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Does anyone have the reference talking about paleo man eating around 33% carbs? How accurate is that bone analysis or whatever it is?

While carb intake likely varied quite a bit between geographical areas back in the day, the carb intake of "modern paleo man" seems to be more homogeneous (i.e. homogeneously low).

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4 Answers

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Maybe it is this study by Loren Cordain?

Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets.

They estimated that the carbohydrate intake amoung contempary hunter-gatherer groups raged from 22–40% of calories.

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This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. – Kamal Sep 24 2010 at 15:20
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It's highly contested and regional, so many different cultures, different areas, different food available.

There are tons of studies showing fiber carb and meat intake at all different levels.

Coupled with the fact that what was available isn't necessarily optimal , we just don't know...

What we can do is test modern humans, epigenetics etc...

Self experimentation plus understanding of hormones leads most of us to low carb for personal results.

Low carb isn't for everyone, I recommend everyone see what They run best on, but believe from what we've seen, the greater majority of us run better low carb

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Thanks for the great comment. This HAS to be stressed more often : ''Low carb isn't for everyone, I recommend everyone see what They run best on'' – JP Sep 24 2010 at 15:43
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I've always loved Richard's quote from freetheanimal.com:

"I often point out to people that “paleo” is anything from a Kitavan diet of 70% carbs to an Inuit diet of 80% animal fat, and everything in-between. If you want to practice paleo, then find what works for you within that range. For me, about 70/20/10 fat/protein/carb seems to work best, but I also do potatoes and other dense starches now and then. And sometimes I do almost zero carbs for a few days at a time. And I fast randomly and intermittently and work out fasted. The other side of the paleo equation is that we went hungry sometimes."

I think this is very Art De Vany Evolutionary Fitness as well in terms of variation and intermittency. When I imagine living in the wild and hunting for myself I see days of all meat and days of all vegetable and everything in between, and that is also how I practice Paleo.

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Yeah, I don't notice a difference between zero, low, a sorta low carbs with regards to how I feel. Since I like the way carbs taste, the decision isn't so hard! – Kamal Sep 24 2010 at 0:29
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If you think about it, most neolithic foods happen to be carb filled foods (big exception is the grain oils). If you watch a SAD eater, typically every single meal will have a neolithic carb filled food item in it (or more than one). Once you cut those neolithic foods out, what do you have left that has lots of carbs? MOstly it woudl just be tubers and fruit. Most paleo eaters do not feel the need to eat fruit or tubers at every meal. Because we no longer require carbs to keep our blood sugars up and keep us from feeling like crap. There is no longer an addictive need to get them. So even if you don't plan it or intend it, I think paleo eating tends to be lower in carbs naturally.

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