Monday, February 07, 2011

Should You Eat like a Caveman?

By JENNIFER PINKOWSKI Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011


Prehistoric mammoth hunters using bows and arrows. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration.
North Wind Picture Archives / AP Images
Most New Year's resolutions have an awfully short shelf life. By the end of January, folks who swore they would lose weight and shape up may already be back on the Krispy Kremes. But that's not entirely our fault, claims Arthur De Vany, a former economics professor at the University of California, Irvine. In his new book, The New Evolution Diet, De Vany argues if we really want to get fit, we should follow the lead of our ancient ancestors, Paleolithic humans who lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers some 40,000 years ago.
For more than 25 years, De Vany has been an advocate of what he calls "evolutionary fitness": a regimen of low-carb eating and interval- or cross-training workouts (with periodic fasting) aimed at controlling insulin. But he has also become the grandfather of the growing Paleo movement, a health philosophy built around the belief that modern life — dating from the advent of agriculture 10,000 years ago — is simply alien to our genes. Believers say that only by returning to a diet of wild game and fresh produce, eliminating grains and dairy, and exercising in short, intense bursts, can we thrive in a world of escalators and cheese fries.(See 10 new diet books for 2011.)/.../


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2044343-1,00.html#ixzz1DIGMEj7C

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