Just Eat It

[commonpeople1]

Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If I had to categorise the nutrition fad Planck falls under, I'd place her with the people who believe we should go back to a Paleolithic diet. (It's the belief that our ancestors back in the Stone Age got it right - loads of fat and protein and hardly any carbs.)

Planck's theory is that we must go back to the earth, get our food directly from the original source (as best as possible). The more processed, the worse for you. Some of her theories are hard to buy because they go against current common sense: saturated fats are good (including lard) and full-fat milk directly from the cow, unpasteurised, will do wonders for you.

She isn't completely dismissive of vegetarians but you can sort of see the sneer as she lays her theories as to why meat is better. (And lets not mention vegans...) But her vision is utopian: it's just not possible that everyone in the planet can switch from processed to organic, directly sourced food.

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Comments

[doraphilia.livejournal.com]

I'm of two minds about that stuff. I agree we "over carb" and I have heard a lot of convincing arguments that agrarian innovation has only hurt our health-- that when we "foraged" and hunted we were healthier.

BUT, animals were less fat then. They were wild. The animals we eat today are WAY higher in saturated fat. And dairy?? cave men didn't ever eat dairy!

I think a "true" paleo diet, something that most resembles the diet of hunter-gatherers, would be mostly vegetables, non-grain starches (like sweet potato and other root vegetables), with a little bit of meat. Like someone in the village takes down an antelope once every week or two, and everyone in the village gets a scrap of it. The way people do this supposed "paleo" diet today doesn't really resemble what our ancestors ate.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Good points! I must stress that Planck never comes out and says she's for a paleo diet - I was just trying to fit her into a box. Her main point is that we need to eat what people used to eat before industrialisation - diets based on communities close to their source of food. It's noble and makes sense (mostly) but it's also highly impossible to be followed by all!