123
« on: July 03, 2010, 03:27:02 am »
I've read quite a bit of Matt Stone the past few months and skimmed through his free e-book. I haven't seen anyone else mention his name on this forum so there might not be a lot of discussion here.
I'll give you my overall view of him first - He's a good storyteller who isn't afraid make very bold statements that don't give you the full or accurate picture of what is really going on. I'll give him credit for experimenting with a large variety of ways to eat, but he unfairly bashes certain diets (low-carb being the main one). Very clearly there are multitudes of people (I have read literally hundreds of journals) that are having enormous success with low-carb and more importantly there are many indigenous cultures (masai, samburu, islanders of tokleau, inuits, nenet, mongolians, plains indians and many others) around the globe who have fared very well for thousands of years low-carbing.
His "solution" to all your problems is to raise your metabolism, which is similar to saying that you must keep breathing to keep you alive. Yes, increasing body temperature is important and this is a probably a good indicator of health, which has not been really discussed much by other paleo/low-carb heroes. I like that he has his own unique way of curing poor health, basically eat all the non-refined sugar, non-omega 6, non-fructose sources you want and make sure you eat any time you are thinking of food. Do this until your morning body temperature is above 98 degrees and weight has stabilized. During this time make sure you rest as much as possible - sleep well, get out in the sun, do not exercise. Many people have had success with this approach, though it is all very short term - just a few months. I think Stone himself has barely been eating this way for a year and even in this time frame he has experimented about.
I think his solution might have some merit and his long term diet doesn't really differ that much than paleo. Eat what you like but keep stay away from certain foods. No need to count fat or carbs. I think its a no brainer that a high calorie diet will increase body temperature. Your body is trying very hard to burn through all the excess calories and I'm not sure how much actual healing is taking place. It could be just another temporary solution to the problem. Even Matt's body temperature dropped the last few months though he gets away with this by saying he was eating lots of sugar and what not.
In the end, I think the overeating solution is merely temporary just like he claims those that have the carb honeymoon. Its the same thing happening here.
Also, he has disturbingly bad logical miscues that I see him repeat over and over again. One of his more famous lines of thought is that since human breast milk has quit a bit of carbs in it then humans are clearly meant to consume lots of carbs. The trouble with this is that carnivorous mammal milk also has a decent chunk of carbs in it but they consume nearly zero carbs once adults. Cows milk also has loads of fat but their diet of grass has no fat in it so clearly looking at breast milk as a indicator of macronutrient profile for adults is a mistake. I see errors of reasoning like this nearly all the time.
Now it seems I am down on Stone but this is not true. I really appreciate his alternate views and have somewhat tried out his high everything diet myself. Low-carb failed me as well and I think that there is much more behind the problem than just macronutrient ratios that cause those who initialy do well with low-carb to fail long term. Biliary insufficiency, mercury poisoning, other toxins and of course whether the food is cooked and from pastured sources can make huge differences and very few of the paleo crowd ever really touch these issues. Also, too much protein might be an issue.
Since this is a discussion forum, so you don't have to command people to discuss in the future.