater, now counsels others.

After downing 70 chicken wings in about an hour, Andrew Walen realized he had a problem.

Oh, he had known something was wrong over the years. Normal people don’t consume 4,500 calories worth of food in one sitting, or order takeout for four when dining alone. But it took a maniacal feeding frenzy for him to finally accept the reality: He was a binge eater, and he had absolutely no control around food.

“Ultimately, it was about numbing out and self-loathing,” said Mr. Walen, now 39 and a therapist in Columbia, Md. “There was this voice in my head that said, ‘You’re no good, worthless,’ and I turned to food.”

Mr. Walen is one of an estimated eight million men and women in the United States who struggle with binge eating, defined as consuming large amounts of food within a two-hour period at least twice a week without purging, accompanied by a sense of being out of control.

While about 10 percent of patients with anorexia and bulimia are men, binge eating is a problem shared almost equally by both sexes. A study published online in October and then in the March issue of The International Journal of Eating Disorders found that among 46,351 men and women ages 18 to 65, about 11 percent of women and 7.5 percent of men acknowledged some degree of binge eating.

“Binge eating among men is associated with significant levels of emotional distress, obesity, depression and work productivity impairment,” said Richard Bedrosian, a study author and director of behavioral health and solution development at Wellness and Prevention Inc., which works with employers and health plans.

But while binge eating is challenging for women who suffer from it, the perils are perhaps greater for men, who rarely seek treatment for what many believe is a “women’s disease.” Unlike bulimia and anorexia, binge eating does not even have a distinct listing in the current D.S.M., as the diagnostic guide for mental health professionals is known.

“Guys generally don’t come forward for any reason,” said Ron Saxen, 49, author of “The Good Eater,” a memoir of his struggle with binge eating, which began when he was about 11. At his worst, Mr. Saxen was consuming 10,000 to 15,000 calories’ worth of Big Macs, French fries, chocolate milkshakes, candy bars, ice cream and M & Ms, often within an hour-and-a-half window.

Those men who do seek treatment often have difficulty finding a facility or therapist to work with them — even the literature is predominantly female-centric. Before Vic Avon was given a diagnosis of anorexia in 2006, for example, he scoured the Web for information relating to men and eating disorders. “Everything I saw was written for and by women,” said Mr. Avon, 29, a building contractor in Brick Township, N.J.

Mr. Avon seesawed between anorexia and binge eating (not uncommon), at one point weighing 300 pounds. “I was so ashamed because it was a girl’s illness, I thought. I didn’t have any guys to look to.”

Many binge-eating men do not even recognize that anything is wrong. About 70 percent of people with binge eating disorder are overweight or obese, but a higher weight is generally more culturally acceptable for men than for women.

“There’s nothing wrong with a college guy eating a whole pizza by himself, but with women they would be horrified,” said Roberto Olivardia, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of body image disorders and eating disorders in men and is an author of “The Adonis Complex.”

Even if they are disturbed by their food intake, few men make the connection between gorging and emotional distress. “With men it’s usually a disconnect,” said Mr. Walen, the former binge eater turned therapist. “It’s about ‘I want to eat,’ not ‘I’m coping with an emotional trauma.’ ”

Adam Lamparello’s binge eating was both physical and psychological, the result of the starvation that ensued during his six-year bout with anorexia, and his attempt to fill the “emptiness, loneliness and emotional void” that he felt in his life.

“Those with binge eating disorder often do not have meaningful relationships with other people, are isolated, believe that life has no purpose or have suffered prior traumatic events and turn to food for emotional comfort,” said Mr. Lamparello, 36, a lawyer in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., who recently published “Ten-Mile Morning: My Journey Through Anorexia Nervosa.”

Men like Mr. Avon and Mr. Walen often struggle to find help. But the tide may be slowly turning as awareness about men and binge eating grows. Chevese Turner, founder and chief executive of the Binge Eating Disorder Association, said about 20 percent of the calls she receives are from men, up from 5 percent when she started the organization in 2008.

In general, cognitive behavioral therapy is the most successful treatment for binge eaters, said Sarah J. Parker, the director and a founder of the Reeds Center, an outpatient mental health center in New York that treats men and women who have anxiety and eating disorders. Treatment often begins with efforts to recognize distorted, all-or-nothing thinking and to begin monitoring one’s eating, sleeping and exercise patterns. Since many binge eaters restrict food intake during the day and binge at night, the goal is to get them to eat three meals a day and a snack.

Whether or not one can be fully cured of binge eating depends on one’s definition of “cured.” An October 2011 study in The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology reported a 51 percent remission rate for patients a year after using cognitive behavioral therapy. Therapy did not lead to weight loss, however.

“Do people stop binge eating and basically not binge eat again? Yeah,” Ms. Parker said. “Is it O.K. to have an episode once a month? For some people that might be a cure.”

Mr. Saxen finally went to a therapist at age 40. While he no longer binges, “I’m in the camp of A.A. — you’re always recovering,” he said. “There are times when bad things are happening, and I have my moments.”

After the chicken wing incident, Mr. Walen also sought treatment. He has not had a full-on, out-of-control “big B” binge since 2006 — but he has had “little B” moments. “I would say that most people have ‘little B’ binges where they go, ‘I know I overate, but it didn’t come with a lot of guilt shame stuff.’ I think almost everyone goes through that a few times a year,” he said.

Perhaps the greatest challenge, experts say, is to persuade more men to come forward and seek treatment. “You have to have alternative means of getting men to acknowledge the problem,” Dr. Bedrosian said. “We need to find alternative ways for men to get screened, we have to encourage the screening for all eating disorders in primary care,” with an emphasis on making sure men as well as women receive attention.

He added, “If I were training medical students today I would say, ‘When you’re discussing weight loss programs with an obese patient, make sure you ask them about binge eating behavior.’ ”

Gen X Men Spend More Time in the Kitchen

Yay for the Gen X guys - we cook! Although, personally, watching food TV is right up there with watching paint dry. On the other hand, Gen X folk don't seem to know as much about GMO foods - and we should - but our educated peers keep abreast of information about healthy food.

Generation X Report: Men Spend More Time in the Kitchen

Gen Xers are a lot more conscious about their food than their parents were — especially the men, who are cooking and shopping more and watching food TV as much as women.

By Alexandra Sifferlin | April 30, 2012

For nearly 25 years, researchers from the University of Michigan have followed the lifestyle habits of a group of 3,000 Generation X adults — men and women born between the years 1961 and 1981. The latest report [PDF] based on the ongoing study focused on Gen Xers and food, and found that this generation is a lot more conscious about food — especially the men — than their predecessors were.

The data collected as part of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth found that Generation X adults spend more time shopping and cooking food, watching cooking shows on TV and talking to their friends about food or cooking.

“Generation X adults view life as a smorgasbord and have a little bit of everything in terms of food,” says study author Jon Miller, the director of the International Center for the Advancement of Scientific Literacy in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

(MORE: Working Moms Multitask More Than Dads — and Like It Less)

Gen X men are more involved in all aspects of meal preparation — from grocery shopping to cooking — than their fathers were. These men spend more time in the kitchen than their dads did, cooking about eight meals a week and buying groceries more than one a week.

“Men have fun in the kitchen,” says Miller. “I was surprised by how often they shop and cook. If men just happened to wander into the kitchen and make something, that makes more sense, but when you buy into the whole process, then you’re into it. Clearly they are into it.”

Gen X men also watch cooking shows and read magazine articles on cooking just as much as women do. “Males overall get something different out of watching cooking shows than women because I don’t think men have as many cooking skills acquired young at their parents arm. My guess is young men are still learning basic skills. They are still learning how to boil water,” says Miller.

(MORE: Why Families Who Eat Together Are Healthier)

The shifting roles in the kitchen is also likely a sign of modern household dynamics. In many Gen X couples, both partners have full-time jobs outside the home and share household responsibilities. “In previous generations, there was often a disparity, and the husband’s job brought in more money or was more time consuming. That’s not the case anymore,” says Miller. “Now there is much more parity between genders and in many cases, the woman makes more. That means there is a reallocation of time and duties for these people.”

Dr. John Ardizzone, the director of assessment services program at the Family Institute at Northwestern University who is unaffiliated with the study, says he also sees more professional men taking on domestic duties than he did in the past. “The men in this age group definitely do more work in the home, and more cooking for sure,” says Dr. Ardizzone. “They also help out more with their kids than you would stereotypically expect of men. They are putting their kids to bed and giving them baths. They share in chores and responsibilities.”

Again, their motivation has a lot to do with the fact that their partners and spouses are working full-time too, says Dr. Ardizzone, and the household tasks need to be divided. “These women are well-educated, are working more or also have more interests outside the house that take up time,” says Dr. Ardizzone.

“It’s ‘have to’ and ‘want to,’” says Ellen Galinsky, the president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute in New York. The Institute released a national study of the changing workforce in 2008. “These men can have to do more cooking and want to at the same time. We find that women are changing too. Younger women are just as ambitious as men. Men are becoming more family involved and women are becoming more work and career involved.”

(MORE: Why Fathers Have Lower Levels of Testosterone)

The Gen X report revealed a few surprises: for instance, only 9% of the surveyed adults said they preferred to buy organic foods when available. About half said they buy organic “some of the time,” but the other half almost never purchase organic. ”There is this perception that Generation X people are passionate organic buyers and it is not necessarily true,” says Miller. “I think they also take into account price, availability and other factors and don’t feel the need to always buy organic. Those who are really devoted are a much smaller group than we would’ve guessed.”

Here are some other key eating habit findings in the study:

• On average, Generation Xers cook meals for guests about once a month and talk to friends about food or cooking about six times a month.
• Married women cook the most and prepare about 12 meals a week. Single women cook about 10 meals a week and both married and single men cook about eight meals weekly.
• Generation Xers have a low level of genetically modified food knowledge. “Generally speaking they know more about genes and biology than their parents did, but genetically modified food is not something they think about often,” says Miller. “Those who are scientifically literate still monitor food news about food safety.”

Quest Bars - A Better Protein Bar?

Since I tend to post most of my nutrition stuff here, I thought I'd share a new find. While browsing in my locally owned and operated nutrition store, I stumbled upon a new protein bar - the Quest Bar. They're not very big, but the box promised 20 grams of high quality protein, and I'm thinking, "Yeah, that's what all the protein bars say."

I know that protein bars are not Paleo - so what?! There are many days where I eat a protein bar or I go 6 or more hours without food. (No food makes Bill a grumpy man.) So I am always seeking a healthier bar with less crap in it - a bar that is more like real food.

The promise of a high fiber (16-18 grams), high protein (20 grams) bar that is not make with soy protein or fake proteins (like hydrolyzed collagen) and not packed with sugar or sugar alcohols is the Holy Grail of bars. This one has it - the bars could be better, but these are not bad.

To clarify, the original product line (6 flavors), which is what my store carries, does not contain the sugar alcohols, but their 2nd generation line (5 flavors) does contain small amounts of erythritol, one of the least distressing to the gastric system, and at only around 4-6 grams per bar, rather than the 20+ grams of sugar alcohols one might find in leading low-carb bars). The bars in this line also use Stevia for an additional sweetener instead of Sucralose.

However, according to the Body Ecology site, this is probably the best of the sugar alcohols. Here is their list of traits that make "erythritol a standout as a sugar alcohol" -

Erythritol is⁴:

• Fermented – it is made by fermenting the natural sugar found in corn.
• Heat stable up to 160 degrees C.
• Non-caloric – While most sugar alcohols are low calorie, erythritol has zero calories.
• Non-glycemic - Does not raise blood sugar – erythritol is considered suitable for people with diabetes because it does not raise plasma glucose or insulin levels.
• The easiest sugar alcohol to digest – more than 90% of erythritol is absorbed in the small intestine, so minimal amounts reach the colon where other sugar alcohols end up causing diarrhea and other symptoms. Studies have shown that erythritol is even easier to digest than xylitol.
• Noncarcinogenic– studies have shown that erythritol, like xylitol, does not have carcinogenic properties.
• An antioxidant – erythritol helps to fight free radicals, responsible for the aging process. It is considered to be even more efficient than other sugar alcohols because it is so readily absorbed and yet not metabolized (it is excreted unchanged).

Erythritol has the status of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) from the FDA and is widely used in many other countries like Japan, the European Union, Mexico and Canada.

So I picked one up - Vanilla Almond Crunch - and this is the list of ingredients:

Everything on there looked pretty good to me (some people have issues with Sucralose, but I am not one of them), except the lo han guo, which I have never heard of - according to their website, it's an herbal sweetener:

A natural herb that’s been used as a sweetener in China for over 1,000 years. It only takes a TINY amount as it’s 300 times sweeter than sugar.

Just to be clear, I looked it on Drugs.com to see what they thought, and while there have been no reported human trials , there does seem to be some promising research with this substance (if even some of this is true in humans, it could be a useful sweetener):

Sweetener
Fruits of luo han guo are intensely sweet, with the purified constituents estimated to be about 150 times sweeter than sucrose. There is potential for use as a noncaloric sweetener. 5 , 6 The purified, sweet principle, mogroside V, is approved as a high-intensity sweetening agent in Japan. 8

Highly sweet cucurbitane glycosides from the fruits of luo han guo, and other plant extracts, were evaluated for sweetness using electrophysiological and behavioral testing in gerbils. Gerbils trained to avoid sucrose identified the extracts as being sweet through avoidance. 8 Another study in gerbils showed that mogroside V stimulated the gustatory receptors and induced behavioral responses to the compound's sweet taste. 9
 
Hypoglycemic

In addition to its natural sweetening characteristic, luo han guo has exhibited antihyperglycemic effects. In rats, crude extracts of S. grosvenori and the triterpene glycosides inhibited a rise in postprandial blood glucose levels when given orally 3 minutes prior to oral administration of maltose. The suggested antihyperglycemic effect was via the inhibition of maltase. 10
 
Antioxidant

S. grosvenori extract and the cucurbitane glycosides mogroside IV, mogroside V, 11-oxo-mogroside V, and siamenoside I inhibited copper-mediated, low-density, lipoprotein and cell-mediated, low-density lipoprotein oxidation in a dose-dependent fashion, with 11-oxo-mogroside V as the most active component. 11

The antioxidant, free-radical scavenging activities of the extract and 11-oxo-mogroside V were less than those of vitamin E in the same in vivo study. 11
 
Antineoplastic

In vitro and animal studies suggest potential cancer chemopreventive activities of cucurbitane glycosides and related compounds from the fruit of luo han guo. 12 , 13 , 14

An ethanol extract of S. grosvenori was evaluated for its effect on Epstein-Barr virus-early antigen (EBV-EA) activation as a method of detecting chemoprotective activity. The extract inhibited activation of EBV-EA at a level similar to or greater than the activity of beta-carotene. 12 In a similar study, 11-oxo-mogroside V and mogroside V showed strong inhibitory effects. 13

A 2-stage skin carcinogenesis model in mice ingesting mogroside V or 11-oxomogroside V showed delayed development and reduced numbers of papillomas at 10 and 15 weeks, respectively, compared with control group animals. 13

Inhibitory effects of mogroside V and 11-oxo-mogroside V on another skin carcinogenesis model in mice using peroxynitrite also showed a reduction in numbers of papillomas formed and delayed papilloma development. 14
 
Antihistaminic

The effect of luo han guo extract and its glycosides on allergic symptoms in mice were studied. No effect on skin scratching behavior or nasal rubbing was noted following single doses of 300 and 1,000 mg/kg, respectively, of the extract or the glycosides.

Repeated daily doses of 300 and 1,000 mg/kg/day between 2 and 4 weeks of the extract and the glycosides showed gradual inhibition of nasal rubbing and skin scratching. 3

The taste of the vanilla almond crunch bar is not bad - I also bought apple pie and some peanut butter thing. I drank about 12 oz. of water with the bar, and 20 minutes on I feel relatively full (or at least not hungry), which is more than I can say for some other and larger bars.

They run about $2.30 each at my store and their site sells them for $24.99 a box of 12.

Precision Nutrition - Paleo for Everyone: Using Change Psychology Instead of Nutritional Dogmatism

I am a general supporter of the Paleo Diet, Caveman Diet, Primal Living, or Ancestral Diet approaches to nutrition (I probably missed a few of the various other names for eating a "real" food diet). The basic premise, for those who avoid all diets as silly fads, is that until about 10,000 years ago and the rise of agrarian culture (permanent settlements and farming grains for food), we ate only meats, fish, nuts, fruits, and vegetables, with the occasional foray into fungi (mushrooms) and insects (yum, crunchy protein). We did not eat grains, consume dairy of any kind, or (for the most part) each things that grow underground (tubers, etc.).

Huge mounds of research show that when we do eat this way, we do not suffer from many of the modern diseases that plague us now - diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and chronic inflammation, to name only a few).

To be honest, I do not eat fully primal or paleo - I do eat cottage cheese and regular cheese, as well as the very occasional grain food and legumes. But my diet is about 75% paleo and my health is excellent. When I want to lean out, I reduce fruits and eliminate all grains, legumes, and cut way back on dairy.

I have chosen to post this here, rather than at IOC, because men tend to fare better on Paleo type diets than women, which I think comes down to hormonal and metabolic differences - my female clients tend (not always, but tend) to need more carbohydrates than male clients. It may also be an adaptation issue - among my female clients, breads and sugars have played a larger role in their dietary history. Still, that's all speculation on my part.

Here are a few articles from Loren Cordain (his site contains an extensive list of peer-reviewed articles on which he was an author), the leading researcher in this field.

Ramsden CE, Faurot KR, Carrera-Bastos, P, Sperling LS, de Lorgeril M, Cordain L. Dietary fat quality and coronary heart disease  prevention: a unified theory based on evolutionary, historical, global and modern perspectives. Curr Treat Options Cardiovasc Med; 2009;11:289-301.

O’Keefe J.H., Cordain L.  Cardiovascular disease as a result of a diet and lifestyle at odds with our Paleolithic genome: how to become a 21st century hunter-gatherer. Mayo Clin Proc; 2004;79:101-108.

Lindeberg S, Cordain L, Eaton B.  Biological and clinical potential of a Palaeolithic diet. J Nutr Environ Med; 2003;13:149-160.

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the possibility that a Palaeolithic diet, i.e. one that corresponds to what was available in any of the ecological niches of pre-agricultural humans (1.5 million–10,000 years BP), is optimal in the prevention of age-related degenerative disease. Design: Literature review. Materials and Methods: Between 1985 and December 2002, more than 200 scientific journals in medicine, nutrition, biology and anthropology were systematically screened for relevant papers. Computer-based searches and studies of reference lists in journals and books provided a vast number of additional papers. Results: Increasing evidence suggests that a Palaeolithic diet based on lean meat, fish, vegetables and fruit may be effective in the prevention and treatment of common Western diseases. Avoiding dairy products, margarine, oils, refined sugar and cereals, which provide 70% or more of the dietary intake in northern European populations, may be advisable. Atherosclerosis is highly dependent on dietary manipulation in animal experiments. Atherogenic dietary factors include fat (any type) and casein, and hypothetically cereals. Stroke, ischaemic heart disease and type 2 diabetes seem largely preventable by way of dietary changes in a Palaeolithic direction. And insulin resistance, which may have far- reaching clinical implications as a cause of unregulated tissue growth, may also respond to an ancestral diet. Conclusions: Lean meat, fish, vegetables and fruit may be optimal, rather than a strictly vegetarian diet, in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and insulin resistance.

Cordain L, Eaton SB, Brand Miller J, Mann N, Hill K.  The paradoxical nature of hunter-gatherer diets: Meat based, yet non-atherogenic. Eur J Clin Nutr; 2002;56 (suppl 1):S42-S52.

Abstract
  
Objective: Field studies of twentieth century hunter-gathers (HG) showed them to be generally free of the signs and symptoms of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Consequently, the characterization of HG diets may have important implications in designing therapeutic diets that reduce the risk for CVD in Westernized societies. Based upon limited ethnographic data (n = 58 HG societies) and a single quantitative dietary study, it has been commonly inferred that gathered plant foods provided the dominant energy source in HG diets. Method and Results: In this review we have analyzed the 13 known quantitative dietary studies of HG and demonstrate that animal food actually provided the dominant (65%) energy source, while gathered plant foods comprised the remainder (35%). This data is consistent with a more recent, comprehensive review of the entire ethnographic data (n = 229 HG societies) that showed the mean subsistence dependence upon gathered plant foods was 32%, whereas it was 68% for animal foods. Other evidence, including isotopic analyses of Paleolithic hominid collagen tissue, reductions in hominid gut size, low activity levels of certain enzymes, and optimal foraging data all point toward a long history of meat-based diets in our species. Because increasing meat consumption in Western diets is frequently associated with increased risk for CVD mortality, it is seemingly paradoxical that HG societies, who consume the majority of their energy from animal food, have been shown to be relatively free of the signs and symptoms of CVD. Conclusion: The high reliance upon animal-based foods would not have necessarily elicited unfavorable blood lipid profiles because of the hypolipidemic effects of high dietary protein (19 –35% energy) and the relatively low level of dietary carbohydrate (22 –40% energy). Although fat intake (28 –58% energy) would have been similar to or higher than that found in Western diets, it is likely that important qualitative differences in fat intake, including relatively high levels of MUFA and PUFA and a lower ?-6/?-3 fatty acid ratio, would have served to inhibit the development of CVD. Other dietary characteristics including high intakes of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins and phytochemicals along with a low salt intake may have operated synergistically with lifestyle characteristics (more exercise, less stress and no smoking) to further deter the development of CVD.

There are clearly good reasons not to consume a meat-based diet (corporate cattle farms and environmental damage not least on the list), including the problem with the fat profile of farmed meat, which is very unhealthy compared to open range and grass-fed beef. We see the same issue in farmed-fish (like salmon) as well.

Still, it's possible to eat paleo and eat with a conscience (sort of - shop at a kosher deli) and eat healthy meat and fish.

Recently, the PaleoFX Conference (Ancestral Momentum - Theory to Practice Symposium) brought together leaders in exercise, nutrition, and research, including Krista Scott-Dixon, who works for John Berardi's Performance Nutrition - Berardi is a leader in exercise nutrition research and praxis.

They posted a three-video series on their view of the paleo approach (they prefer primal). Follow the links to watch the video presentations - be sure to read the post as well.

Paleo for Everyone - Using Change Psychology Instead of Nutritional Dogmatism

• Go watch Part 1 of this presentation.
• Go watch Part 2 of this presentation.
• Go watch Part 3 of this presentation.

Recipe: Apple and Walnut Chicken Meatloaf Muffins

Yeah, that's a mouthful, but it's a tasty mouthful. And it fits with my largely Paleo Diet.

This is adapted from another recipe I posted a few months ago - and I personally like this one better, since it contains many of my favorite things. These are great for a quick snack at work (in the few minutes I have between clients) or for a between meal snack. They are pretty filling.

Ingredients (adjust spices to taste):
2 lbs ground free-range organic chicken (or turkey)
3 free-range eggs (can be only whites, but a little water)
1 cup organic quick oats
1/2 cup organic walnuts finely chopped
2 small organic Fuji apples, finely chopped
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 heaping teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Optional: 2-3 tablespoons of Benefiber to increase fiber content

Mix it all up in a bowl and then spoon it into a greased muffin pan
Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes (my oven is gas, and 35 minutes is good)
Makes 12 nutritious meatloaf muffins

Approximate Nutrition Profile:
1 muffin: 185 calories, 6 grams of fat, 21 grams of protein, 7 grams of carbs, 1.5 grams of fiber (w/o the Benefiber, 2.5-3 with it)

If you prefer a moister meatloaf, you can add a little water. If anyone has a suggestion to increase the moistness without increasing the calories, please leave a note in the comments.

Tags: food, nutrition, health, meatloaf, muffins, chicken, turkey, walnuts, apples, eggs, spices, cinnamon, recipes, Apple and Walnut Chicken Meatloaf Muffins

Start The Day With A Protein-Rich Breakfast To Reduce Food Cravings, Prevent Overeating Later

This has been my approach - since doing so I dropped about 15 lbs of bodyfat and added about 5 lbs of muscle - and when I want to build a little more muscle, I just add a little complex carbs at the mid-day meal.

My standard breakfast is 2 cups of low-fat (2%) cottage cheese with two cups of mixed dark cherries and blueberries (both frozen), and 5 gram of creatine. This totals up to about 750 calories and 56 grams of protein, with a lot healthy antioxidants and some fiber (around 10 grams).

Most days, however, aside from an apple later in the day as a snack (with protein-enriched peanut butter), the carbs from the berries and cherries are the only carbs I eat in the day.

Start The Day With A Protein-Rich Breakfast To Reduce Food Cravings, Prevent Overeating Later

A University of Missouri researcher has found that eating a healthy breakfast, especially one high in protein, increases satiety and reduces hunger throughout the day. In addition, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) the researchers found that eating a protein-rich breakfast reduces the brain signals controlling food motivation and reward-driven eating behavior.

"Everyone knows that eating breakfast is important, but many people still don't make it a priority," said Heather Leidy, assistant professor in the MU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. "This research provides additional evidence that breakfast is a valuable strategy to control appetite and regulate food intake."

In the study, Leidy assessed physiological hunger and satiety by measuring perceived appetite sensations and hormonal markers in combination with psychological reward-driven motivation to eat, using fMRI to identify brain activation in specific regions related to food motivation and reward.

The researchers decided to target 'breakfast-skipping' teens for two reasons, Leidy said. First, breakfast skipping has been strongly associated with unhealthy snacking, overeating (especially at night), weight gain and obesity. Second, approximately 60 percent of adolescents skip breakfast on a daily basis.

For three weeks, the teens either continued to skip breakfast or consumed 500-calorie breakfast meals containing cereal and milk (which contained normal quantities of protein) or higher protein meals prepared as Belgium waffles, syrup and yogurt. At the end of each week, the volunteers completed appetite and satiety questionnaires. Right before lunch, the volunteers completed a brain scan, using fMRI, to identify brain activation responses.

Compared to breakfast skipping, both breakfast meals led to increased fullness and reductions in hunger throughout morning. fMRI results showed that brain activation in regions controlling food motivation and reward was reduced prior to lunch time when breakfast was consumed in the morning. Additionally, the higher protein breakfast led to even greater changes in appetite, satiety and reward-driven eating behavior compared to the normal protein breakfast.

"Incorporating a healthy breakfast containing protein-rich foods can be a simple strategy for people to stay satisfied longer, and therefore, be less prone to snacking," Leidy said. "People reach for convenient snack foods to satisfy their hunger between meals, but these foods are almost always high in sugar and fat and add a substantial amount of calories to the diet. These findings suggest that a protein-rich breakfast might be an effective strategy to improve appetite control and prevent overeating in young people."

Notes:

The article, "Neural Responses to Visual Food Stimuli after a Normal vs. Higher Protein Breakfast in Breakfast-Skipping Teens..." has recently been published online in Obesity. The Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology is a joint effort by MU's College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, College of Human Environmental Sciences, and School of Medicine. Funding for the research was provided by the National Institutes of Health.

Here is the full abstract and citation for this article:

Neural Responses to Visual Food Stimuli After a Normal vs. Higher Protein Breakfast in Breakfast-Skipping Teens: A Pilot fMRI Study.

Leidy HJ, Lepping RJ, Savage CR, Harris CT.

Source

1] Department of Dietetics & Nutrition, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, USA [2] Department of Nutrition & Exercise Physiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.

Abstract

This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) pilot study identified whether breakfast consumption would alter the neural activity in brain regions associated with food motivation and reward in overweight "breakfast skipping" (BS) adolescent girls and examined whether increased protein at breakfast would lead to additional alterations. Ten girls (Age: 15 ± 1 years; BMI percentile 93 ± 1%; BS 5 ± 1×/week) completed 3 testing days. Following the BS day, the participants were provided with, in randomized order, normal protein (NP; 18 ± 1 g protein) or higher protein (HP; 50 ± 1 g protein) breakfast meals to consume at home for 6 days. On day 7 of each pattern, the participants came to the laboratory to consume their respective breakfast followed by appetite questionnaires and an fMRI brain scan to identify brain activation responses to viewing food vs. nonfood images prior to lunch. Breakfast consumption led to enduring (i.e., 3-h post breakfast) reductions in neural activation in the hippocampus, amygdala, cingulate, and parahippocampus vs. BS. HP led to enduring reductions in insula and middle prefrontal cortex activation vs. NP. Hippocampal, amygdala, cingulate, and insular activations were correlated with appetite and inversely correlated with satiety. In summary, the addition of breakfast led to alterations in brain activation in regions previously associated with food motivation and reward with additional alterations following the higher-protein breakfast. These data suggest that increased dietary protein at breakfast might be a beneficial strategy to reduce reward-driven eating behavior in overweight teen girls. Due to the small sample size, caution is warranted when interpreting these preliminary findings.

Citation:
Leidy HJ, Lepping RJ, Savage CR, Harris CT. (2011, May 5). Neural Responses to Visual Food Stimuli After a Normal vs. Higher Protein Breakfast in Breakfast-Skipping Teens: A Pilot fMRI Study. Obesity, Volume 19, Issue 6 [Epub ahead of print].

Tags: nutrition, health, food, brain, Heather Leidy, fMRI, brain scans, Start The Day, Protein-Rich, Breakfast, Reduce Food Cravings, Prevent Overeating, brain signals, control, food motivation, reward-driven, eating, behavior

Seth Roberts Speaks w/ Patrick Vlaskovits of PaleoHacks about the Popularity of the Paleo Diet

Here is a follow-up to yesterday's post on the paleo diet - Seth Roberts at his Psychology Today blog (Personal Science) spoke with Patrick Vlaskovits, who blogs at PaleoHacks, about the recent increase in attention on the paleo eating style.

The Growth of Paleo: Patrick Vlaskovits Interview

Why is paleo growing? I asked the CEO of Paleohacks.

By Seth Roberts
Published on April 5, 2011

I wondered if Patrick Vlaskovits, who runs the question-answer site PaleoHacks, could shed some light on the recent growth of interest in a Paleo approach to health. So I asked him a few questions.

SETH What have you learned from PaleoHacks about the growth of the Paleo movement during the last year?

PATRICK Well, one thing is certain ... the Paleo movement IS growing. One can look at various proxies for this - Google Trends - for example - http://www.google.com/trends?q=paleo+diet - or more frequent mentions in the mainstream media. But your question is about what I have learned from PaleoHacks.com with regard to growth. PaleoHacks.com's traffic is definitely growing and my sense is that Paleo (by that I mean eating in an evolutionarily appropriate manner) is about to cross the chasm into the mainstream.

A few interesting measures of growth vis-a-vis PaleoHacks are:

1) The increasing frequency of meta-discussions on PaleoHacks -people who have been eating Paleo for some time are now looking to the future about what it means to be "Paleo" and how long-time Paleo eaters are changing their Paleo diets. This is, IMO, is a good thing as Keynes said: "When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, sir?" We are learning more about how our health changes after some time eating Paleo - and what needs to be fine-tuned when it comes to things like bacterial/gut health (probably the most important thing to worry about) and hormonal changes relative to our environment, e.g. cortisol levels increasing due to lack of sleep which can result in unwanted/unhealthy weight gain or weight loss.

2) More people are blogging about Paleo and also more people are trying to monetize Paleo and I see them on PaleoHacks. (For the record, I have no problem with anyone trying to monetize Paleo as long as they are responsible about it as I feel that anyone monetizing Paleo should also be a good steward of Paleo.)

SETH How much has PaleoHacks traffic grown over the last year?

PATRICK Short answer: A lot. Longer answer: Depends on which metric you use - but still a lot. Ranges from 6x to 8x YOY increase in visits, uniques and page-views. Currently, PaleoHacks gets +500k page-views a month. [I double-checked my internal stats with public information on Compete.com & Quantcast - and it looks like they undercount (BTW this is a well-known and hotly debated topic).]

SETH What do you think is causing such fast growth? The broad idea is really old. Even the details are old - Weston Price wrote in the 1930s, for example. The Weston Price Foundation, which was started many years ago, is growing much more slowly.

PATRICK Cutting to the chase: no idea. Some thoughts:

Paleo's growth appears highly correlated with CrossFit - but what has caused CrossFit's growth? Not sure. It too has been around a while.

Social media have certainly accelerated/lubricated Paleo's growth but I don't if social media actually *caused* Paleo's growth. What causes memes like Paleo to spark, and then die out or go dormant and then spark again to grow into a raging wildfire? I wish I knew.

Getting a little meta and perhaps off-topic - my assumption is that is true for most "Big Ideas". We rarely recognize or know of their true "discovery" because for-whatever-reason the implications are not fully, if at all, appreciated at the time of discovery. For example, I believe this was the case with penicillin. A French medical student discovered it 1896, Fleming re-discovered it in 1928 and then it lay around until 1939 when Florey fully appreciated it.

I certainly didn't put two and two together when I read Why We Get Sick back in 2000-ish. I thought it a fantastic book (and still do)- but I didn't think of applying the evolutionary lens to diet/nutrition, even though in retrospect, it seems obvious.

Tags: paleo diet, health, nutrition, food, Seth Roberts, Patrick Vlaskovits, PaleoHacks, Popularity, caveman diet, paleolithic, Psychology Today, Personal Science

GOOD Asks the Experts: Is The "Paleolithic Diet" Really Better?

GOOD Magazine asked four presumed experts (none of them are nutritionists or epidemiologists) about the Paleo Diet craze that seems to be sweeping gyms around the country. I'm not sure why this diet has hit the mainstream all of a sudden - Loren Cordain published his The Paleo Diet book a decade ago, and in the last two years there have been a lot of knock-offs:

• The Evolution Diet: All-Natural and Allergy Free
• The New Evolution Diet: What Our Paleolithic Ancestors Can Teach Us about Weight Loss, Fitness, and Aging
• Everyday Paleo
• The Fat Caveman Dies: Fat Loss Secrets, Myths, and the Paleolithic Diet
• NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body

I don't know about the rest of these books, but Cordain (Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University) was publishing peer reviewed articles (some links at the bottom of this post) in support of his nutritional approach leading up to and after the appearance of his book.

According to what reads as a balanced and well-researched Wikipedia article, the paleo diet approach actually dates back to the 1970s (Voegtlin, Walter L. [1975]: The stone age diet: Based on in-depth studies of human ecology and the diet of man. Vantage Press) - and although he is not mentioned, the late Dr. Atkins was using this basic approach in his Atkins Diet. Here is the history up to the late 1990s.

Gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin was one of the first to suggest that following a diet similar to that of the Paleolithic era would improve a person's health.^[6] In 1975, he published a book^[5] in which he argued that humans are carnivorous animals and that the ancestral Paleolithic diet was that of a carnivore—chiefly fats and protein, with only small amounts of carbohydrates.^[26][27] His dietary prescriptions were based on his own medical treatments of various digestive problems, namely colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome and indigestion.^[5][28]

In 1985, S. Boyd Eaton and Melvin Konner, both of Emory University, published a key paper on Paleolithic nutrition in the New England Journal of Medicine,^[29] which allowed the dietary concept to gain mainstream medical recognition.^[30] Three years later, S. Boyd Eaton, Marjorie Shostak and Melvin Konner published a book about this nutritional approach,^[31] which was based on achieving the same proportions of nutrients (fat, protein, and carbohydrates, as well as vitamins and minerals) as were present in the diets of late Paleolithic people, not on excluding foods that were not available before the development of agriculture. As such, this nutritional approach included skimmed milk, whole-grain bread, brown rice, and potatoes prepared without fat, on the premise that such foods supported a diet with the same macronutrient composition as the Paleolithic diet.^[26][32][33] In 1989, these authors published a second book on Paleolithic nutrition.^[34][35]

Starting in 1989, Swedish medical doctor and scientist Staffan Lindeberg, now associate professor at Lund University, Sweden, led scientific surveys of the non-westernized population on Kitava, one of the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea. These surveys, collectively referred to as the Kitava Study, found that this population apparently did not suffer from stroke, ischemic heart disease, diabetes, obesity or hypertension. Starting with the first publication in 1993,^[36] the Kitava Study has subsequently generated a number of scientific publications on the relationship between diet and western disease.^[37] In 2003, Lindeberg published a Swedish language medical textbook on the subject.^[38] In 2010, this book was wholly revised, updated and published for the first time in English. The 2010 book^[39] is geared towards both professionals and interested laypeople alike, cites more than 2000 references, and provides a comprehensive resource for the scientific foundation for the Paleolithic diet and the relationship between what humans eat and western diseases.

Since the end of the 1990s, a number of medical doctors and nutritionists^[40][41][42] have advocated a return to a so-called Paleolithic (preagricultural) diet.^[7] Proponents of this nutritional approach have published books^[28][43][44] and created websites^[45][46] to promote their dietary prescriptions.^{[47][48][49][50][51]} They have synthesized diets from modern foods that emulate nutritional characteristics of the ancient Paleolithic diet, some of which allow specific foods that would have been unavailable to pre-agricultural peoples, such as certain animal products (i.e. dairy), processed oils, and beverages.^[28][52][53]

While the accuracy of the notion most of these authors hold about what paleolithic people ate (which part of the paleolithic, early? middle? late? and on which continent?) is certainly questionable, the health benefits of eliminating most of the food stuffs added to our diet over the last 10,000 (essentially refined grains and dairy) is not really questionable.

One of the arguments against a paleo approach is that there is no evidence that eating this way increased the life span of our ancestors, who tended to die much younger than we do today. But this is a red herring - they died younger because of the lack of modern medicine to fight and cure many diseases that no longer plague us. Furthermore, they did not suffer during their shorter lifespans from the diseases of affluence that afflict us now (for example, obesity, high blood pressure, nonobstructive coronary atherosclerosis, and insulin resistance/diabetes, not to mention smoking, alcohol, and motor vehicle deaths).

Anyway, I am an advocate of the diet, so I have done my research and found that I feel stronger and have more energy than when I eat grains (I do make exceptions in eating Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, and some hard cheeses).

Here is the beginning of the GOOD article:

GOOD Asks the Experts: Is The "Paleolithic Diet" Really Better?

Peter Smith, Writer and editor
March 16, 2011

Since the beginning of civilization, humans have longed to return to a more primitive, simpler way of life. As soon as we had cities, we told stories about escaping them. The concept of the Appalachian Trail, organic agriculture, and Slow Food all arose from a dissatisfaction with technological advances. Now, as it becomes clearer and clearer that the "diseases of affluence"—obesity, diabetes, heart disease—are intrinsically linked to a modern diet and a sedentary way of life, it's time to consider a radical future for food.

What if that future involves going back in time—before the discovery of petroleum, before processed foods, and even before we cultivated starchy carbohydrates in what we now call agriculture? In the decades that followed S. Boyd Eaton's publication of "Paleolithic Nutrition" in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1985, the "paleo diet" has been touted as a solution to our modern ills.

Before we turn back the clock, let’s take a look at what it meant to eat like an early hominin. In the two and half million years since the dawn of the Paleolithic period, our ancestors evolved bigger brains, which required dietary changes and probably required cooking, as Richard Wrangham persuasively argues in his book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Evolution shaped our digestive system: We have a voluminous small intestine and a short lower gut adapted to make better use of meats and cooked or processed grains. Mutations allow us to produce lactase so we can drink mammary fluids (and eat cheeses) beyond infancy. We're more resistant to certain damaging compounds created when food is heated and poorly equipped to resist toxins found in raw meats.

Still, questions remain: Was eating during the Paleolithic period really healthier than the modern human diet? Or is the problem with highly processed, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods? In other words, is the “paleo diet” especially healthy, or is our current diet just especially bad? To find out, I spoke with four experts for a scholarly, historical taste test of the Paleolithic diet.

Bill Leonard is an anthropologist at Northwestern University who studies physiology and nutrition in ancient humans and traditional cultures alive today. His latest paper looks at evolutionary patterns in diet and activity to understand modern health problems.

Peter Ungar is an evolutionary biologist and paleoanthropoligist at the University of Arkansas who reconstructs ancestral diets using dental morphology and microwear. His latest book is called Mammal Teeth.

Amanda Henry is a paleobiologist studying the evolution of the human diet at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Her latest research examined plant microfossils in Neanderthal teeth for evidence of cooking.

Katharine Milton is a physical anthropologist who studies the dietary ecology of primates at the University of California at Berkeley. She has published numerous papers on modern and ancient human diets.

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Here are a few sample articles from Loren Cordain's website - there are a huge collection available for download as PDFs for personal use (45 articles total).

• Eaton, S.B., Cordain, L. Old genes, new fuels: Nutritional changes since agriculture. World Rev Nutr Diet, 1997; 81:26-37.
• Cordain L. Cereal grains: humanity’s double edged sword. World Rev Nutr Diet, 1999; 84:19-73.
• Cordain L. The nutritional characteristics of a contemporary diet based upon Paleolithic food groups. J Am Nutraceut Assoc, 2002; 5:15-24.
• Lindeberg S, Cordain L, and Eaton SB. Biological and clinical potential of a Paleolithic diet. J Nutri Environ Med, 2003; 13(3):149-160.
• Ramsden CE, Faurot KR, Carrera-Bastos, P, Sperling LS, de Lorgeril M, Cordain L. Dietary fat quality and coronary heart disease prevention: a unified theory based on evolutionary, historical, global and modern perspectives. Curr Treat Options Cardiovasc Med; 2009;11:289-301.

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