Goodbye, Staffan Lindeberg

A photograph Staffan despatched me, exhibiting him 

weighing a Kitavan man as a part of the 

Kitava Examine.

I just lately heard the unhappy information that Staffan Lindeberg, MD, PhD, lead researcher of the Kitava Examine, has died.

Staffan was a devoted researcher and doctor at Lund College in Sweden whose work was impressed by the evolutionary well being precept.  After studying Boyd Eaton and Melvin Konner's seminal 1985 paper on Paleolithic vitamin, in Staffan's phrases, "it step by step dawned on me that John Harvey Kellogg, a vegetarian zealot, had extra affect on dietary recommendation than Charles Darwin had" (Staffan Lindeberg. Meals and Western Illness. 2010).  Lengthy earlier than it was en vogue, he adopted a Paleo-style weight-reduction plan and noticed his personal power illness threat elements, similar to physique weight and blood strain, decline.

Shortly thereafter, Staffan organized the Kitava Examine-- an investigation into the weight-reduction plan and well being of one of many few remaining cultures scarcely touched by industrialization.  Though Kitavans weren't hunter-gatherers by any stretch of the creativeness, they did eat a starchy weight-reduction plan freed from grains, dairy, refined sugar, refined oils, and all processed meals.  In a collection of papers, Staffan reported that the Kitavans confirmed undetectable ranges of weight problems, diabetes, coronary heart assaults, and stroke-- even in previous age.  He went on to conduct randomized, managed trials on the Paleolithic weight-reduction plan, demonstrating that it may scale back power illness threat elements in a Western context.  He revealed an summary his findings in a ebook, Meals and Western Illness.

Staffan's findings have been an necessary counterpoint to the declare that high-carbohydrate diets are fattening and drive power illness.  Right here we had high-quality proof lifelong weight-reduction plan of 70 % unrefined carbohydrate and solely 20 % fats could possibly be in step with lean and infrequently muscular our bodies, and a low threat of the commonest illnesses that afflict us as we speak.

Over time, Staffan has been very beneficiant with me, sending me pictures of the Kitava Examine for my talks, conducting an interview for The Hungry Mind after which reviewing chapter 1, and exchanging scientific concepts.  I at all times appreciated his curiosity and skepticism.

I am positive the circumstances of his dying might be mentioned advert nauseam inside and out of doors the Paleo group.  I do not discover most of these discussions very informative so I will not be collaborating.  If Staffan have been right here, he would most likely level out that what we'd like is not extra anecdotal proof, however extra analysis into the connection between weight-reduction plan and well being.