CAVEMAN'S DIET VS. TODAY'S DIET AMONG FASCINATING TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED AT ANTHROPOLOGICAL MEDICINE LECTURE AT MUSEUM


The public will have the opportunity Tuesday, May 18, at 7 p.m., to learn about anthropological medicine from an expert in the field and they'll hear about it in an apropos setting: the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Art & Archeology of Emory University. The lecture will be in the museum's Reception Hall, level three, 571 Kilgo St., Atlanta. For information, call 404/ 727-5686. Charge: $5 to be paid at the door.

Emory radiologist and anthropologist S. Boyd Eaton, M.D., will discuss how he and others like him deduce much about today's medical ills by studying the lifestyles of prehistoric and today's few remaining hunter-gatherer populations.

While our diet may have "evolved" dramatically in the last 15,000 years, our physiology has not, says Dr. Eaton in the popular book he co-authored, The Paleolithic Prescription (Harper & Row [Harper/Collins], 1988).

"Nutrition during the Late Paleolithic was based on wild game and uncultivated vegetal foods -- fruits, vegetables, tubers, legumes, nuts, etc.," Dr. Eaton says. "Humans seldom or never ate cereal grains and they had no dairy foods after weaning. This means the fruit/vegetable component of their diet greatly exceeded ours and that their intake of vitamins, minerals and 'phytochemicals' must have been correspondingly high

Our ancestral diet is that for which our genetically determined metabolism was originally designed. The deviations for it which characterize nutritional patterns common in affluent nations foster degenerative disorders ranging from coronary heart disease to dental cavities. Reinstitution of its essential elements might significantly advance prevention of such conditions."

Dr. Eaton has visited and evaluated primitive populations such as the Kung San people of Africa (National Geographic, 1993) and has studied regions of Asia characterized by high-fiber, low-fat consumption. He also has X-rayed bones at his West Pace Ferry Hospital office from archeological digs to determine health status.