When we discuss Paleo eating, are we discussing our common ancestors in Africa? Anybody? I have no idea.
I have noticed with myself that carbs coming from any color veggie except white (with the exception of cauliflower), brown GABA rice, and sprouted lentils have not made any impact my weight. However, anything with sugar, no matter whether it's fruit juice or a vegan cookie, these things do have a negative impact. I also feel sluggish.
Here's an interesting article about microflora and health.
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/08/03/gut-bacteria-reflect-dietary-differences
Excerpt:
Children from Burkina Faso, who ate millet grain, sorghum wheat, legumes and vegetables, had high numbers of bacteria that digest plant fibers. Also found in the guts of termites [which these children eat], these bacteria break down fibers that humans typically can’t. The bacteria make short-chain fatty acids that give people energy and protect them from inflammatory gut diseases such as Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel disorder.
Burkina Faso's children also had decreased numbers of diarrhea-causing bacteria compared with children from Italy. That finding surprised the team, because the African children often drank water polluted with such bacteria.
“The notion that gut flora plays a role in human health has been marginally ignored,” says evolutionary nutritionist Loren Cordain of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, who was not involved with this study. “What we’ve found over the past five or 10 years is that it plays a huge role in our health and well being.”
This is a story, that for me, really drives home that there is no one-size-fits all diet. However, if the microbes and enzymes are in the people, and there's no genetic issue, people can adapt to any diet (sans the sugar, franken food, and factory farming, and GMO crap).
I have a couple theories that will never be proven:
My theory of how early man was able to eat foods with phytic acid and not have it block minerals: our early selves had the phytase enzyme.
My theory of how early man was able to convert ALA from nuts to DHA: healthy levels of the enzyme that does this conversion. Also, no sugar and high levels of Omega 6 to thwart the effort.
The issue is that the same enzymes that convert ALA, also convert LA into its long chain metabolite known as arachidonic acid (AA 20:4ω-6). Given this scenario it is understandable that diets high in omega6 fatty acids can influence, and in reality reduce, the conversion of short chain omega3 fatty acid into its long chain metabolites. http://www.azchia.com/ala_conversion_epa_dpa_dha.htmYou might be aware that a few studies have shown that we convert 0.5% up to 9% - 13%, women doing better than men. I doubt it's estrogen related as some scientists hypothesized. I think it's because women tend to eat healthier than men.
I would love to have the money to check the gut microbes in any healthy long term vegan. It would explain a lot, I think.
It's expensive, I bet. A comprehensive nutritional test my mother had, including her Krebs cycle, was $1400.00. It didn't check her intestinal microbes. All it did was just let us know that she needs more pancreatic enzymes among other things. The MD/ND also told us that we need to rotate our probiotics and change brands every 2 months because we get used certain strains and they are not effective.
