The Avg Lifespan / Life Expectancy Canard

[Ferocious]

More science that refutes the lifespan canard:
You would think this would be enough to kill the canard, but I doubt it. Critics of raw Paleo and similar diets just keep mindlessly repeating "nasty, brutish and short" like a religious mantra, and that seems to satisfy them. Anything to keep from having to challenge their cherished beliefs or expend some mental effort, apparently.

But don't hunter-gatherers these days not eat raw paleo?

[PaleoPhil]

What of it, do you think their lives would be shorter if they ate more raw? I haven't seen any of the critics try that tact, though I wouldn't put it past them. They do use the lifespan argument as a criticism of all Paleo diets.

[TylerDurden]

Well, one study or review doesn't mean anything, really. Plus, it even admits that high mortality would explain why other studies showed much shorter lifespans. I mean death by disease cannot be dismissed, in this regard. Also, from what I understood, child mortality was high not low. It certainly was in palaeo times, given the past evidence, though, admittedly, infanticide might well explain some of the deaths.

[cherimoya_kid]

Also, from what I understood, child mortality was high not low. It certainly was in palaeo times, given the past evidence, though, admittedly, infanticide might well explain some of the deaths.

Let's separate child mortality from death in childbirth.  Price's book mentions a Dr. Romig among the Eskimos, here's a quote :

"... similar impressive comment was made to me by Dr. Romig, the superintendent of the government hospital for Eskimos and Indians at Anchorage, Alaska. He stated that in his thirty-six years among the Eskimos, he had never been able to arrive in time to see a normal birth by a primitive Eskimo woman. But conditions have changed materially with the new generation of Eskimo girls, born after their parents began to use foods of modern civilization. Many of them are carried to his hospital after they had been in labour for several days. One Eskimo woman who had married twice, her last husband being a white man, reported to Dr. Romig and myself that she had given birth to twentysix children and that several of them had been born during the night and that she had not bothered to waken her husband, but had introduced him to the new baby in the morning...."

From NAPD, here's the link:

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price18.html


Dr. Price wasn't BSing, either.  I read a book of interviews with Haida Native American women when I was in college.  They also reported that they would have the baby during the night with their husband asleep next to them, then wake their husband in the morning.

[PaleoPhil]

Well, one study or review doesn't mean anything, really. Plus, it even admits that high mortality would explain why other studies showed much shorter lifespans. I mean death by disease cannot be dismissed, in this regard. Also, from what I understood, child mortality was high not low. It certainly was in palaeo times, given the past evidence, though, admittedly, infanticide might well explain some of the deaths.

Of course, EVERY eminent Paleo proponent from Eaton onwards, AFAIK, has characterized acute infectious disease and infant/childhood mortality as CHARACTERISTIC of Paleo/HG societies. It's the long-term CHRONIC disease that characterizes modernity (and hence the self-justifying emphasis on longevity rather than quality of life that one tends to find among apologists for hypermodernity--to them lengthening of serfdom is somehow a blessing). To criticize (raw) Paleo for what it proclaims is actually quite the compliment. Only the super-utopian lesser-knowns like the departed William have claimed that Paleo folk suffered no disease whatsoever. Do Eaton, Cordain, Stefansson, Harris, Guyenet, Masterjohn, Minger, etc. claim this? Of course not. Canard!

Raw Paleo is the most savage of all Paleo approaches, abhorred even by most Paleo dieters; considered disgusting and worthy of nothing but condemnation. How ironic it is that it seems to work better than any other approach and there appear to be fewer failures on raw Paleo than the more "civilized" cooked Paleo, cooked LC, cooked HC, etc.