Wed, Oct-10-12, 12:26
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Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
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Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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Carbs predate agriculture, of course.
Don't forget tubers, fruits, nuts and things like sago palms. I think the amount of carbs in the diet of pre-agricultural people probably varied by location. In places like the New Guinea Highlands they don't have a whole lot of protein sources so they depend a lot on things like sago palms and other gathering. They also resort to eating large jungle spiders because protein is so much harder to come by. (Source: Guns, Germs and Steel).
Obviously it's different in places like the Arctic circle where protein and fat are very abundant.
It's probably safe to say that pre-agricultural people generally eat fewer carbs than most modern people do, and definitely ate less sugar, but I don't think you can paint them as low carb as most of us are. Some were, some weren't.
The Kitavans eat pretty high-carb, but they're quite healthy until they start eating Western sorts of carb. Then they start to suffer from the same stuff we do.
I tend to think that if your metabolism is healthy you can eat like a Kitavan and get away with it (starchy tubers, fish, coconut), but once you break your metabolism you might not be able to get away with the starches.
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