Plants and presumptions: An assessment of the impact of plant macronutrient variation among hunter-gatherers on the recommendations of the Paleo Diet
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The Paleo Diet is a popular but controversial dietary regime that requires adherents to avoid domesticated plants and replicate the macronutrient distribution (i.e., the percentages of carbohydrates, protein, and fat) found in hunter-gatherer diets. In this thesis, I report a study in which I investigated an aspect of the Paleo Diet that has hitherto been overlooked – namely, its reliance on plant macronutrient values from a single country, Australia. First, I replicated the macronutrient consumption ratios reported in the study that underpins the Paleo Diet (Cordain et al. [2000] American Society for Clinical Nutrition 71, 682-692). I then examined the impact that an alternate set of plant values that Cordain et al. (2000) presented but did not use had on the macronutrient consumption ratios that Cordain et al.’s (2000) method yields. Next, I generated plant macronutrient values for a worldwide sample of ten recent hunter-gatherer societies, and statistically compared the new values to the ones Cordain et al. (2000) reported. Subsequently, I applied Cordain et al.’s (2000) method to the new plant macronutrient values with a view to generate new macronutrient consumption ratios. Thereafter, I statistically compared the new values to the values obtained by Cordain et al. (2000). The analyses revealed that there were some significant differences between the new plant macronutrient values and those that Cordain et al. (2000) created. The analyses also revealed that, in all cases, applying Cordain et al.’s (2000) method to the new macronutrient values produced macronutrient consumption ratios that differ significantly from those reported by Cordain et al. (2000). Together, the results of the analyses indicate that the Paleo Diet’s macronutrient consumption recommendations are dependent on Cordain et al.’s (2000) sample. As such, the recommendations of the Paleo Diet need to be revised or abandoned.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.020 | 0.079 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".