Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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Many people believe you should eat a varied diet because you could develop food allergies to foods you eat regularly, but the Kitavan diet mainly consists of sweet potato, coconut and some fish. We all know they don't suffer from diabetes or heart disease, but are they plagued by other diseases? I presume the Kitavans don't get much calcium and the little they do get probably isn't absorbed properly because of the oxalates in sweet potato and the phytic acid in coconut.

Could the constant ingestion of oxalates also induce a leaky gut, and cause potential inflammation?

http://lowoxalate.info/papers/mechanisms.html

flag	asked Nov 3 2011 at 23:14 ROB 3,372●8●30

"Many people believe you should eat a varied diet because you could develop food allergies to foods you eat regularly," who believes this? – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Nov 3 2011 at 23:19

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And the phytic acid thing is overblown lucastafur.com – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Nov 3 2011 at 23:20

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There have been numerous people touting that food sensitivities are brought on by consistently eating the same food. Dont know if its theory or N=1, but it has been said many times. Seen it mentioned most on here about eggs, but I personally have never had a problem. – JayJay Nov 3 2011 at 23:26

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@melissa...many people...but no seriously, people always stress about the importance of a varied diet and how it should be diversified to prevent the accumulation of the same toxin over and over again. For example lots of sweet potato, lots of oxalates and lots of brocolli would give you lots of goitrogens. I don't know if it is just fear mongering or if there is truth to it, but it appears traditional cultures survive on a very limited diet. – ROB Nov 3 2011 at 23:29

The more I think about it, the less relevant unique population studies seem to be. They are still of great interest, but are becoming less of a factor in my choosing of what is "healthy" to eat. If a diet is very limited in a specific geographic area there is going to be an evolutionary bottleneck, and those who can adapt to thrive on the food available will survive, and hopefully pass those same adaptations on to their young within a few generations. If a population is thriving on sweet potatoes they likely have a unique adaptation to deal with any negative aspects it may present. – Happy Now Jan 4 2012 at 5:03

Heidi · Answer 1 · 2012-01-03 21:46:59Z UTC

I believe the problem is usually the reverse. Oxalates don't usually cause leaky guts, but leaky guts can really cause oxalate problems. Leaky guts allow an increased amount of oxalate into the blood stream and this causes excess inflammation plus other symptoms in your body.

Limited diets and toxin overload in traditional cultures?

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