Paleo Diet Analysis: Kitavan Analogue Diet

This weekend I spent some time reading Stephan Guyenet's excellent series of posts on the Kitavans, along with parts of Staffan Lindeberg's website and book Food and Western Disease: An Evolutionary Perspective, which also contain information on the Kitavans.

The Kitavans display exceptional health and live well into their 90s without heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, or other diseases of civilization. They eat eat a diet composed primarily of tubers (sweet potatoes, cassava, yam, taro), coconut, fruit (bananas, guava, watermelon, pineapple), vegetables, and fish. Far from a low carbohydrate or high animal protein diet, this supplies 69% carb, 21% fat, 10% protein. They maintain immunity to modern diseases and have low insulin levels (almost half those of Swedes).

I decided to create a Kitavan diet analogue for analysis. They have an average caloric intake of 2200 kcal per day, so I aimed for that figure and incorporated the foods Lindeberg lists as their staples (above). The food list looks like this (click on images to enlarge for ease of reading):

The diet supplies 376g carbohydrate, 63g fat, and 64g protein.  The macronutrient analysis looks like this:

By energy, 66% carbohydrate, 24% fat, 10% protein, close enough to Lindeberg's reported 69:21:10 to serve as a valid measure.  It contains 52g saturated fat and supplies 20% of calories as saturated fat, again not significantly different from Lindeberg's reported 17% of calories from saturated fat.  Polyunsaturates and monounsaturates each contribute only 1% of calories.

Kitavans, photo source:  Staffan Lindeberg

The four fruits (one serving of each) supply about 72g of the total carbohydrate, which would mean an intake of about 36g of fructose.  Since the Kitavans have low insulin levels and don't have heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, or any other disorder, they seem to provide evidence against the claim that more than 15g/d of fructose causes insulin resistance, etc.

The micronutrient analysis looks like this in tabular then graphic display:

The menu shows shortages in vitamin D and calcium.  Kitavans get plenty of sunshine so don't need dietary vitamin D.  My analysis assumed that they don't consume soft fish bones or make broth from fish bones, probably an incorrect assumption, and also does not account calcium they may get from drinking water (mineral waters can supply up to 500mg per liter), so their calcium intake probably exceeds the level in this menu.

 Kitavan fisherman, photo source:  Staffan Lindeberg 

One note about zinc:  Two thirds of the zinc supplied by this menu comes from one single oyster. Oysters supply 150mg of zinc per 100g serving, so a Kitavan needs only one oyster daily to bring the zinc level to well above recommended levels. 

In short, the Kitavan diet easily supplies all the essential nutrients at recommended levels, and affords a high immunity to modern diseases along with excellent longevity, without a high protein or low carbohydrate intake.