Scotch/Irish and Seminole/Cherokee... very sensitive to carbs. I get fat easily if I eat too many, my blood sugar gets too high. Even when it comes to alcohol, I simply cannot tolerate it. 2 drinks and I'm done.

But on the reservation, the Indian's (we don't say Native American here) inability to process carbs is well known. My theory is because of less time for natural selection to "weed out" those who couldn't adapt easily and pass on that DNA to adapt to a high carb diet to their offspring. Modern medicine stops natural selection in this case. 12000 - 17000 years of adaptation vs only a few hundred since being "adapted" over the barrel of a gun... guess who's not adapted to the neolithic way of eating? Guess where EVERYONE is a diabeitc? Guess where EVERYONE has renal failure. Guess where EVERYONE ends on dialysis and gets DM related amputations?

Oh yeah, guess who CURED his MS and his IDDM with a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet? Yep...me. :)

So my Scotch/Irish blood made me good looking (the only blonde haired blue eyed guy HERE had to say that)....it didn't give me any carb tolerance. :(

i'm american black with good amount of native american thrown in. let's see... i had zero tolerance for carbs when i started over a year ago. after doing some under the hood fixing to regain leptin/insulin sensitivity(low carb for awhile, then started cycling carbs) now i can pretty much eat all the paleo carbs i want. for instance, i have been eating copious amounts of fruit(strawberries and peaches mostly but others also)all summer and potatoes without limiting myself- i'd estimate i'm averaging 150 carbs a day and maybe twice that on days i choose to workout. i got on the scale for the first time in a month last week and was surprised to see i'd lost another 5 lbs without even trying. i love this paleo thing :)

French ancestry. Good on high carbs. Bad on low carbs. I do well on all carbs (even simple sugars), but not so well on gluten.

Scandinavian/Celt. Low carb tolerance, also am now sure I am celiac after stubbornly reintroducing very occasional wheat and soy (mostly in the form of pancake/baking mixes) in 06 and again in 09. Both times led to return of baaaaaad multiple system symptoms. I will never know now as I will never eat grains again, and thus cannot be tested.

Have no idea re: parent/grandparent tolerance as I am an adoptee. However, info I have been able to get included a statement by my birthmother @ age 24yyears that paternal grandparents had both suffered from cancer, but otherwise, esepcially her family was "disgustingly healthy."

I don't have to eat zc or vlc on a daily basis, but did have to go what I know was quite low to lose the 90+lbs originally. I have never counted anything, so can only estimate. The other night I estimated carbs for the first time. I took in about 70 that day I think. I do well doing "change-it-up." This means I change my eating cyclically like crazy - very high fat today, much lower tomorrow. ZC x3 days, then very heavy on the veggies and lesser meat/fish/fowl...if I want to do a carb spike day, it is through nuts, primarily. I am suspicious also that too starchy carb is implicated in some of my autoimmune stuff, whihc I want to deep GONE!

Sugar is NOT my friend. Period. Fruit consumption is permanetly limited to only low gly/low load berries etc and they are infrequent. Do very well with PILES of non starcy carb vegetables. My plate often looks vegetarian - just all low carb veggies + the protein/fat.

From what I can see it's not any particular race or ethnicity. It's the human race who is not designed to handle high levels of carbohydrate. Being able to handle them, IMHO, is simply a matter of how far gone you are in destroying your metabolism. When I was younger I ate whatever I wanted, but eventually I destroyed my metabolism and could no longer tolerate them. I think that will eventually happen to all who eat eat a SAD diet full of heavily processed carbs, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Scottish, English, Welsh with a bit of Irish and German. Gain weight if carbs get above 20 grams/day. Allergic reaction from most grains, ie. burning welts on the roof of my mouth. Worse with wheat. I am age 60 but have had weight issues since I was 15.

Mexican, I can consume close to 600 grams of carbohydrates with no problems, but I can't seem to digest large amounts of fat.

I'm South Indian. We traditionally eat a lot of rice and lentils. Indians, Hindus in particular, consume huge amounts of diary products.

Even though we've been eating rice for centuries, I don't think Indians are well adapted to it. At least from what I've seen in my family. Most of us are overweight and/or have diabetes. Even though our family does eat meat and animal products, rice/grains are more available and cheaper in India. Meat eating takes place occasionally during the week, but mostly on special occasions and festivals.

I think non-Indian Asians might have a different carb-sensitivity, even though they eat probably the same amount of rice that we do. Maybe its because its not Basmati Rice? Very intriguing indeed.

1/4 Swedish, 1/4 English,1/4 German, 1/4 Irish/Romanian.. I cannot lose weight unless I eat ZERO carbs. I gain weight if I eat over 20 carbs a day.

I m Age 56. (Pre Paleo/ Very low carb)... Chronic candida, Chronic sinus infections, sleep apnea, High blood pressure, Asthma, Hives, Migraine headaches from allergies to food color..I also HAD an Auto Immune Disease,,,....Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Doctors at University of Chicago Hospital said there is NO CURE! Every night at 3am I awoke with horrific headaches. I was taking a cabinet full of meds.

3 Months ago I began to eat a Paleo diet. I went very low carb 2 months ago, but still Paleo. I am now taking NO meds. Blood pressure is 116/68. I am 20 pounds down. My RSD is GONE!!!! I have no symptoms.

I have no idea if I will be able to add some carbs back when I have gotten rid of the next 40 pounds. My last goal is to lose the CPAP I use for apnea...if possible.

Ashkenazi Jewish and I have no problems with carbs at all and feel bad on low carb. Like an above poster, I'm still in my teens so that's probably part of it.

im armenian and assyrian with a bit of northern briton tossed in. i do not feel well on ZC, but can only ever seem to lose weight on VLC or LC. if at all. i have great blood glucose numbers though.

my whole family is overweight on my fathers side (my father is the assyrian, and is not overweight himself as a yoga instructor) and all the women on that side have been diagnosed with wither type II DM, or with insulin resistance. on my mothers side, they are all quite thin and small, but both my mother and my grandfather have been diagnosed as type II DM despite being of normal weight. no one on either side of the family, despite all the metabolic issues, would eat what i would ever refer to as an unhealthy diet. they arent paleo, but they are eating very high quality food with lots of fresh fruits and veggies and high quality meats. a lot of traditional food on my fathers side.

i just dont get it......

European descent on my mother's side and Okinawan on my father's. I'm high carbohydrate for sure. I eat anywhere from 8-12 potatoes a day plus beef, eggs, and butter, cream, coconut oil, gelatin and fruit. I was high-fat for a long time but after a while I needed the carbohydrates to maintain my endurance activities. As long as I don't eat vegetation I'm fine. When I start eating vegetables my metabolism stops almost immediately and I gain weight. If I get my fat too high I get sluggish. Potatoes are definitely the center piece in my diet and well being. No grains.

German/Irish - I am sensitive to carbs.

African American--Zero tolerance

DH is Hispanic--Zero Tolerance

In order I'm Irish, Polish, German, Welsh, English, and Scottish. I tolerate carbs well, but I'm also an active teenager so perhaps that confounds things.

Ashkenazi (Romanian, Polish, and Russian) heritage - highly sensitive to carbs, can't lose weight without going VLC/ZC

Mostly Native American, I am okay with carbs, but still can't really go above 150-ish.

1/2 Italian

1/4 Swedish

1/4 English

Pretty good tolerance for carbs, but didn't have real problems when I tried low-carb either.

I'm German, Brazilian, English, and Ukrainian and have zero tolerance-- I just look at carbs and put on weight!

Ashkenazi Jew....I tolerate low sugar veggies, any more than that, and bad things start to happen! I absolutely can't handle any alcohol, which is both a blessing and a curse.

Spanish/Puerto Rican, Cornish, Slovenian, Hungarian. Zero tolerance for carbs, and no induction flu going into ZC or VLC.

Part Irish, part French, part Maori - the jury's still out on my carb sensitivity because I haven't managed to figure it out yet. Too busy focusing on IBS issues still.

White European, of English and German descent, high tolerance for carbs: fruits, starches & sugars. Feel absoulutely awful going low carb and do not need to restrict them in order to lose weight. Dropping dairy and processed foods did the trick.

Mom and most of her sisters run on the very lean side, and my dad and one of his sisters does as well. I have a few pudgy aunts and uncles, but none are morbidly obese. They got the way they are now due to beer and pizza, not genetics, lol.

What do you mean by sensitive? I am 1/2 Hispanic 1/2 caucasian. I have no ill side affects from high carb or gluten or grains or beans. I do not feel well if I don't get enough protien, similar to low blood sugar. But I wouldn't say I have a low carb tolerance at all. I guess that is part of my struggle w paleo, I feel a little better, but it's not been a "life changer" for me :-/ Eta. My weight and muscle tone have not changed since paleo.

Polish, Irish, German/Austrian (border area). Very low tolerance for carbs. Zero tolerance for gluten. I do best on LC/VLC.

Dairy and I are also not really friends, but I hear that could be because I was destroying my intestines with gluten. I'm actually wondering if I'll be able to eat it again once my intestines heal now that I'm fully gluten free again. So, well, that's up in the air.

Italian, Irish, Native American...maybe one or two others in small quantity. I'm good with either low or higher carb depending more on my activity level (have increased workouts and carbs lately still from good sources like fruit and sweet potato). Guess I should say I rarely have than one piece of fruit and one sweet potato in a day and that is a workout day. Have not been tracking my ratios on anything....just feeling my way through. And I feel better eliminating dairy, although I allow for small amounts of cheese. Also I've increased my fat intake and feel better with that too instead of sticking to leaner meats.

Scottish/English/Danish/Jewish(of unknown geographic origin, but guessing somewhere with sun judging from photos...long story).

My carb tolerance seems quite low, but I am also one of those "metabolically deranged" folks, and I wonder if my tolerance will change in the future. I don't have any negative responses to ketosis induction. I've never gone more than a few weeks ZC but feel almost superhuman when I do. I feel dizzy if I eat sweets by themselves.

I'm a WASP, and inherited ADD, low body weight and fat, and blood sugar issues from my dad (my mom, 100% British extraction, has battled her weight since she had me at 26, but only got really fat starting in her mid-40s. My dad is still pretty much a stick. Both love carbs and my dad eats a LOT). I've worried about gaining weight, not losing it. My two sisters are also very slim (5'10" 125 lbs and 5'3" 105 lbs), but their body fat isn't quite as low as mine. Paleo has helped me put on a couple pounds.

I need adequate carbs to feel my best, but too many affect my energy and sleep negatively, in a big way. Wheat is the worst. Balance is key.

I'm Chinese, and I had a problem with my weight ever since childhood (I was obese until recently, when I lost around 80lbs through diet and exercise). I'm hesitant to make generalisations, because I know many Chinese people who seem to stay slim eating rice with every meal, but for me I find that low-carb (under 100g) is optimal for weight loss and maintenance.

I lost most of my weight the "conventional" way: heaps of low-fat processed foods, raw vegetable and fruit overdose, minimal meat consumption (and therefore low-protein). Basically, it was a high-carb, low-fat and low-protein diet, and carefully calorie-controlled. This was coupled with Chronic Cardio (I would run about 8km almost every day). This helped me to lose weight, but it was so hard to maintain and I was hungry all the time. I also regained really quickly when I skipped cardio and decided to eat whatever I wanted for a few days (because I was just so mentally exhausted by being so strict).

(Sound familiar? :D)

Since going Paleo/Primal, and keeping my carbs around 50-70g/day (mainly from vegetables), I've been able to maintain my weight with minimal stress. I'm comfortably full when I go to bed at night, I no longer put undue stress on my joints with intense exercise, and my concentration's improved remarkably. I still count calories (habit's hard to break), but it's now more of a curiosity thing rather than 'this is my set limit'. I eat until I'm full, calories be darned! ;D

Caucasian (Scottish, Spanish, French, Russian Decendency). Less than 150 can survive well off less than 100 with starch root veggies and greens.