I agree, Nancy. Weston Price did point out the the meat-eating tribes he came across were the healthiest. I believe the Kitvians were healthy BECAUSE of the low sugar and BECAUSE of the coconut fat and fish and DESPITE the tubers and fruit.

Your point is a good one, but that's not how I interpret the numbers. I think that says that their total fat intake was 21% and their saturated fat intake was 17%, which is about 81% of the total. So their total fat intake is even lower than you estimated, but the proportion of saturated fat is indeed extremely high.

When I shed my extra weight and go on maintenance, it will be a pure paleo maintenance diet. I'm thinking that as far as fruits and nuts go, there will be a few principles to follow:

1. I am from northern european ancestry, so my body is arguably adapted for that kind of climate and foods. Aside from summer berries, northern paleo peoples probably didn't have access to much fruit, so I won't be eating much fruit either.

2. Fruits have been bred and cultivated for thousands of years to be huge and super sweet. What we think of as "normal" fruits are actually mutant sugar bombs to a paleo diet. The best kind of fruit for the human body is the kind you can still find thriving in nature,e.g. the wild berries and maybe certain fruits that are native to other regions of the world, such as figs, pommegranates, wild persimmons, etc. These fruits dont' need to be grown in orchards and fertilized extensively to thrive--I think they are less "tampered with" by humans--perhaps they're the ideal fruits to eat. They tend to have lower net carbs than orchard fruits like apples, peaches, pears and grapes.

3. Greens with more color and flavor, but less sweet taste, are probably closer to what paleo peoples ate than the lettuces, celery and carrots of today. So the bulk of my veggies will be dark leafy greens like kale, spinach and turnip greens. No iceberg lettuce allowed!

the kitavan diet was high in fiber. they were not eating refined starches. coconut is a perfect example of high fat, but also the carbohydrate has little effect of blood sugar.

it is true that modern fruit is higher in sugar, generally, but there have always been sweet fruit...maybe not so much up north (except for sweet wild berries) but in tropical areas, for sure. dates, for instance, are prehistoric. yes there are some that we created (medjools) but most are as they were.

Apples and cherries actually can't be bred for sweetness at all - they are "heterosexual" plants whose offspring does not produce similar fruit to the parents. The only way to have sweet apples and cherries is to graft them - almost like a primitive form of cloning. Wikipedia says that grafting has been practiced for about 4000 years, but I think the eating of apples (as opposed to making alcoholic cider) is much more recent. This is too bad for the Paleo sweet tooth, because the apple has an extremely long season and the fruits store well, unlike berries.

If you like them, feel good (or better) eating them, and are losing and not having cravings, then why not go for it? Personally, I have a bad reaction (allergic or gastro or both) to just about everything that grows in the ground, so I eat very few carbs out of necessity.

I like this - you make some very good points. Thanks

i also have terrible gut reactions from too much produce. but really it's overeating it for the most part....a couple nights ago my x steamed a mix of broc/cauli/carrot to go w a nice chop. later in the evening i decided to finish off the leftover vegies. i certainly paid the next day.
i am down to one meal w vegies daily except for the possibility of some sauteed onion/mushroom. or possibly a tomato base stew/chili.

problem is (for some of us) that too much meat raises my BG... i would be hungry if i didn't have more volume....so i go for the vegies that don't cause BG to increase.

According to what I've read, they ate a lot of starches from tubers, maybe breadfruit too. But they were probably low in fructose.

Dr. Guyenet wrote a bunch of posts about them and their native diet.
Very starchy stuff. Taro and cassava both are I know. Isn't cassava what they make tapioca from?

Cassava, manioc and yuca are all the same thing. Tapioca is the flour made from the root.

I like to get my fruits and veggies in. I eat the animals that eat them . Then I don't have to deal with the sugar and fiber and anti-nutrients.

I like that and will have to remember it next time someone tells me I need to eat fruit and veg!

I minimize fruit and veg too. Condiments only. So, much as I like Mark Sisson, I still think it's a little PC to have fruits and veggies as the base - as opposed to really being needed.

Maybe for active hard gainers like Mark it's one thing. I would hate to have to gag down a Big Ass Salad every day.

Ever since my stepdad told me that "big cats in the wild eat grains because they eat the stomachs of their prey," I've been thinking about tripe, chitterlings and gizzards. Of course my stepdad was wrong, because wild ruminants hardly eat any grains. But his point is good: eating the digestive tract of an herbivore is the best way to get vegetables.

I got the same feeling at MDA...that fruit and veg are the PC thing to support.