Firstly, I am a nutrition student. And I am glad that I was given this opportunity to do research review my textbooks, and to learn more for my upcoming semester, so thank you. I am not a vegetarian. 

Secondly, our life and lifestyle is extremely different then our “hunter/gatherer ancestors”. So different, that eating like them would not miraculously deliver a slim body (low BMI), nor great health. So this diet is based on our ancestors from the Palaeolithic era: extending from 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 BCE. Nobody really knows if they were actually healthy, or if they had a low body weight. As well as, they died significantly younger then the average age of today, and when they died they died because of “old age”, rather than heart disease or diabetes or cancer.

The diet suggests to primarily eat animal products, concertrating on meat (as the conjured up pyramid symbolises). The fat in our meets are mostly saturated, and cholosterol. Saturated fats are mostly directed to heart disease, and a plant based diet has been showen to have a decreased risk of heart disease1. A meat based diet may lack vitamin A and C, folate, fiber and calcium. Fiber is only found in plants because it is from the cellulose from plants. Vitamin A is often forified in pasterized milk. Folate is critical in women before and during her pregnancy years. On the contrary a vegetarian diet may lack iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. It is important to note that vegetables and fruits contain less calories per portion size, due to the compact energy in meat1.

Part of the paleolithic diet suggests that we should eat very little vegetables to limit our consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), I expect that they also disagree with the consumption of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), but now where in this diet description it talks about that. So, the PUFAs and the MUFAs are “essential” to our diets, meaning the nutrients must be consumed. The the article The Skinny on Fats it mentions that these fatty acids are linked to health problems because they “become oxidized or rancid when subjected to heat, oxygen and moisture as in the cooking process”. This is true, if you over heat the oils beyond their smoking temperature, even butter has a limit, where it becomes oxidized and toxic, it is also true when one does not take the proper measures to keep the oils in a cool, dark place. Unfortunately, once the oil starts its oxidizing process, there is no way to stop, slow it down, nor reverse it, and the best way to protect yourself is to throw the product out. So if one takes the preventive measures then it is safe. People who eat plants based diets are showen to have a decreased risk of heart disease1. As well vegetables, contain less calories per gram.

Cholesterol is made naturally in the liver, thus it is not essential for the diet. When a person consumes a meal high in cholestrol, the liver stops producing its choloestrol to keep the body at homeostasis. Apparently, cholosterol has to have a large portion of a malnourished person because it will protect the individual from a tendency of heart disease and cancer2. This is untrue because heart disease is not prevealent in vegetarians, and they eat very minimal cholosterol since it is only found in foods that are from animal products. Another point that should be adressed is if an individual is malnourished, then the appropriet measures will not include pumping cholosterol into the blood stream.

Here are some statements that, according to my knowledge and my textbooks are wrong.

An excerpt from Skinny on Fats:
"If, as we have been told, heart disease results from the consumption of saturated fats, one would expect to find a corresponding increase in animal fat in the American diet. Actually, the reverse is true. During the sixty- year period from 1910 to 1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the American diet declined from 83% to 62%, and butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four." 

(I couldn’t find direct stats on the usage of butter, but I talked to a few older people, and they said this:) The butter consumption decreased as most people switched from butter to margarine, which is a plant based oil, that has been hydrogenated to become solid at room temperature. Hydrogenation changes the chemical structure of the fatty-acid molecules. The hydrogenated plant oil molecules are then called a “trans fatty acid”. Trans fatty acids, along with saturated fatty acids, are “correlated with increased risk of heart disease because they increase blood cholesterol levels by altering the way cholesterol is removed from the blood”1. Another thing is that fat intake, according to my source, says that it has decreased from 45% of total energy intake in 1965 to 35% of energy intake in 1995. But this doesn’t say that we are eating less fat (in both sources), because we are eating 15% more calories overall. This proves that the amount of fat in the diet in grams, hasn’t decreased, but actually increased1! Some statistics from www.statcan.ca 

Table 4. Foods and drinks accounting for most calories from “other foods,” household population aged 4 or older, Canada excluding territories, 2004
Food/Drink % of “other food” calories
Soft drinks ....................................................11.3
Salad dressing .............................................9.4
Sugars, syrups, preserves .........................8.7
Beer................................................................. 8.2
Fruit drinks......................................................6.1
Vegetable oil, animal fats, shortening ...5.8
Margarine .....................................................5.3
Chocolate bars ............................................4.8
Potato chips .................................................4.7
Butter .............................................................3.9
Note: Excludes women who were pregnant or breastfeeding.
Data source: 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey: Nutrition.


Another excerpt from The skinny on fats:
"In a multi-year British study involving several thousand men, half were asked to reduce saturated fat and cholesterol in their diets, to stop smoking and to increase the amounts of unsaturated oils such as margarine and vegetable oils. After one year, those on the "good" diet had 100% more deaths than those on the "bad" diet, in spite of the fact that those men on the "bad" diet continued to smoke!"

So, after one year 100% of people on the diet died, thus everybody died? IF they all did die the main cause would be from the increased consumption of trans fats.


Some thoughts and extras:
~Obesity is the highest reason for heart problems, so a meat eater or a vegetarian who is obese, have an equal risk of having heart problems.
~If cholesterol and saturated fats are bad for you then why is there huge movement towards trying to eat minimal? So with the statements from in the Palaeolithic diet, it is contrary to what most of the dieticians and government personnel think.
~I was reading the ‘article’ “Skinny on Fats”, but I had to stop so I wouldn’t be confused with fallacies and vague statements. I would NOT suggest anyone to read it. I would suggest you to go to “google => scholar” and research journal articles that are peer-reviewed and scientifically proven.
~Worst of all, is that no where in Skinny on Fats does it mention a specific cancer. This would be important information because some cancers have been shown to develop by certain foods, and prevented/protected by others.
~I could go into how the PUFA and MUFA oils are good for you, from Omega -3 and Omega -6 fatty acids. Into which foods are natural remedies to prevent against heart problems and cancers, and which cause them. Into HDL and LDL cholesterol, and how to get HDL, and maintain it.
~If you have any questions, I will try to help you. 
~I wouldn't say this diet is impossible, but it is dangerous, especially if you only are going to excersise for 1/2 hour each day. You would need to excercise more (lol, our ancestors did!) too keep your HDL cholesterol high. 

Sources:
1 - Understanding Nutrition, 10th addition, by Ellie Whitney and Sharon Rady Rolfes
2 - The Skinny on Fats: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html