Study hails 'caveman diet' benefits

Eating like a caveman may trim the waist and protect against heart disease, a study suggests. Volunteers were put on a stone-age diet of berries, nuts, lean meat, fish and vegetables while cutting out cereals, dairy products and refined sugar. After just three weeks they had lost five pounds in weight, their waistlines were slimmer, and their blood pressure was lower.T hey also had dramatically reduced levels of a clotting agent in the blood linked to heart attacks and strokes. The Palaeolithic diet was what the hunter gatherer ancestors of modern humans lived on 30,000 years ago before the development of farming. Since the wheels of evolution turn slowly the human body may still be most suited to this kind of food, some experts believe.The five men and nine women taking part in the Swedish study had to stick to a food list which included lean meat, unsalted fish, fresh or frozen fruit, berries, vegetables - but not beans - most kinds of nuts, canned tomatoes, lemon or lime juice, spices, and coffee or tea without milk or sugar. Dairy products, beans, peanuts, salt, pasta, rice, sausages, sugar, fruit juices and alcohol were all banned. As a concession the volunteers were allowed up to two potatoes a day, as well as some dried fruit, cured meats and a weekly portion of fatty meat. After three weeks their systolic blood pressure readings, which measure the pressure during heart beats, had fallen by an average of three millimetres of mercury. The study was carried out by scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Huddinge, Sweden.

Bonnie - sound familiar? While this was a minute study, if controlled like this on a larger scale, I venture to think that the there would be the same result.