One of the recent questions posed is ‘are low-carb diets healthy?’ and there are some very interesting articles and opinions on the topic. Experts piling in to say ‘yes’ include Dr Richard Feinman, Professor of Biochemistry at Downstate Medical Center (SUNY) in New York and Dr Christopher D Gardner, Director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University.

There are already 20 lengthy comments from readers inspired by the debate, so why not go in and add your thoughts. Of course, not every low carb diet is alike or takes consideration of all the factors involved. And, as with every debate, emotional polemic and generalized waffle make an appearance too. But with both strong science and personal testimonials speaking up for low carb principles, it’s great to see low carb myths start to be smashed.

Thanks to Richard Dawkins’ recent creationist-bashing Channel 4 series, evolution has been a hot topic over the

past few weeks. I enjoyed the programme, and I’d love to see one similarly debunking unscientific diet myths in favour of the evolution of eating.

We are physically designed to be hunter gatherers, surviving on a low carb, high protein diet which is low in grains, starch and sugar. A few weeks ago the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition published an article which show

ed that this diet, that we evolved to eat, is still good for us. Hardly surprising, surely?

Well, in some ways it is. Because for most of us this doesn’t seem like our natural diet any more; we’re used to carbohydrates taking up most space on our plate. However, in evolutionary terms, we’ve only been relying on settled agriculture and mass production of grain for the blink of an eye. OK, so relying on carbohydrates for our energy wasn’t so bad in previous decades, when we worked the energy off with manual labour. But in a post industrial society it quite obviously leads to the obesity and ill health so many struggle with today.

So going back to our roots will help us ensure a healthy future: evolved eating, in other words.