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Basic Food: A Theory of Nutrition Hardcover – May 3, 2012
by Harold Kalve (Author)
I find the rudderless nutrition and food industries in the calamity of an obesity epidemic appalling, and therefore I have made an effort to explain what has previously been unexplained. Basic Food takes an evolutionary look at the assimilation to foods by mammals and by inductive reasoning brings us forward to a paleo – like limitation on what we may eat. In the process explanations are offered for the failures of all diets and all intellectual and scientific approaches to nutrition. Also explained is the difference in obesity rates by different races and people of different ethnic backgrounds.
There are considered to be about five thousand species of mammals, and only one applies intelligence to the choices of food consumed. We are the only specie to consistently get it wrong. To get it right, look for the naturalness of foods,instead of calories and nutrients. I define ‘natural’ very narrowly as being the food available during our evolution over thousands of generations.
It became obvious with this analysis that all forms of life have a special relationship with their traditional food and would be unlikely to survive without that relationship.
I take a position that is 180 degrees opposite to the American Academy of Science, the Dietary Advisory Committee and the Department of Agriculture and find myself in agreement with the paleo and low carbohydrate enthusiasts and now also the new diet recommendations from the Swedish Government.
My essay is the only comprehensive explanation of the causes of the obesity epidemic and holds it’s most promising cure.
There are considered to be about five thousand species of mammals, and only one applies intelligence to the choices of food consumed. We are the only specie to consistently get it wrong. To get it right, look for the naturalness of foods,instead of calories and nutrients. I define ‘natural’ very narrowly as being the food available during our evolution over thousands of generations.
It became obvious with this analysis that all forms of life have a special relationship with their traditional food and would be unlikely to survive without that relationship.
I take a position that is 180 degrees opposite to the American Academy of Science, the Dietary Advisory Committee and the Department of Agriculture and find myself in agreement with the paleo and low carbohydrate enthusiasts and now also the new diet recommendations from the Swedish Government.
My essay is the only comprehensive explanation of the causes of the obesity epidemic and holds it’s most promising cure.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Harold Kalve’s looks at the history of man combined with personal experiences to draw some contestable conclusions about the benefits and drawbacks of various foods in avoiding weight gain.
The author, who once worked in the food industry as a fisherman and processor in Alaska, calls his book an essay on preventing obesity. It begins by going back in time to discuss ancestral lifestyles and diets. He then moves to more current farming techniques that he believes have possible adverse health effects, such as adding chemical preservatives and using maize to fatten cattle, which are later processed to bleach out “the offending yellow fat marbled in the meat during the last two weeks before slaughter,” he writes.
Kalve expresses concern about modern milk production, referring to a study that finds that “when raised with raw milk, children are virtually free of allergies and are healthier than those raised with pasteurized milk.” This potentially dangerous statement is made with no data or details to back it up. Near the slim book’s end, he notes how he lost 45 pounds over eight years by gradually eliminating foods that weren’t available 1,000 years ago, such as corn products, potatoes, rice, beans, grain products and all vegetables and fruits (save for berries harvested seasonally).
While he offers a short bibliography of sources at the back of the book, the author’s ideas lack well-defined details and attributions within the text. Due to a disjointed approach, readers don’t learn until the end of the book about the personal experiences that contributed to the ideas he shares. In addition, the book is poorly edited and makes glaring errors such as misspellings of authors’ names (examples: “Perl,” for “Pearl Buck”; “Brian Fagen” for “Fagan” and so on).
The author, who once worked in the food industry as a fisherman and processor in Alaska, calls his book an essay on preventing obesity. It begins by going back in time to discuss ancestral lifestyles and diets. He then moves to more current farming techniques that he believes have possible adverse health effects, such as adding chemical preservatives and using maize to fatten cattle, which are later processed to bleach out “the offending yellow fat marbled in the meat during the last two weeks before slaughter,” he writes.
Kalve expresses concern about modern milk production, referring to a study that finds that “when raised with raw milk, children are virtually free of allergies and are healthier than those raised with pasteurized milk.” This potentially dangerous statement is made with no data or details to back it up. Near the slim book’s end, he notes how he lost 45 pounds over eight years by gradually eliminating foods that weren’t available 1,000 years ago, such as corn products, potatoes, rice, beans, grain products and all vegetables and fruits (save for berries harvested seasonally).
While he offers a short bibliography of sources at the back of the book, the author’s ideas lack well-defined details and attributions within the text. Due to a disjointed approach, readers don’t learn until the end of the book about the personal experiences that contributed to the ideas he shares. In addition, the book is poorly edited and makes glaring errors such as misspellings of authors’ names (examples: “Perl,” for “Pearl Buck”; “Brian Fagen” for “Fagan” and so on).