Dr Paul Clayton
Visiting Fellow, Oxford Brookes University Former President, Forum for Food & Health, Rouyal Society of Medicine, London Technical Director, Szent-Gyorgyi Institute of Clinical Pharmaconutrition, Budapest Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, BiotheraPharma (USA)

2008 - 'Back To The Future' - How the mid-Victorians lived better, and longer, than we do today and what we can learn from them.

It has been thought for some time that life expectancy has consistently increased, and will continue to do so. This rather naive theory has been demolished by recent research which shows that during the period 1850 - 1890, life expectancy in Britain matched and exceeded our own. What is more, the (mid-Victorian) population were almost immune to the two major causes of death today, namely cancer and heart disease. This absence of degenerative disease has been linked to the mid-Victorian lifestyle, and to their diet which can best be described as a 'super-Mediterranean' diet. It also resembles the so-called Palaeolithic diet, but has a major advantage over the excellent theories of Eaton, Cordain et al in that unlike the stone age scenario, mid-Victorian dietary habits and health records are extensively documented.

This presentation will review the biochemical and pathophysiological mechanisms linking the mid-Victorian diet to the excellent health of that period, and show how the key elements in the m-V diet can be integrated into today's degraded lifestyle.