'Paleo' websites and blogs

'Paleo' is a shortened form of the word 'paleolithic', and in common usage refers to the Stone Age, what I tend to think of as the time of our ancestors, the Cavemen and Cavewomen. My website and my blog are not paleo sites, but they do have some points in common. This is because more and more paleo sites are specifically about the benefits of eating a 'paleo diet', i.e. food believed to be similar to what the cave people ate, since our species evolved eating this sort of food, and logically it would seem to be the sort of food best suited for our health.

As you may realise, I favour avoiding added salt and eating fresh food, rather than processed food, these being my main recommendations. I am sure that these measures are of great benefit to our health. Most paleo sites recommend other measures too, like avoiding grains, e.g. wheat, because grains came to be eaten when our ancestors stopped being purely hunter-gatherers and widened their food intake by cultivating plants and growing cereals - becoming farmers, in fact.

If you browse the internet you will find that paleo sites can differ quite a lot from one another, and by no means all embrace the no added salt emphasis which is my strongest recommendation. But I am sure that all efforts to eat as 'natural' a diet as we reasonably can, must improve our health.

Dawn Page awarded £810,000 damages for diet advisor's harmful advice that lead to water intoxication and brain damage.

Hydration Diet woman awarded £810,000 damages
Article in the Independent

Extract:

"A woman who was left brain damaged and epileptic after going on a radical diet has been awarded more than £800,000 damages at the High Court.

Dawn Page, 52, who has two children, was told to drink an extra four pints of water daily and cut salt intake to prevent fluid retention and lose weight. But within days of going on the Amazing Hydration Diet she was vomiting uncontrollably and suffered an epileptic fit.

Mrs Page of Faringdon, Wiltshire, was admitted to intensive care, but has been left suffering from epilepsy and a "cognitive deficit" which has affected her memory, concentration and ability to speak normally.

Mrs Page was forced to quit her job, suffers frequent mood swings, and has relied on her husband, Geoff, 54, for help ever since.

Mrs Page secured a £810,000 payout last week from her nutritionist's insurer after a six-year legal battle. Barbara Nash, who refers to herself as a "nutritional therapist and life coach", denies any fault. The High Court in London ratified the settlement without mention of liability."

The 'nutritionist' should not have advised drinking all that extra water...)o: Antony Andrews, the actor, drank litres of water during a theatre performance years ago and collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital with water poisoning. He'd been influenced by that widespread stupid advice to drink lots of water...)o:

Symptoms of water poisoning include lightheadedness, vomiting, headache, nausea and unresponsiveness. It is clearly dangerous folly to tell someone that vomiting is fine and is "part of the detox process". BBC2 had a programme a year or two ago which found definitively that there is no need for, or benefit from, 'detoxing'.

Then there was that woman who died from water poisoning in a radio competition in Sacramento - http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/catheri...the_blame_game

Cavemen and women lived without added salt in their diet for thousands of years and that is how our bodies evolved, so unless there is a particular medical reason for an individual to have added salt, food with no added salt is the natural way for our bodies to thrive. Societies which in these days eat that stone age sort of diet live long and healthy lives.

I reckon thirst is the body's way of telling us we need water or other fluid, and that when we have satisfied our thirst we should not drink a lot of extra fluid. There's too much emphasis on hydration these days, in my opinion.

For thousands of years, humans existed and evolved on a low sodium, high potassium food intake and so clearly that is what is best for us.

But over a relatively short span of time, the modern diet has reversed and has become high sodium (i.e. high salt) and low potassium (i.e. low intake of fruit and vegetables). This huge change is a significant factor in the illnesses people suffer today. - These illnesses are often attributed to 'aging' but they are really the diseases brought about by salt sensitivity and its attendant fluid retention.

You can read on my website about the sodium and potassium content in many foods and the health benefits that an adjustment of your sodium/potassium intake can bring. - The most important benefits are a reduction in obesity/overweight and a lowering of high blood pressure.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

Are you overweight/obese and tired of people telling you that you are greedy and should be eating less?

A person who gains weight has a higher calorie requirement. There are two reasons for this. Having to carry a greater mass around and service a more massive body uses more calories. And having a bigger surface area means greater heat loss, since heat lost is proportional to surface area. - A greater calorie requirement results in greater appetite/hunger, so, really, overweight people need to eat more than people of normal weight. If the overweight eat insufficient calories (ie if they 'diet') they may lose weight, but it is at the cost of being hungry. There has never been the slightest evidence that the practice of fewer calories in and more calories out by way of exercise reduces obesity! - It is often confidently stated that fat will be lost by doing this. - Sadly, what is more often lost is lean tissue, usually an irreversible adverse effect.

The result of the misunderstanding of the cause of obesity is the well-known fact that over 95% of dieters actually gain weight in the long term! - They cannot be expected to go hungry all the time. - Nor would staying hungry all the time benefit them. - With insufficient calories for the body's needs, the body feeds on itself. - The skin becomes thinner; the bones become less dense; there is some hair loss, etc.

Contrast this with the safe, effective, fast way to lose excess weight - by eating less sodium. - Eating less sodium releases some of the excess water held in the blood stream. This lowers the blood pressure and, significantly, lowers the weight. - Weighing less results in a lower calorie requirement so very gradually less food is eaten and this becomes a virtuous circle because less food eaten results in lower sodium intake.

In societies in which no salt is eaten (what some might describe as undeveloped or uncivilised societies) there is no obesity and no hypertension.

The cavemen and women who were our ancestors lived for millennia without added salt. Our bodies evolved on a low sodium and high potassium intake. The modern diet has reversed this to high sodium and low potassium. The intake of salt has massively increased in recent years - as has the incidence of obesity.

I submit that the universal 'slimming' advice - to eat fewer calories/less fat and take more exercise - is a major cause of obesity. - All that is usually necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium. This is a drug-free, cost-free course of action. There are no hunger pangs and no adverse side-effects. It requires no visits to the doctor or to the gym and it WILL work.

Lose weight by eating less salt!-Go on!-Try it! My website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk provides more details and advice.