Via Jamie Scott comes this very interesting ethnographic study: Diets of modern hunter-gatherers vary substantially in their carbohydrate content depending on ecoenvironments. A highlight from the abstract:
Hunter-gatherer diets were characterized by an identical carbohydrate intake (30%-35% of the total energy) over a wide range of latitude intervals (11°-40° north or south of the equator). However, with increasing latitude intervals from 41° to greater than 60°, carbohydrate intake decreased markedly from approximately equal to 20% to 9% or less of the total energy. Hunter-gatherers living in desert and tropical grasslands consumed the most carbohydrates (≈29%-34% of the total energy). Diets of hunter-gatherers living in northern areas (tundra and northern coniferous forest) contained a very low carbohydrate content (≤15% of the total energy).
Check out this image from this blog post to see latitudes at a glance.
Interesting considering this in light of Michael Rose’s theories re diet and your ancestral heritage.
And “they say” that we don’t have any long term studies … Well, maybe not studies, but those people are living the low carb diet.
I think one of the issues re low carb is how low is low? A third of calories from carbs is not a ketogenic diet … at 2000 calories/day, we’re talking about 165 g of carbs.
Interestingly, this is just about the top range of Mark Sisson’s “effortless weight maintenance” in his Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve.
I eat what I crave, now, and that happens to be the fruit from my trees, organic and straight from the branches to my lips. I don’t concern myself with carb counts, focus only on enjoyment and pleasure, the sensual experience of eating. I’m an animal, after all. :)