[babblefrog]

A couple of points:

1. Most or all of the mummies studied were from neolithic societies, not paleolithic. The only one that might be considered paleolithic is the Unangan, but even these are from decades after they were conquered by the Russians. So they may very well have had white flour and processed sugar in their diet. I couldn't find information about their diet during this period.

2. The time needed for natural selection to work. I'm not convinced by this one. The examples that were given would have had higher selection pressure on the young during their child-bearing years. I would guess that the selection pressure from diseases of old-age would be much less, and would take many more generations to be felt.

Still some good points to be made about the naturalistic fallacy.

[skittles]

Seems like even scientists don't have a good understanding of diet. I just watched a show that mentioned Henry VIII's diet. They mentioned how it made him fat because of all the meat he ate. I thought "that doesn't sound right" and looked it up. He didn't eat vegetables (considered peasant food at the time) and ate a lot of meat. What probably made him fat though was all the bread, desserts, ale, and wine mixed with sugar. If he stuck to meat and added some vegetables, he would have been fine.