Re: Anthropological Research Reveals Human Dietary Requirements for Optimal Health


"Picasso" <sunt_eu_picasso@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Dec 29, 2:59 pm, "Tree Sparrow" <TreeSpar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Picasso" <sunt_eu_pica...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

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On Dec 26, 4:26 pm, "Tree Sparrow" <TreeSpar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





> "Tree Sparrow" <TreeSpar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

>news:5t742jF1bvd7sU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> > "Picasso" <sunt_eu_pica...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >news:071f2cc6-8f8b-4918-89ff-a453f80e8d74@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> >> Anthropological Research Reveals Human
> >> Dietary Requirements for Optimal Health
> >> H. Leon Abrams, Jr., MA, EDS
> >> Associate Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, ECJC,
> >> University System of Georgia, Swainsboro, Georgia.

> >> Journal of Applied Nutrition, 1982, 16:1:38-45
> >> Reprinted with permission of the author.

> > A 25 year old selective sweep of older work, some over 50 years old.

> > Knowledge has moved on since then.

> > One example:

> >http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19526215.100-starch...

> Another example:

> American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 78, No. 3, 502S-507S,
> September
> 2003
> The contribution of vegetarian diets to health and disease: a paradigm
> shift?

> Excerpt:

> A new paradigm is emerging. For the past 10-20 y, epidemiologic,
> clinical,
> and basic science research on the health effects of several plant foods
> is
> greatly expanding scientists' understanding of the role these foods have
> on
> human health and nutrition. Antioxidants, abundantly present in plant
> foods,
> have been postulated to prevent cardiovascular disease and certain
> cancers
> (53-55). Anticarcinogenic properties have been described for a myriad of
> substances present mainly in fruits, vegetables, and other plant foods
> (56,
> 57).

> Plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole
> grains,
> provide active substances on which human metabolism is dependent.
> However,
> only a few of those to date have been labeled as "essential nutrients."
> Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of not only vitamins, such as
> carotenoids, ascorbic acid, tocopherols, and folic acid, but also fiber,
> indoles, thiocyanates, cumarins, phenols, flavonoids, terpenes, protease
> inhibitors, plant sterols, and a host of other yet unknown and unnamed
> phytochemicals and nonnutrient compounds that may protect humans from
> many
> cancers and other diseases (57, 58).

> Consequently, the increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease
> experienced by populations following diets largely based on animal
> foods,
> as
> opposed to vegetarians, may be due to not only an excess of energy,
> total
> and saturated fat, and other nutrients, but also a deficiency or very
> marginal intake of phytochemicals and other compounds abundant in plant
> foods but not yet labeled as nutrients. Accordingly, even though
> deviating
> from the classic definition of deficiency, chronic-degenerative diseases
> may
> also be considered as deficiency diseases, in addition to diseases of
> excess. Therefore, the overall contribution of diets largely based on
> animal
> foods to the causation of human diseases from excess, unbalance, and
> deficiency of nutrients or other food compounds appears to be noticeably
> different from earlier estimates.

> Figure 3 presents the proposed model that tries to capture the new
> understanding of the role of vegetarian and meat-based diets in human
> health
> and disease in affluent societies. In this new model, the relative
> contribution to the causation and prevention of diseases for excess or
> deficiency is clearly unequal for the 2 contrasted diets, with a more
> favorable risk-to-benefit ratio for the vegetarian diet. Corresponding
> to
> previous models, the total area under each diet pattern curve is the
> same,
> but the shape of the 2 curves varies considerably. The expanded area of
> risk
> of deficiency under the meat-based diet curve reflects the risk of
> diseases
> largely attributed to "phytochemical deficiency" because of the marginal
> intake of plant foods on this diet pattern. In affluent societies, this
> model considers the risk of "phytochemical deficiency" diseases-namely,
> an
> unknown proportion of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other
> degenerative diseases-among those following a meat-based diet to be
> greater
> than the risk of the classic acute nutrient deficiency diseases for
> vegetarians. In conclusion, recent scientific advances seem to have
> resulted
> in a paradigm shift: diets largely based on plant foods, such as
> well-balanced vegetarian diets, are viewed more as improving health than
> as
> causing disease, in contrast with meat-based diets.- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -
>How do they define "meat-based diets"?

Perhaps diets based on meat.

> Also, "diets largely based on
>plants" does not equate to vegetarian.

The quoted example of a plant based diet is a "well-balanced vegetarian
diet"

>A plant-based diet is fine,
>probably optimal but vegetarian, especially vegan is most definitely
>not.

Is that an opinion based on *recent* scientific evidence?

Please answer the question.




>The longest lived people do not follow vegetarian diets. Perhaps
>you've heard of the Okinawans? Diets that include the regular
>consumption of fish seems to promote health and longevity. I'm sure
>you've heard of the Okinawan Study. Look it up!

Another logical fallacy. - Because some long lived people eat fish, it
does
not logically follow that to live longer you need to eat fish.

There are many factors of long life found in the "Okinawa Centenarian
Study".

To quote fromhttp://www.okicent.org/study.html"Their healthy arteries
appear to be in large part due to their lifestyle: diet, regular exercise,
moderate alcohol use, avoidance of smoking, blood pressure control, and a
stress-minimizing psychospiritual outlook. However, there are also
potential
genetic aspects such as lower fibrinogen levels possibly due to
differences
in fibrinogen-related genes."

"Okinawans are at extremely low risk for hormone-dependent cancers
including
cancers of the breast, prostate, ovaries, and colon. Compared to North
Americans, they have 80% less breast cancer and prostate cancer, and less
than half the ovarian and colon cancers. Some of the most important
factors
that may protect against those cancers include low caloric intake, high
vegetables/fruits consumption, higher intake of good fats (omega-3,
mono-unsaturated fat), high fiber diet, high flavonoid intake, low body
fat
level, and high level of physical activity."

Seehttp://www.okinawaprogram.com/okinawa_diet/food_pyramid.htmlNote that
for meat it states 0-7 servings. - That means that meat, poulty and eggs
are
not essential, as recommended by the study you quoted.

BTW good fats, including omega 3 can be derived from non animal sources.-
Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Unfortunately with studies such as this one is that vegetarians
immediately jump to the conclusion that if some fruits and vegetables
in the diet are good for you then a diet of nothing but plant foods is
optimal. Now there's a logical fallacy if you ever saw one.

I'm not the one making the claims. You posted a selective out of date
'study' and seem unable to defend it, in any comprehensible way.


Unfortunately for vegetarians the real-life experiences show that
plant-based diets that includes meat produce healthier longer-lived
people. You can look at the centenarian studies done in the USA or
even the studies done comparing Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons,
the SDA group representing the non-smoking, non-drinking vegetarian
group while the Mormons served to represent the non-smoking, non-
drinking non-vegetarian group. A very good comparison. There were
significantly fewer incidences of deaths from heart disease in the
Mormon group.

Provide a citation.

South Indians (vegetarian) were compared with their North Indian
countrymen. The Northerners, who consume meat, live longer lives than
the vegetarians from the south.

Provide a citation.

I remember reading an article at the BBC website where a study was
cited comparing longevity amongst three diet groups; vegans,
vegetarians and meat-eaters. By "meat-eaters" I'm not talking about
about Atkins type dieters but rather plant-based diets that included
meat. The longest lived were the meat-eaters. Second were the
vegetarians and a distant third were the vegans.

Provide a citation. I'd rather read it myself than answer something that may
be a figment of your imagination.

I had a quick look and stumbled across this that I thought you'd like.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6180753.stm

One last thing regarding the Okinawans, they tend not to eat to point
of bursting. They finish a meal feeling 80% full (according to the
Okinawan Study).

As I quoted above "Some of the most important factors that may protect
against those cancers include *low caloric intake*, high vegetables/fruits
consumption, higher intake of good fats (omega-3, mono-unsaturated fat),
high fiber diet, high flavonoid intake, low body fat level, and high level
of physical activity."


P

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