If you’re in the city during the day and don’t want to grab the nearest carb-loaded baguette, burger, subway etc on hand, what do you do?
1. Get a Burrito Bowl at Chipotle, probably the healthiest major fast food outlet in America. Get it without rice. This is the most affordable option costing only $6 standard, or $8 with avocado spread.
2. Go to a Korean BBQ place and get something like Bulgogi beef. Very caveman-like. Make sure to replace any rice they try to serve with grilled vegetables. Will cost maybe $10. A live Mongolian grill or Shabu Shabu are also valid alternatives, but will typically cost more.
3. A soup at a Thai eatery, no noodles, such as Tom Yum or Tom Kha Kai. Can cost as little as $5.
Modern cell phones are quite adept at finding these places. Then there’s always the traditional method of asking people. No excuse not to do it!
Doesn’t the paleolithic diet falsely assume that natural selection (and artificial selection) stopped after the paleolithic? I thought you had read “10,000 Year Explosion” by Cochran and Harpending.
Looking at Japanese people I fail to see how high-carb diet can be bad for health. Rice and noodles are staple food there, but still they manage to stay fit and have longest lifespan among developed nations.
I think the quest of finding “natural” diet for humans is futile (and I come from the backround of population genetics). We have not had enough time to adapt neither to meat-based nor to cereal-based diet.
It may well be that low-carb diet is good for people who overeat and do not exercise enough – but this shouldn’t interpreted as being because of evolutionary causes. After all accumulating body fat during good times for beneficial for cavemen as it increased the chances of survival during hard times…
Dear Lauris,
There have been studies done that suggest a link exists between white rice consumption and Type 2 diabetes (see for example this Harvard study published in the British Medical Journal: http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e1454). Diabetes is now a significant health problem in China which now has the world’s largest population of diabetic people (about 100 million).
A big part of that problem is how people eat rice. Many Chinese eat it at least three times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the study referenced above found that average consumption of rice for Chinese is four times a day whereas for US and Australian people in the study it was once or twice a week on average. Some Japanese might still eat rice several times a day; what they eat it with is crucial. Do they eat it on its own or do they eat it with vegetables and/or meat? Do they even eat all the rice that’s served to them? – they may eat all the vegetables and meat first and then start eating the rice (the traditional way of eating food in Japan, I’ve heard), by which time they may already be full so they may just eat half the rice and leave the rest or do something else with it.
In the last few months, I’ve noticed a lot of sushi places in Sydney selling sushi made with black rice which is a healthier option than white rice.
I should add smoking is a significant risk factor for diabetes and in some parts of Asia, a man isn’t considered masculine unless he smokes.
Noodles don’t have to be made from wheat (as in udon) or rice, they can be made from buckwheat (as in soba noodles) or millet. It’s my understanding that the Japanese haven’t always eaten polished white rice and that this used to be the staple of very wealthy people while peasants ate brown rice (more nutritious and fibrous, releases glucose into the blood slowly so insulin levels don’t suddenly spike – plus it’s not so much work to prepare as white rice is) and millet.
Also Japanese food is traditionally cooked with water and until recently didn’t use vegetable oils, meat-based stock (for soups and stews) or lard, and that in itself might make a difference.
BBC TV has a reality show call “Kitchen Nightmares”. The set up is a bad restaurant that is turned around by this consulting chef. He goes into the kitchen and uncovers all the old, rotten food that they serve to their customers. In one episode he pulled a dead rat out of the buillibase.
I haven’t been to a restaurant since.
Why do not you like rats? They are full of lean protein rich meat, just like rabbits. Good thermal treatment to kill possible bags is all what is needed. Get rid of your phobias and enjoy restaurants again! BBC probably got a bit to promote Macs by demoting ordinary people’s creativity. Business as usual.