Honey / fruit

Question
QUESTION: Dr. John Yudkin (London) mentions sugar/acid digestion.
Honey damages teeth (not just teeth) and so do fruit.
Have you not noticed this?
Well you mention 10% of your diet are fruit/honey. Do you eat this every day?
Does this aid digestion (what ever this mean's; I understand this as one needing a laxative).

What kind of problems did you have on "all meat"? Why do you think that some people think they "need" carbs other than meat and other don't? Do you have problems with energy or feeling bad? Does it not matter what climate you live in and stress?

Nicola

ANSWER: I certainly noticed that my teeth deteriorated heavily  during my 100% Fruitarian/Vegan days and even during my (80% raw plant-food) Hay-Diet days. However, it's all a question of moderation. Eating  smaller amounts of carbs (as I do) is fine. In fact, I (vaguely) remember my teeth being slightly the worse for wear during my zero-carb experiments(though my memory may be faulty re this).

Re daily carbs:- No, I don't eat carbs every day. I eat fruit and I only very rarely eat honey(almost always during 2 months of the summer -  and I loathe liquid honey, raw or otherwise, and only eat raw heather honeycomb, during this time). Actually, my diet seems to vary more than that - it should read 10-20% of diet as carbs, depending on the particular week - 10% was more relevant to the time after I quit zero-carb, quite some time back. Anyway, I've since removed  the 10% mention on my www.allexperts.com profile.

Re digestion/laxative:- A laxative doesn't necessarily aid digestion, it just forces the body to excrete faster, that's all, often without proper digestion. The enzymes in (genuinely-raw) honey  help the digestion to some extent without acting as a laxative, especially if other food is eaten alongside.(I hope you're not using laxative-medicines, in general, as they are unhealthy).

Re climate:- Climate isn't really relevant to the zero-carb diet. Sure, one can feel hotter, but reducing amounts of food eaten sorts out that minor issue. The problems I personally had on an "all-meat" diet included heavy fatigue, drastic drop in appetite  and  annoying carb-cravings. The fatigue etc. got so bad I went back to eating some carbs after 5-6 weeks, in each case.

As for others needing carbs while others don't, you have to remember that food-science is a very new concept, and that we are all basically experimenters with diets, with most people doing their own individualised dietary-routines, given different states of health and illness - so it's difficult to be certain re exact proportions of carbs needed. There are some general rules that are pretty basic(such as the idea that the more you process a food from its original state the unhealthier it is for humans(or, indeed, other animals),but that's it.

RPG

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: No, I have never used a laxative-medicines, but people talk about food's working as laxatives!
So you eat 10 - 20% carbs but that in a week and not per day?
I think climate and stress do play on the way we eat. Out in nature you would not find fruit in every country and by -20 you might not eat fruit at all!
Because this ionized, alkaline water is sweet and gives me enery, I don't notice that I am zero carb. I have day's when I feel that I have not eaten well and am wondering, if I am being "hard" to my body? Not every day works out the same and I can not go for fruit and end up not eating them. Meat and fat does not give me that problem. How do you know when you go and get your food, that you will need "carbs" in two day's? What about the fruit we have today; most of it could never been a part of our diet?

Nicola

Nicola  

Answer
It's true that the huge masses of tropical fruit available in supermarkets would never have been available in northern climates in Palaeo times(and not much present  in the (uncultivated) warmer climes). I'm in no doubt that it would have been difficult(impossible?) to find enough plant-food for a high-carb diet in Palaeo times, but I suspect that they must have eaten at least small amounts of plant-food - (on my group, I gave an example of finding masses of raw garlic leaves easily available)- granted the glaciers couldn't support plant-life but most Palaeo humans had to migrate both on and off the glaciers in their pursuit of the migrating herds, so I suspect they would have had some access to a little plant-food in spring/summer/autumn.

I won't deny that, on a palaeoanthropological level, the zero-carbers are on a strong footing, given the lack of plant-food in the wild etc. But I also think that it's vital to listen to one's own body, experiment and eat what makes one feel healthier/less tired, and not just follow a theory because it sounds good.


RPG

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