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gnarledrose•

Healthier, and more damaged, if I remember my Biological Anthropology class correctly-- stuff like using your front teeth to scrape things means they wear out REALLY fast.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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HuntardWeapon•

"The unfortunate fact is that the world cannot support a population of 7 billion humans living on the nutrient-rich food of our ancestors." - need some proof for this

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deten•

I thought this was common knowledge? I will investigate and see what I can find that is science based.

Here is my personal understanding of the problem:

The amount of land required to produce say 1 lb of beef is not just a little more... but SIGNIFICANTLY more than say 1 lb of corn. While we paleo'ers dont do the corn cob, there are places in the world that would rather have the corn than... nothing.

As humans we like to think that our opinions have no flaws, but this is rarely the case. There is always a positive and a negative. So lets do our best to stay open minded, the same mindedness that led us to accepting paleo as our diet of choice.

While not paleo, lets look at Organic Farming. Organic is said to be able to feed at most about 5 billion people. Which we are over right now with something like 7 billion. Now if we add in that we would stop using grains, then that number would fall even lower.

Now paleo isnt necessarily organic, and many dont really care of the source... but this gives an idea of where we are at for those who do believe in Organic... or the "true spirit" of paleo. Maybe without organic, we could produce more, but would it be enough to supply the world? I am still looking to find an answer...

It would be nice if everything worked out, but it appears the numbers do not add up. But its okay, don't get down... this shouldn't stop you from having a paleo diet, just be aware that it probably couldn't support the world as we know it... unless we can get some good technology.

Can organic farming feed us all? http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4060

Now to play the devils advocate to my above information: The problem with everything above, however, is humans are fantastic at adapting. Lets say one day we decide "Only paleo". We would FIND solutions. Yes people would die, probably on large scales, but we would find ways to produce. We know there is land still, though with how fast our population is increasing, I have no idea how much is needed... However, something like this would NEVER change over a day... it would take thousands of years for people to change to 100% paleo, and by then who knows what wars, technology and politics have wrought upon our earth.

Has paleo become large enough to cause a major problem on earth? As of now, we are destroying our planet quite well enough. Just look at fish in the ocean. Study after study shows a global collapse of fish. The future IS farmed fish because we just cannot get enough of them. There has to be a change, and eating more fish wont get it... we have to be creating in how we supply fish. In fact, this last year was the expected extinction of the atlantic bluefin tuna, which was partially correct

http://www.reusethisbag.com/Design/HtmlImages/CollapsingSeas-final.jpg

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HuntardWeapon•

It's about an ecosystem too. You need cows to shit on the land and feed the beetles and renew the soil, eat grass etc. In this perspective it's insignificant how many corn you need for a cow, they are both required together anyway to function optimally.

Monocultures is a great enemy to nutrition.

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ergo456•

the weston a price research into dental health and diet is really interesting too. not only do traditional diets seem bring about less cavities and gum disease, but high grain/sugar diets lacking in nutrition during pregnancy on the part of the mother and poor diet during early childhood seem to be what cause tooth crookedness and lack of strong facial and jaw structure - things that are essentially deformities. hence why so many people need braces and have issues with wisdom teeth nowadays.

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