Rich Travs
Fri, Jan-12-07, 17:17
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6248975.stm
What if humans cast aside processed foods and saturated fats
in favour of the sort of diet our ape-like ancestors once
ate? Nine volunteers gave it a go... and were glad they did
so. ... They set up home in a tented enclosure at Paignton
Zoo, Devon, next to the ape house, in an experiment filmed
for TV. The idea, says Jill Fullerton-Smith, who helped
organise the trial, was that modern diets, often dominated by
processed foods and saturated fats, cause costly health
problems. ... So could an experiment on ordinary people's
lives deliver the healthy eating message?
Nine volunteers, aged 36 to 49, took on the 12-day Evo Diet,
consuming up to five kilos of raw fruit and veg a day. ...
Ms Garton looked for inspiration to the plant-based diet of
our closest relatives, the apes, and devised a three-day
rotating menu of fruit, vegetables, nuts and honey. The
prescribed menu was:
• safe to eat raw; • met adult human daily nutritional
requirements; and • provided 2,300 calories - between the
2,000 recommended for women and 2,500 for men,
Volunteers could also drink water. In the second week,
standard portions of cooked oily fish were introduced - a nod
to a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Among the volunteers was Jon Thornton, 36, a driving
instructor from Sheffield, who had never eaten vegetables,
from childhood upwards.
Weighing in at almost 19-stone, his typical diet read like
the children's book, Mr Strong. Breakfast was four slices of
toast; at 10am a bacon sausage and egg sarnie followed; fish
and chips for tea and a Chinese take-away before bed.
That was before his wife signed up Mr Thornton for the
experiment. Over 12 days he lost 5.7kg (12.5lbs), and reduced
his cholesterol by 20%. His blood pressure also fell. ... The
group's average blood pressure fell from a level of 140/83 -
almost hypertensive
- to 122/76. Though it was not intended to be a weight loss
diet, they dropped 4.4kg
(9.7lbs), on average. ...
What if humans cast aside processed foods and saturated fats
in favour of the sort of diet our ape-like ancestors once
ate? Nine volunteers gave it a go... and were glad they did
so. ... They set up home in a tented enclosure at Paignton
Zoo, Devon, next to the ape house, in an experiment filmed
for TV. The idea, says Jill Fullerton-Smith, who helped
organise the trial, was that modern diets, often dominated by
processed foods and saturated fats, cause costly health
problems. ... So could an experiment on ordinary people's
lives deliver the healthy eating message?
Nine volunteers, aged 36 to 49, took on the 12-day Evo Diet,
consuming up to five kilos of raw fruit and veg a day. ...
Ms Garton looked for inspiration to the plant-based diet of
our closest relatives, the apes, and devised a three-day
rotating menu of fruit, vegetables, nuts and honey. The
prescribed menu was:
• safe to eat raw; • met adult human daily nutritional
requirements; and • provided 2,300 calories - between the
2,000 recommended for women and 2,500 for men,
Volunteers could also drink water. In the second week,
standard portions of cooked oily fish were introduced - a nod
to a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Among the volunteers was Jon Thornton, 36, a driving
instructor from Sheffield, who had never eaten vegetables,
from childhood upwards.
Weighing in at almost 19-stone, his typical diet read like
the children's book, Mr Strong. Breakfast was four slices of
toast; at 10am a bacon sausage and egg sarnie followed; fish
and chips for tea and a Chinese take-away before bed.
That was before his wife signed up Mr Thornton for the
experiment. Over 12 days he lost 5.7kg (12.5lbs), and reduced
his cholesterol by 20%. His blood pressure also fell. ... The
group's average blood pressure fell from a level of 140/83 -
almost hypertensive
- to 122/76. Though it was not intended to be a weight loss
diet, they dropped 4.4kg
(9.7lbs), on average. ...