Re: Metabolic Typing Diet-- Bantu

[Guest guest]

I was just reading over some articles on the WAPF site I read a long time

ago, and found that the Bantu were one of the African agriculturalist tribes

Price studied. I didn't remember, since I read NAPD in the early summer.

The Bantu were the one traditional group mentioned in Metabolic Typing Diet

that ate a low-fat diet, and it was claimed that it was because of their

low-fat diet that the Bantu were free of degenerative diseases while the

Eskimo and other high-fat diets gave those particular groups freedom from

degenerative diseases.

But Price found two things: 1) While the Bantu diet was comparatively

low-fat, they valued fat and ate small animals such as frogs and placed an

extremely high value on insects. Insects are the highest in fat of animals,

being over 55% fat; moreover, being a " whole " animal, they are richer in the

nutrients meat-eaters would have to get from organ meats. 2)The Bantu, while

having superior health to those on modern foods, had a measurably worse level

of health than those on higher-fat diets like cattle-herders and

hunter-gatherers.

Therefore, the case remains to be made that there are populations anywhere

perfectly adapted to a low-fat diet (as none were mentioned except the

Bantu). Moreover, someone from our culture who would follow a diet with the

amount of fat a Bantu followed would be in significantly worse health,

because that fat would not be coming from insects, or whole frogs, brain and

liver and whatnot included. Especially since carbo types are advised to

avoid organ meats due to the purine content.

I also thought Walcott made a very poor case that nutritional information is

" conflicting. " I'm sure there is plenty of conflicting information out

there, but Walcott only gave two examples, and neither were of different

studies showing opposite effects, but rather one study showing a positive

effect of some supplementation and another study showing no effect. It seems

to me that Walcott is just taking advantage of the popular perception that

all nutritional research is inconclusive and conflicting, which is based on

the many conflicting INTERPRETATIONS of scientific research, rather than

actually proving his point, whether it is true or false.

Like I've said, I agree with him that people will need varying amounts of

protein and carbohydrate, but his diet for carbo types especially, doesn't

seem to mimic ANYTHING on the spectrum of healthy traditional populations.

Chris

____

" What can one say of a soul, of a heart, filled with compassion? It is a

heart which burns with love for every creature: for human beings, birds, and

animals, for serpents and for demons. The thought of them and the sight of

them make the tears of the saint flow. And this immense and intense

compassion, which flows from the heart of the saints, makes them unable to

bear the sight of the smallest, most insignificant wound in any creature.

Thus they pray ceaselessly, with tears, even for animals, for enemies of the

truth, and for those who do them wrong. "

--Saint Isaac the Syrian