I know that my "GI system" is very sensitive - any little thing can set off problems, so I am very careful about cleanliness and what I eat. Most such studies I've seen look for markers after a few weeks or a couple of months. Keep in mind that I'm not arguing against a meat-rich diet. If you can find high-quality meat (I've seen investigations of supermarkets where they relabel expired meat, for example), then freeze it for a couple of weeks, then cut it up and heat it up on low in a sauce rich in herbs and spices, that seems like it would be much healthier than the "typical American" diet, even if it were low in "carbs," generally-speaking.
However, that is not the way meat is usually eaten these days, and that is not the way meat was eaten until very recently in human history (a few hundred years ago, it was common to put a piece of meat in a fire for a short period time, while other groups of people were still eating it raw (for example, descriptions of native "Eskimo" type peoples by the English explorers). Considering the potential dangers, the cost, the difficulty getting fresh meat and "preparing" it after freezing, I can't say that is what I would consider a "practical" diet, which I do consider mine to be.
Some things to note about a "high carb" diet that is not true of mine (unlike typical "high carb" diets):
My beverages have no calories.
My diet is antioxidant-rich and PUFA-poor.
There is ample fat, but mostly saturated fatty acids.
I only eat three times a day, separated by at least 3.5 hours and with no calorie intake between meals.
My calorie intake is well below average for the "typical American."
I take nutritional yeast in small amounts with each meal (it's rich in B vitamins, but not very rich in folic acid) to avoid the potential problem of flour "fortified" with folic acid (I also take B12 specifically once in a while). It also contains chromium.
I take a little copper each day.
I take magnesium and calcium citrate each day.
For the last few months, I've been eating several bran flakes with each meal.
I eat a little pickled (fermented) cabbage with each meal.
Little or no oxidized cholesterol is consumed.
Small amounts of gelatin are consumed each day.
Now, obviously, there may be other things that don't come to mind right now, but my point is that I'm trying to control for many factors that appear to be significant (long term). Once this is done, studies should be conducted, comparing overall mortality on one diet versus overall mortality on another. Several different animals should be used (dogs, rats, etc.), and if one diet is better than all others with all the animal species, that is likely to be best for humans too. This kind of experiment should have been done long ago, because it would not be very expensive, and this should form the "foundation" of a more useful nutritional science.
We don't have the "luxury" of waiting for scientists to make a definitive statement on diet - we have to eat now. We must make decisions, and what we have is the experimental data that exists and our human reason. I was taught in grad. school not to make "strong" statements if the issue was at all unclear, but after years of nutritional research, there is only one way of viewing the evidence that makes sense, and so that is why I created this site. Interestingly, the kind of experiments I'd like to see where being done in the early days of "nutritional science," for example:
QUOTE: ...This truth will probably be best appreciated by a reference to an experiment carried out in my laboratory some years ago, with the object of determining the relative values of certain national diets of India: Albino rats were employed in this test. The cycle of development in the rat takes place about thirty times as quickly as in man, so that the experiment about to be described, which lasted 140 days, would correspond to the observation of human beings, under the same experimental conditions, for a period of nearly twelve years. Seven groups of twenty young rats, of the same age, sex-distribution and bodyweight, were confined in large, roomy cages under precisely similar conditions of life. To one group the diet as prepared and cooked by the Sikhs, was given; to another that of the Pathans; to a third that of the Mahrattas; and so on through Goorkhas, Bengalis, and Kanarese to Madrassis. The results on the eightieth day of the experiment are shown in Fig. 1; from which it will be seen that the various diets ranged themselves in the following descending order of nutritive value: Sikh, Pathan, Maharatta, Goorkha, Kanarese, Bengali and Madrassi. At the end of 140 days the animals in each group were weighed and an average taken of their aggregate weight. The rat which conformed most closely to the average for its particular group was photographed side by side with the average rats from other groups. The photograph shown in Fig. 1 is the result. From it we see that it conforms to the results of observations made in man himself. In brief, the best diet--that of the Sikhs--contains in abundance every element and complex needed for normal nutrition, the worst diet--that of the Madrassi--has many faults: it is excessively rich in carbohydrates, and deficient in suitable protein, mineral salts and vitamins. Presently we shall see that this difference in the nutritive value of these diets is reflected in the diseases from which the people of the north and south of India suffer... UNQUOTE.
The following passage makes clear the kind of diet considered best by this researcher:
QUOTE: In general the races of northern India are wheat-eaters, though they make use also of certain other whole cereal grains. Now the biological value of the proteins of whole wheat is relatively high; and the wheat is eaten whole, after being freshly ground into a coarse flour (atta) and made into cakes called chapattis. It thus preserves all the nutrients with which Nature has endowed it, particularly its proteins, its vitamins and its mineral salts. The second most important ingredient of their diet is milk, and the products of milk (clarified butter or ghee, curds, buttermilk; the third is dhal (pulse); the fourth, vegetables and fruit. Some eat meat sparingly, if at all... UNQUOTE.
SOURCE: THE CANTOR LECTURES
delivered before
The Royal Society of Arts
1936
by
MAJOR-GENERAL
SIR ROBERT McCARRISON
C.I.E., M.D.; D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.C.P. |
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