Paleo diets, in which one eats how early hominids (human ancestors) did, are becoming increasingly popular. Proponents claim our bodies evolved to eat these types of food, especially bone broth, a soup made by cooking animal bones for several hours. They believe it has many health-promoting nutrients, such as cartilage, which can heal our joints, and chondroitin, which promotes nerve regeneration. Skeptics point out that ingested cartilage can’t replenish cartilage in your knees or elbows and ingested chondroitin doesn’t make our brains any healthier. Yet, there is strong anecdotal evidence that people who consume bone broth have fewer metabolic and inflammatory diseases than those who don’t. Therefore, ancient humans knew something about our physiology that we don’t, and that by emulating the way they ate, we can cure many chronic illnesses.
Before we can evaluate claims about the benefits of a particular diet, it’s important to tease apart where the science ends and the mythology begins. The argument that bone broth can help treat diseases because it’s a food that human ancestors ate depends on a variety of assumptions.
1
There is no way to evaluate the strength of the argument without understanding what the assumptions are, whether they are valid or not, and what the impact would be on the argument if they turn out to be unfounded.
The most significant assumption made in this argument is that human ancestors ate in a healthy way. We can only guess what early human physiology was like and how it compares to the physiology of contemporary humans. Similarly, the argument assumes that food today is similar to food hundreds of thousands of years ago. Assuming that physiology and food are comparable, we must then assume that they will interact in the same way. The only evidence provided seems to be that bone broth has the mystique of ancient times, and people enjoy the fantasy of being connected to a timeless history.
Another important assumption related to human history is that early humans lived healthy lives. Surely the way humans evolved to eat is the most salubrious diet possible, the argument claims. There is anecdotal evidence that those who eat a paleo diet have lower rates of inflammatory diseases, but we must assume that there is a causal connection.
2
Maybe those without those diseases prefer paleo diets for some other reason, or there may be a strong placebo effect. Ultimately, the argument assumes that anecdotal evidence without a properly controlled study is sufficient to conclude that eating a certain way will cure disease.
The argument brings up two potential nutrients found in bone broth, but never addresses the objections that these nutrients cannot be processed by the body. The assumption is that this problem is not important.
3
Maybe the author assumes that the nutrients will find a way to get to where they are needed. Or maybe other as-of-yet unidentified nutrients are in the bone broth that can be absorbed. Fundamentally, the argument assumes that even though there is contrary evidence now, a convincing story about cave people is enough justification to ignore that evidence. The only positive evidence is that early humans must have known something, most likely without realizing it. The assumption is that as humans evolved, they would have eventually landed on healthy diets, that they must have existed in balance with nature. Despite the lack of evidence, the argument still assumes that humans today can and should emulate the original diet in order to achieve this balance again.
Ultimately, every step of the argument is based on assumptions that make up for the lack of evidence. If we assume that all of the assumptions are true, then it will be safe to draw the conclusion that paleo diets will help cure disease. However, without any evidence to help determine whether these assumptions are valid, there is no way to verify any of the claims, let alone the grand claim at the end. If any implication proves to be unwarranted, then we will not be able to conclude that paleo diets can treat disease.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-08-23 | Ruhani | 59 | view |
| 2023-08-18 | Mayuresh08 | 70 | view |
| 2023-08-18 | Akash Konar | 55 | view |
| 2023-08-13 | fabjaved | 62 | view |
| 2023-07-16 | hello_kratnesh101 | 47 | view |
- Paleo diets in which one eats how early hominids human ancestors did are becoming increasingly popular Proponents claim our bodies evolved to eat these types of food especially bone broth a soup made by cooking animal bones for several hours They believe 75
- The following is a petition to the city council of Centerville Over the past three years there has been a marked increase in cases of sidewalk rage similar to the irrational anger drivers experience on the road but instead among sidewalk walkers The resul 60
- Paleo diets in which one eats how early hominids human ancestors did are becoming increasingly popular Proponents claim our bodies evolved to eat these types of food especially bone broth a soup made by cooking animal bones for several hours They believe 69
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 28 15
No. of Words: 546 350
No. of Characters: 2637 1500
No. of Different Words: 235 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.834 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.83 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.555 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 176 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 139 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 98 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.604 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.357 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.264 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.524 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.09 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 8 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 83, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a healthy way" with adverb for "healthy"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
...is argument is that human ancestors ate in a healthy way. We can only guess what early human phy...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 15, column 121, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
...the lack of evidence. If we assume that all of the assumptions are true, then it will be s...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, may, similarly, so, still, then, in the same way
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 34.0 19.6327345309 173% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 21.0 12.9520958084 162% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 29.0 13.6137724551 213% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 51.0 28.8173652695 177% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 30.0 16.3942115768 183% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2717.0 2260.96107784 120% => OK
No of words: 546.0 441.139720559 124% => OK
Chars per words: 4.97619047619 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.83390555256 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62836083316 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 247.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.452380952381 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 871.2 705.55239521 123% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 34.8320312356 57.8364921388 60% => OK
Chars per sentence: 108.68 119.503703932 91% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.84 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.64 5.70786347227 46% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 8.0 5.15768463074 155% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 8.20758483034 158% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.173579176866 0.218282227539 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0545797588772 0.0743258471296 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0337374667793 0.0701772020484 48% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0903155206059 0.128457276422 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0400569546741 0.0628817314937 64% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.9 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.6 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.97 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.