Spiral's Plant Positive Journal

[Spiral]

I just finished watching the 31st video in the Nutrition: Past and Future video series created by Plant Positive titled 31 Second-Guessing the First Farmers.

This video discusses the argument made by low-carb/paleo advocates that the human transition from hunter gatherer societies towards agriculture based societies was "a mistake," meaning that human beings were healthier and happier before human beings started growing grains and beans and eating them.

But there is a good reason why the agriculturists won out over the hunter gatherers and it probably didn't have much to do with which diet was healthier. Agriculture was simply a more reliable means of obtaining sufficient calories on a consistent basis.

You can watch this video here.

[Spiral]

I just finished watching the 32nd video in the Nutrition: Past and Future video series created by Plant Positive titled 32 The Eskimos Again .

This video discusses the argument made by low-carb/paleo advocates that the very low rate of cardiovascular disease among the Eskimos demonstrates that a high meat, high fat diet does not cause heart disease. But the premise is incorrect. The Eskimos who ate a fish heavy diet did have extensive cardiovascular disease. They were not immune from heart attacks and the stroke rate among the Eskimo population appears to be very high.

You can watch this video here.

[Spiral]

I just finished watching the 33rd video in the Nutrition: Past and Future video series created by Plant Positive titled 33 An Evolved Fuel System 1.

This video discusses the way the human body uses the calories provided to it and examines research on how the human body responds to various types of feeding experiments. Carbohydrates are not damaging to the human body except under certain circumstances. Carbohydrates from whole plant foods that are mostly unrefined are handled by the human body much differently than carbohydrates from sugar or fructose. Excessive protein and alcohol is more likely to be damaging to the human body than high amounts of carbohydrate.

You can watch this video here.

[Spiral]

I just finished watching the 34th video in the Nutrition: Past and Future video series created by Plant Positive titled 34 An Evolved Fuel System 2.

This video reviews scientific studies over the past century which went against the conventional wisdom in nutritional therapy for Type 2 diabetics and added carbohydrates to the diet. Discussed in this video were the observations of Sansum, Blatherwick and Bowden in 1926, Richardson in 1929, Himsworth in 1934, Rabinowitch in 1935, Brunzell in 1971, Anderson and Ward in 1979, Anderson in 1991 and Barnard in 2006.

In all of these cases, better results were seen in Type 2 diabetics after adding carbohydrate to the diet. In a sense, the most interesting of these was the Anderson's 1991 study because it was conducted in a metabolic ward and calories were adjusted to prevent any weight loss or weight gain. The advantages of the High Carbohydrate High Fiber Diet over the Low Carbohydrate Low Fiber diet could not be attributed to weight loss.

You can watch this video here.

[GlennR]

Your journal posts reminded me to check in with Plant Positive's site again. Thanks for the connection!

[Spiral]

Your journal posts reminded me to check in with Plant Positive's site again. Thanks for the connection!

Glenn,

Glad I could help. When you're in the mood from some serious analysis, you really can't beat Plant Positive's videos.

[amandamechele]

Spiral - Thank you for the summaries! I have only watched a couple of Plant Positive's videos, and intend to view them all eventually...I'm so happy to have your Coles Notes summaries until I get a chance. (I think they would be called Cliff's Notes in the states).

[Spiral]

Spiral - Thank you for the summaries! I have only watched a couple of Plant Positive's videos, and intend to view them all eventually...I'm so happy to have your Coles Notes summaries until I get a chance. (I think they would be called Cliff's Notes in the states).

Thanks, Amanda.

They do take time to get through and I've found that I have to pay attention or else I have to "rewind" the video. But they are so interesting.