RPD query re raw zero-carb

[TylerDurden]

I read somewhere that women find it easier to absorb/digest the fat in their own bodies than men. This makes sense since Palaeo women, when pregnant, could sometimes  find themselves in a famine situation and still have to nourish their baby. So does this perhaps mean that women are far more likely to be adaptable to a raw, zero-carb diet than men are?

[eveheart]

In "real life" I know quite a few LOW carb dieters. I've never actually met a zero-carb dieter, although I've read about them here. Of those people I know, gender does not play a part in whether a person feels fine with restricted carbohydrates. Neither does cooked/raw or any other obvious distinction. Of course, this is just anecdotal evidence, but I think there are probably some attitudinal, metabolic, and/or nutritional variations that are hard to account for.

Along the lines of your thinking, I think that women's fat deposits (hips, thighs, breasts) are a more significant factor when it comes to supplying energy for pregnancy and breastfeeding during food shortages.

The switch between cellular respiration (carb burning) and fermentation (fat burning) is a different matter entirely. For example, a distance-running male hunter has to convert fat to energy efficiently for the chase, but the chase itself is over in a matter of days, not years (as in the case of pregnancy and breastfeeding), so fat storage is more important than ability to digest and absorb fat.