That hunter/gatherer diet / activity study...not what it seemed

There was a lot of reporting in the last week about a study which many interpreted as saying that because it looked like a certain hunter gatherer population had activity levels similar to those of modern people then the modern obesity epidemic must be all about diet....

Dr Briffa certainly interpreted it that way - this evidence points away from differences in activity and energy expenditure as being a major explanation for why hunter-gatherer populations tend to be much lighter than those living a more Westernised existence - as did the Daily Mail.

It is not as straight forward as that of course....it never is.  Health Uncut point out three flaws in the paper, "sealing its place in the realm of fiction"

1)    The study was a population of only 30 people, and of these 17 were women, who had NO statistically significant increase in physical activity levels versus Western women. That’s right in a study comparing the effects of high versus low activity levels of two populations; there was no actual difference in the levels for over half the group. Makes it interesting to wonder how they could expect to find a difference.
2)    The average BMI of the Western population was just over 25, so not an obese population, and depending on fat distribution, not an ‘overweight population’ either. Basically, we are comparing apple brands, and asking which makes the tastiest orange juice.
3)    Lastly, the study does not describe the calorie intake of the Hunter Gatherers. What we do see is a small population bordering on underweight status. So most likely they have low caloric intake. And, what does low caloric intake i.e. dieting do, it lowers total energy expenditure (hence the flaw in dieting). So are we surprised with these inconsequential findings?

As we describe in The Health Delusion, such is the age of sloth we live in, that in order to match our 1950s counterparts when it comes to physical activity, the average person would need to run a marathon each week.
In a world where there are already too few hours in the day, the last thing we want to hear is that we need to set aside more time to being more active, when we could actually free up time by just skipping a meal. And, so the market is open to all the diet gurus’ to pander to what interests us, instead of what is in our interest. But nature is a strict mother of principal, and does not cave in to our whimsies, whinging and tantrums to get what we want on our own terms. When you sooner or later join the 99% of people who find out dieting is ineffective for weight loss ask yourself this; if you don’t have time to be physically active now, how will you make the time for all that disease and illness in later life? 

The NHS Choices website also has a good analysis of the study:

Independent of its role in weight management, physical activity is also important to keep the heart healthy and to promote mental wellbeing. 

It should be noted that the study had some limitations:

• its assessment of energy expenditure and other factors was based on only 30 Hadza adults

• its assessment was also short term, carried out over an 11-day period

• the data it used for comparison of the Hadza with Western and other populations was taken from several different sources, including some small studies of individuals (one such study included just 68 adults)

As the authors point out, this study only measured energy expenditure between different populations. This study does not examine the effects of changing levels of physical activity on obesity and did not report the long-term dietary patterns or calorie intakes of the people studied. It therefore cannot answer the question of which is more important, a calorie-dense diet or lack of physical activity as a cause of obesity. 

It does not address the important public health question of how best to combat rising overweight and obesity levels 

It is well recognised that weight loss may be difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain. Research on the most effective way to address this issue is urgently needed

The 21 Convention

Anthony has put together a great line up of speakers for this year's conventions.  Click here to visit The 21 Convention LLC. I don't know about the pick up guys, but on the exercise front he has managed to bring together some innovative  thinkers and writers:

In London he has:  Dr John Briffa, Simon Whyatt, Simon Shawcross and James Steele II.

Austin Texas will feature: Doug McGuff, Robb Wolf, Drew Baye, Dave Asprey and Keith Norris
 

I've interviewed a few of these guys, follow all of them through their blogs, twitter etc and think that these events will be like my RSS dumping its contents into a conference suite.  Anthony always does high quality video of the events, so even if you can't make it look forward to some excellent presentations.

Robb Wolf's Paleo Budget Shopping Guide

If just received a review copy of Robb Wolf's new ebook - a Paleo Budget Shopping Guide - and have been quickly skimming through it.  I like it.

Target

The book is aimed clearly at addressing one key complaint - "I can't afford it!".   People may be convinced that a paleo diet is wise and could solve  their health and performance issues, but it just seems like it would be beyond their wallet.  It is very much a book for this century when many have forgotten how to buy and cook real food.


You can afford it!

Robb sees this very much as an excuse - often it is about making time to shop and cook - and explains how you can improve your diet to adopt a Paleo template without going bankrupt. 

Cook, Plan, Save, Shop and Prepare

Across the ebook's 6 chapters, Robb deals with these key principles.

• Learn to cook - there are preparation methods that make things cheap and easy, like a pressure cooker or slow cooker.
• Plan your meals - a bit of planning will stop waste and allow you to pull together the maximum meal from minimum resources.
• Money Saving tricks - Robb outlines a few ideas on saving money on your shopping - buying in bulk for example and getting ingredients not products so that you are not paying someone else to do the preparation.
• Budget Shopping Priorities - the tweaks....if you can afford organic and grass-fed , what should you go for?
  
• Kitchen tricks - final ideas and hacks for saving time and money in the kitchen...freezing and cooking in bulk for example.

Not just for Paleo 

 Yes this is aimed at paleo adopters.....but I am convinced that there are lessons here that would help any of us...whatever your diet.  If you want to eat real food but are worried about affording it then this book will point you in the right direction.

The Voice

If you listen to Robb's podcasts you will recognise his voice in the writing - it is playful, witty and accessible.  Highly recommended!

Click on the images above or below to buy your copy.

Survival of the fittest....and that paleo guy

Back last summer sometime I was contacted by the editor of an on-line magazine Interesting Times who asked me to write something for him.  At the time I was busy with work and couldn't put the time into writing.  Plus I didn't think I had what he was looking for.....but I knew a man who did!  I pointed him towards Jamie Scott - New Zealand's That Paleo Guy - and sue enough Jamie wrote a superb piece detailing how his training, diet and lifestyle had enabled him to survive the Christchurch earthquakes of last year.

I'd just about forgotten about the piece but I got an email today with a link to download the magazine.

I have not read the rest of it, but Jamie's piece  - Survival of the Fittest …and most skillful? - is brilliant.  Check it out!

Pale(br)o Science

BroScience is a term used by some bodybuilding communities:

Broscience is the predominant brand of reasoning in bodybuilding circles where the anecdotal reports of jacked dudes are considered more credible than scientific research.

A sarcastic term implying that the time tested, muscle building wealth of knowledge developed and utilized by successful, experienced bodybuilders is inferior to the continually shifting hypotheses of articulate, textbook-savvy 155lb. chemists with little or no real world first-person experience to substantiate their conclusions. The term "Broscience" is oft repeated on bodybuilding and fitness oriented internet forums in an attempt to demonstrate online dominance as a substitution for success in the arena of actual bodybuilding.

There is even a site called Broscience.com  which highlights how science conflicts with popular myth in the bodybuilding world.

I think there is some similar stuff in the paleo world.....Palebro science perhaps.  People like Kurt Harris and Matt Lalonde are key in fighting the myths with science.

The Book: Free the Animal, Beyond the Blog

It looks like we are all writing books at the moment!  Richard Nikoley of the Free the Animal blog has just published a book which condenses the lessons of several years of his blog into a great little introduction to the "paleo" philosophy.  I say philosophy because, rightly, Richard looks holistically at lots of elements - diet, exercise and general health lessons.

I have always thought of Richard as a proper blogger - he writes thoughtful posts that analyse and explain, that argue and promote positions.  He explains his own experiments and explorations.

(I always feel that my blog is a bit more modest  - it started as somewhere to collect bits and pieces of interesting things about fitness to resource my own thinking, a set of bookmarks really.)

I've been following his blog for years.  In fact, in my Google Reader it is still called Honesty Log, the name of the blog before he began to focus fully on paleo issues.  In those years I've seen him grow as a writer and thinker but mostly I've watched his physical transformation.  He has always been a pragmatist, taking a wide angle lens view of all this.  He is not a fundamentalist, he thinks things through rather than simply rejecting what doesn't fit orthodox paleo dogma.  

There is no single prescription here for a diet  - just as there are multiple ancestral diets, so there are multiple ways in which we can mimic them today.  Well maybe there is a prescription - EAT REAL FOOD and AVOID THINGS THAT ARE NOT REALLY FOOD.  Richard explains what these 2 classes are and contain.


So this book condenses years of his blog into 12 chapters, each with a different theme.  With clarity, wit and passion Richard explains his journey, his discoveries in these areas forging a nice  consistent body of knowledge, bound by simple principles.  I've read most of the key paleo texts - Ray Audette, Robb Wolf,  Mark Sisson,  Loren Cordain and several others. However I still got something from this book, as I said because of its passion and its style.  It exploits the new reality of ebooks - it is full of hyperlinks, to be read like a website.  It is a book for "surfing"  -  it leads you to explore other ideas, to research more and see where these ideas come from.

I like it - simple, logical, structured.  It tells a story of how Richard got to where he is and what that means.  He exploits the potential of ebooks to make something potentially much bigger than the basic 110 pages as you follow the links.

And the price.....$3.99!   He is giving it away at that price!


You can read more at Richard's blog here or just go via the links below:

How To Get It

To acquire your copy you have a number of options. You can purchase from the publisher, Hyperink, in PDF format at this link. Purchasing from them gives you not only a lifetime, 100% money back guarantee, but lifetime updates as well. I will be expanding the book over time.

You can also purchase it from Amazon for Kindle or Barnes & Noble for Nook. An edition for Apple iBook is planed for the near future and a print version will be out soon. For those without web-enabled devices or who purchase the print version, a website URL has been provided in the book that will give you a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of all of the dozens of links used as references to research and other articles on the Internet.