Transcript Diets
Present Diets Compared With the Paleolithic Diet Focusing on Weight Watchers and The Atkins Diet Paleolithic Diet – What is it? • Humans are omnivores, adapted to eat animals and vegetables. • Inuits in Alaska ate 90% meat Australian Aboriginals ate 90% plants • On average, up to 35% of the diet was meat • Only wild game What is it, Specifically • Our ancestors ate 1000’s of the millions of species of plants and animals • There is evidence of fishing communities around the Nile, who mainly fished for food. They also ate hippos and crocodiles. • Most ate nuts, seeds, oil-bearing fruits, some grasses, berries, tree fruits, bird eggs, insects, and mice, bison Why Was it so Healthy? • Wild meat contains mixtures of fats that are good for you. • Healthy amount of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes are obtained from raw plant and small animal foods. • Even though they lacked dairy products, they still had more calcium in their diets than Westerners do. Why Was it so Healthy Con’t Paleolithic Current US Ratio Calcium 1622 920 1.8 Iron 87.4 10.5 8.3 10500 2500 4.2 Vitamin A 17.2 7.8 2.2 Vitamin E 32.8 8.5 3.9 Potassiu m Weight Watchers Diet • The Weight Watchers Diet believes that “a healthy body results from a healthy lifestyle; which mean mental, emotional, and physical health.” • No counting calories • Exercise whenever possible (even if it’s just parking farther from your destination and walking) Weight Watchers - Food • • • You need to eat food from all food groups. fruits and vegetables grains and starches lean meats fish poultry eggs dairy products Basically this diet is made up of a healthy balance of all the food groups, including deserts. It is also focused on proportions. Now We Compare • It is safe to say that it is much like the Paleolithic diet. • If we assume that the Paleolithic diet is the most healthy and productive form of diet, then we can also say that Weight Watchers ‘should’ work. • Why? Because it has a balance of all the things that our ancestors would have eaten (everything!) • It is important that this diet does not completely rid of deserts, since sugar is understandably something we crave. • The fact that they limit proportions is important because in the EEA, we did not have an unlimited supply of food. • It also puts a strong emphasis on physical activity, which was obviously huge in cave man life. Atkins Diet • Disgusting… • Based on the theory that “our bodies burn both fat and carbohydrates for energy, but carbs are used first. By drastically reducing carbs and eating more protein and fat, our bodies naturally lose weight by burning stored body fat more efficiently. Atkins Diet - Food • This chart is for the first 2 weeks of the diet. After that, you can add in (in small proportions) fruit, vegetables, and whole-grain foods. Now We Compare • In the EEA, we didn’t have saturated fatty food like we do today. Most of our food was very low in fat, especially since we ate wild game. • One of our main sources of food in the EEA isn’t allowed for the first two weeks of this diet! So Why Does it Work? • People claim it reduces their appetite. Why? • Guenther Boden at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia found that people on the diet reduced their caloric intake by 1000 calories a day, even though they were allowed to eat as many calories a day as they wanted to. Why? Real Reson People Lose Weight on the Atkins Diet: Because they eat less! (and because it’s disgusting) Conclusion • Weight Watchers is the closest of the two diets compared to the Paleolithic diet, which is a good reason for why it works. • Atkins Diet is far from the Paleolithic diet except the fact that people eat less while on it. Thank you!