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You know, I’ve never seen a study claim that fish or shellfish are unhealthy, barring mercury contamination. Yet Vegetarians still insist they live longer for not eating it. This is a lie, as several lifestyle adjusted studies show people who eat a lot of fish live longest of all. No studies ever show hunter gatherers as having a high rate of cancer or heart disease, and several groups eat non stop meat
I’m sure vegetarians have some bizarre image of humans throughout our evolution eating only nuts, grains, fruits and starchy roots. We ate no grain for a large part of our evolution, as grains require a lot of processing before we can eat them, and I don’t think homo erectus was known for owning querns. There’s a lot of evidence we ate… a lot of meat, fish, nuts, seeds, small fruits like berries, green vegetables, and some starchy roots. The meat/fish consumption of UK hunter gatherers was as much as 70% of their calories in the stone age. (Trent woman). Sugar and grain were not in evidence, and most hunter gatherer groups known in modern times ate naff all in the way of grains. Bulk carbs and big sugary fruits are a product of our very recent foray into agriculture, and a lot of us don’t handle a farmers diet well. About 40% of us, in the UK. My own metabolic quirks, like a ruthlessly high requirement for animal purines, and insulin resistance, are markers for a hunting ancestry not farming, very Mesolithic. Anyone who’s ever done a survival course in the woods will tell you, carbs are a rarity. There’s plenty of bunnies and green veg though.
This might be a more practical move by politicians, as the planet is over populated right now, and you couldn’t feed everyone the optimum diet if you wanted to. I also suspect the medical authorities that advise the American population would get sued blind if they reversed their guidelines. they’ve also built their reputations on ‘fat is bad’. PETA was have a fit, as would all those other vegetarian groups. All those companies that make low-fat food and the diet industry would go bankrupt, and the pharmaceutical companies make billions off diseases caused by our diet. I’m never really one for conspiracy theories, but this one has probably got some truth to it.
greatpost!!! just found your blog…catching up!
YAY MATHILDA!!!!
On a more serious note, how do you correct for dietary impact on bone measurements – bad diets reduce skeletal quality and decrease things like the breadth of the face and change the dental arch. If those features are important in classification must you assume that all the samples were from people eating the same diets or can you adjust?