I have since read many books about the Paleo diet, Paleontology (sp), and biochemistry since my triathlon training has been in Hiatus. The last book I read, Wheat Belly, talks about the link between early osteoarthritus and celiac's disease or the consumption of glue=ten. I have been a practicing Paleo dieter so take what I say with a grain of salt. But the author makes some good claims about the inflamation properties of Gluten and the effects on calcium loss and cartiledge loss. Wish I knew this ten years ago..lol.
So with that in mind, I assume there are some studies of various popluations with rather consistent diets that could be compared. In other words, how much OA do we see in populations that have very little gluten in their diet?
I was just thinking to myself that I haven't been a huge consumer of gluteny foods over the years and then it all dawned on me, for about 4 years straight, I ate day-bagels for breakfast and lunch. It was an excellent way to save money, but might not have been so good for my health. I call it the anti-atkins diet.
You should get a copy of the movie Forks over Knives by Drs. Campbell and Esselstyn. Deep discussion of downside of animal fats and upside of plants-based diet. Very important discussion...
"Food is thy medicine..."
Not to turn this into a "diet" debate I often stress that the paleo diet isn't the Atkins. The paleo diet is about eating grass fed lean meats and plenty of veggies. I have read lots of books about diets etc. In my conclusion is that for the most part of human evolvement we have been meat eaters. So I personally enjoy eating paleo but don't dismiss others including veggie only eaters (as much as I try to convince them otherwise). It does make ironman training difficult but doable😖
'' In my conclusion is that for the most part of human evolvement we have been meat eaters.''
While humans appear to always have been meat eaters. It's only been over the last 100 or so years that we have been gorging ourselves on meat. In the past while the European ruling class were big on the meat, the majority of the world ate mostly bread, corn, rice or oatmeal with a piece of meat when it was available.
Did you know that at the height of career Dave Scott ate nothing but brown rice. And he ate a lot of brown rice.
Just one more quick suggestion that, at a minimum, you google Forks over Knives and Campbell/Esselstyn...
They are all over this topic...
I am not talking about the last hundred or two hundred years..i am talking thousand of years of evolution. Grains and processing has only been around for about 300 generations, and in evolution speak thats a second. The paleo diet is about lean meats and veggies. Lots of veggies. I know there is always someone out there who has thrived on their "rice" or Chia seeds. I am just going from my research. I am not trying to convince anyone to go paleo or not. However, throughout time the majority of the diets are lean, grass fed meat, or fish, or insects with veggies that were gathered. I don't disagree that veggie fat is "better" for you than say a steak, but evolution isn't wrong. When we are all hunter's and gatherers we didn't eat grains. Most of the food we enjoy now wouldn't have thrived in the northern climates. ;D
Triathlete, interesting book. I checked out the website. Other than this author, have you found many other sources on the same thing? Is there a body of evidence supporting connections between wheat diets and inflammatory conditions? Very interesting, but I'm hesitant to trust just one source.