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Foreword

I

n 1988, Boyd Eaton published “Stone Agers in the Fast Lane.”
It was a call to return to a Paleolithic diet much higher in meat
and animal products than eaten in the 1980s or even today. Now
Kirk Hamilton has written Staying Healthy in the Fast Lane, a call to
limit the dependence of Homo sapiens on animal foods.
Both publications share a common theme: that the modern life-
style is not in keeping with the requirements of human physiology.
The evidence for this mismatch comes from the figures for obesity
and diabetes now in evidence in Western nations, with diabetes
alone at 8 to 9 percent in North America and predicted to double
in the next twenty years. If this scenario holds true, we will see
an increase in renal failure, blindness, and cardiovascular disease
together with many cancers. For these reasons, public awareness
must be stimulated, and much research undertaken, with transla-
tion of this knowledge to the public so that effective preventive
strategies are put in place.
Kirk’s focus has been to stem those lifestyle and dietary fac-
tors, which he sees as the problem in both industrialized and de-
veloping countries:

• Increased consumption of animals products


• Increased consumption of added fats and oils


• Increased consumption of added calorie sweeteners


• An increase in processed grains worldwide, with a decrease
  in developing countries of the percentage of calories from
  grains compared to other food calories


• A decrease in physical activity