“People should be thought of as “starch-eaters;” just like cats are “meat-eaters.” Until recently, except for a small number of wealthy aristocrats, members of the human species have obtained the bulk of their calories from starch. After the mid 1800s with the creation of colossal wealth during the industrial revolution and the harnessing of fossil fuels, millions, and then billions, of people were able to eat from a table piled high with meat, fowl, and dairy, once available only to royalty. Look around you – the consequences are obvious – everyday people appear rotund like the kings and queens pictured in old paintings. Look a little further and you will discover the Starch Solution……
Tubers (potatoes, sweet potato, cassava), winter squashes (pumpkin, butternut, hubbard), legumes (beans, peas, lentils), and grains (barley, corn, rice, wheat) serve as organs for storing starch. Green and yellow vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus, accumulate relatively little starch, and fruits are made up of simple sugars, not complex ones. All animal foods, including beef, chicken, fish, shellfish, eggs, milk, and cheese, contain no starch at all.
While easily providing the abundance of calories needed for winning marathons, starches do not promote excess weight gain. That is because the human body efficiently regulates carbohydrates from starches, burning them off, rather than storing them, when consumed in excess. How effective is our body’s regulation? Obesity has been unknown among billions of Asians with a wide variety of activity levels who have followed traditional diets based on rice. However, these people’s immunity immediately disappears when they switch to meals based on meat and dairy foods, because the human body unsuccessfully balances for excess fat consumption – storing these calories in the abdomen, buttocks, and thighs. The fat you eat is the fat you wear…”
More by John McDougall
I saw that article too, and read the full version at the author’s site. I’m not convinced, though, if only for the reasons that prehistoric people were probably highly opportunistic eaters, and what they could eat varied by what was available (and to some degree, customary in the region where they lived). One dietary “answer” does not fit all individuals as neatly as McDougall seems to believe.
Hi Sunni –
Yes, I agree. There’s not one-size-fits all.
Also, McDougall is wrong about starch not creating obesity….
Rice is healthy, but if you eat a ton of it with ghee (rarefied butter) and don’t exercize, you’ll get as rotund as anyone else.
Personally, I think unless you stay on top of your nutritional requirements with near-expert knowledge of supplements and vitamins, you probably need to add some fish, eggs, nuts, oils, and milk to your diet in addition to the complex carbs. Meat may not be as necessary.
Plus, body structure is different. Most Indians have smaller muscle mass and an ectomorphic build. Some one with an African or European ancestry would need a different diet to suit their differing builds…then there’s also blood type…and cultural history…and genetics…and climate (you eat and drink differently with the temperature).
Also, what’s adequate for survival is not the same as what’s needed optimally..