Going Paleo
by Jason GodeskyYou are what you eat, right? It’s more than a simple cliché; it’s a biological truth. The foods you eat are broken down chemically into the building blocks of your body. You are literally made of food. Civilization makes us sick, largely because it feeds us foods we have no adaptation to. Our civilized bodies are made of alien food–bird food, milk for baby calves, but precious little human food. Foragers enjoy a far better life than we do, on many levels, but the transition from civilized to forager is not an easy one. How much of a benefit could we expect, even if all the stress and iniquity of our civilized lives remains constant, just from eating like a forager?
According to the Paleolithic Diet, a lot. Fad diets come and go, and they’re always based on “the latest medical research.” That’s part of the problem. Science does not produce unvarnished truth; science is constantly perfecting itself. Meaning, at any given time, the “latest research” of any kind is precisely the knowledge most likely to be overturned, with the least evidence to support it. Just look at how drastically our ideas about fats, cholesterol, carbohydrates and alcohol have changed over the past decades. Debates that should be worked out in journals are instead hashed out between pop diet books that sell thousands or even millions of copies, with the general public caught in the crossfire. The result is one fad diet after another, and most people deeply, deeply confused about what they’re supposed to eat.
The Paleo diet takes an entirely different starting point. Instead of chasing after whatever last month’s study in JAMA happened to be, the Paleo diet starts with one of the most sound, thoroughly proven tenets of biology: the theory of evolution. No animal evolves in a vacuum, and neither did humans. We have adapted to certain foods, as evidenced by our teeth, the chemicals and enzymes in our digestive tract, and the form of that tract itself. We are omnivores. We eat almost anything on the planet–but not quite everything. As we discussed in thesis #21, humans have no adaptation to eating grains or dairy, the fundamental basis of the civilized diet. Over 90% of all civilized food involves either wheat, rice or corn–none of which the human body is adapted to digest. We discussed some of the consequences of such a diet in thesis #21: from the obvious consequences like obesity, to the less obvious ailments, like cancer.
A 2000 study by Loren Cordain 1 (full text available in PDF in the Vault) corrected previous, skewed results with a more multi-cultural view of the forager spectrum. Previous studies had focused on the !Kung, who have an abnormal attachment to mongongo nuts. This led to the conclusion that hunter-gatherers lived primarily off of gathered plants, some even going so far as to begin talking about, “gatherer-hunters” to correct the misconception that foragers relied primarily on meat. Cordain’s study showed that it was the correction that was a misconception, skewed by the over-emphasis placed on the !Kung. When we look at the full spectrum of foraging diet, as Cordain does, we see a spectrum that varies by latitude. In the arctic, the only green vegetables the Inuit ever see are the ones they scrape from inside a slaughtered caribou stomach. But even at the equator, where foragers have the most choices available, you find that their diet is still predominantly meat. Proteins are always the primary building blocks for cells and tissues, but even for energy, foragers rely on animal fat, rather than carbohydrates the way we do.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but the reason Americans are so unhealthy isn’t because of all that red meat, but because of all that bread. In fact, the civilized diet is predominantly plant matter, where the diet humans evolved with is predominantly meat.2
Yes, foragers had some pretty extreme cholesterol, but it’s increasingly clear that we don’t entirely understand the effects of cholesterol.3 The Paleolithic diet turns a lot of recieved wisdom on its ear,4 but ultimately, our recieved wisdom are points in a debate–our ideas about fat, good fats, bad fats, cholesterol, good cholesterol, bad cholesterol, et cetera ad nauseum change with an alarming frequency–while we need only to look at the health of hunter-gatherers to prove the effectiveness of the Paleolithic diet.5, 6, 7
The Guinea Pig
My friend and Anthropik co-blogger Benjamin Shender went on paleo some time ago. He lost a lot of weight and now enjoys the best health of his life. Myself, I’m in the position of a lot of Americans. I have photos from high school, and I looked pretty good. Like a lot of people, I gained weight in college, and since then, it’s been hard to lose. One of the most striking points in favor of the Paleo diet, for me, was when Ben told me, “Also, your feet won’t hurt anymore.” I hadn’t told him how my feet always hurt–how did he know? It was so obvious once he said it: all the weight they’re constantly under!
To the right, you see a photograph of me taken at 6:50 PM on Tuesday, 28 February 2006. I’m Russian peasant stock, so I carry my weight fairly well–that’s why I only look “overweight” and not “morbidly obese,” even though I’m over 300 pounds. I suffer from an elevated blood function from fatty liver. I was struck after watching Supersize Me at the psychological toll. Many of the physical and psychological problems that Morgan Spurlock suffers in the film have plagued me for years. Besides simple vanity and a desire to look good for my wedding in the fall, my weight is becoming an issue of health, both physical and mental. Civilization is killing me.
I’m going to go paleo.
I have my health to consider, but I also have my future to consider. The Paleolithic diet will accustom my body to the diet of a forager now, rather than later. It’s something we can do immediately to prepare ourselves for the forager life, and reap some of its benefits even as we remain bound to civilization. It’s something I’ve tried to do in the past, only to be frustrated by conflicting needs or a limited budget.
This time, I’m going to make an experiment of it. I’ll be keeping close records, and publishing them here in weekly updates for all to see. With luck, the public pressure and the desire to substantiate my claims that a forager diet improves health will keep me from lapsing this time.
The Hypothesis
The Paleo diet claims to provide a number of advantages. Here’s what I’m expecting to get out of it:
- The Paleo diet makes people move very quickly to their ideal weight. For Giuli, I’d expect weight gain; for me, I’m expecting significant, rapid weight loss. My ideal weight is something around 200 lbs. (I am Russian peasant stock; besides being enormous, I’m also genuinely big-boned), so I’ve got about 100 lbs. to burn off.
- More energy, both from less weight to move around, and from using higher-quality energy sources than carbohydrates.
- The Paleo diet should help alleviate my bouts of depression, allow me to think more clearly, and generally improve both my emotional state and my cognitive abilities.
- I’ve even heard that my complexion will improve.
The Experiment
I’m going with Dr. Burlay’s version of the paleo diet, The Foundation Diet. Burlay is a psychiatrist, and his version emphasizes our cultural construction of food and attitudes about eating, which is probably one of my biggest challenges. Burlay also provides a diet that is more sensible than some others.
The weight-loss portion of the Foundation Diet resembles Atkins; it’s a low-carb diet that induces a state of ketosis. I’ll be monitoring my ketones to make sure I don’t slip into ketoacidosis; I’ll also be monitoring my carbohydrate intake and total calories.
Where the Foundation Diet and Atkin’s Diet differ is that Atkin’s is terribly unsustainable–as many have since discovered. It’s a good way to lose weight, but a terrible way to live. The Foundation Diet allows more fruits as one moves into the maintenance phase.
The first three days are pivotal. They flush the glycogens from the liver and induce ketosis, so I’ll be making another report on that in three days’ time. Then, I’ll be in the weight loss phase proper. Once I’ve approached 200 lbs, I’ll begin the maintenance phase–also known as, the rest of my life.
Until maintence is reached, I’ll be making weekly updates, complete with an updated Excel workbook. Sheet #1 will have daily statistics: ketones, net carbs, net calories, and weight. Sheet #2 will record what I eat: a description, net carbs, and calories. Sheet #3 will record my exercise habits: a description, duration, and calories burned (that’s where daily “net calories” come from).
Official start date: 1 March 2006. Pay day, and that means grocery shopping–and the first day of Lent, to appeal to what Catholic devotion I have left and use it to my advantage.
Dude you are built like me. If this works for you I might even consider it. Would I have to give up the pot of coffee and 3 diet sodas I drink every day?
Comment by TimofSuburbia — 28 February 2006 @ 9:11 PM
Best of skill and determination! Quite inspiring, for all, regardless of our own situations.
(I hope you keep the hair, though!)
Comment by JCamasto — 28 February 2006 @ 9:20 PM
Sheesh, I started this experiment as soon as I read about this in your thesis. Dude, I have been losing weight and have been feeling better and believe once my diet consists of more wild greens (it’s winter here and haven’t made an attempt to find dandelions and such), my energy level will skyrocket.
‘Bout time you joined the club….
Comment by Rick Larson — 28 February 2006 @ 10:34 PM
Yes.
The problem, as I intimated above, is that everything that is cheap and easy is made of grains (noodles, pop-tarts, toast, etc.), so when time or money are constraining factors (in my case, both), paleo may be … difficult, at best.
But Giuli’s learning to cook now, and is willing to compromise on having everything organic (just meat now), so if I can cook up most of the week’s food on the weekend and she can help me out, this thing just became doable.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 28 February 2006 @ 10:39 PM
Buying end of date meat (discounted) and picking dandelions does not cost more than pop tarts and noodles!
One time I fasted for 5 days, it was great, maybe this will jump-start your change of diet!
Comment by Rick Larson — 28 February 2006 @ 10:44 PM
alright Jason!
Paleo time!!!
=)
Yep, Im thinking it’s time for me to be more strict myself…
Comment by Miranda Belcher — 28 February 2006 @ 11:30 PM
Three cheers! If you’re looking for cooking help and/or recipes, just ask and I’ll do what I can. Hell, maybe I’ll be inspired to get back to it… after uh, I finish the non-paleo baked goods I made today. Otherwise I’ve been doing pretty well.
-Mike
Comment by WackyMorningDJ — 28 February 2006 @ 11:49 PM
I wrote this on another article…but I’ll post this comment here as well.
Those who are interested in the paleo diet might want to look on the website
“http://www.westonaprice.org/index.html.”
It is a website that talks about the work of Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist who traveled the whole world to see the health of “primitive” tribes. His studies confirm studies mentioned in this essay.
A summary of his research can be found on this following page: http://www.mercola.com/2001/jan/21/weston_price.htm
He saw all sorts of “primitives”–hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, horticulturalists, even simpler agrarian societies. In his book, “Nutritional and Physical Degeneration,” which he wrote in the 1930s. In the book, you see pictures of primitives with perfect teeth, old primitives without bald hair, and then, those same primitive groups of people with bad teeth and baldness as they became civilized.
Comment by aksum — 28 February 2006 @ 11:50 PM
As St. Augustine put it, “Lord, make me chaste–but not yet!”
Yeah, it was my motto, too….
Thanks, Aksum. I’m quite familiar with Weston Price, and I imagine most of our audience is, too. It’s one of the pillars.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 28 February 2006 @ 11:55 PM
Fasting is usually a bad idea. The only times I recommend it would be if you are trying to facilitate an altered state of mind, or if you’re telling the British to get out.
The first few days are bad. I hope you’ll tell us about that too…just keep the details mellow, we don’t need to be scaring people over cravings when we have the end of the world.
There are a bunch of tricks to the diet that can help you make it cheaper. Including cheaper meat (I prefer the more expensive steaks personally), but stew meat is rather cheap. And stews are easy to make, and are quite paleo…if you make it yourself. The two acceptable paleo methods of thickening a stew are sassafras and putting so much food in that the water barely has room. I like number 2 myself.
No soda, no coffee. You can have as much tea as you want though, and some teas have more caffeine than some coffees.
Comment by Benjamin Shender — 28 February 2006 @ 11:57 PM
Wow! That’s pretty coincidental… We just talked about Mr. Price last Thursday in my Small-Scale Agriculture class. Very interesting stuff. He visited isolated people, who had perfect teeth, and came back to see their children, after roads and civilized foods came in, to find some of the worst teeth he’d ever seen.
Comment by WackyMorningDJ — 28 February 2006 @ 11:58 PM
The fasting wasn’t bad at all Benjamin. Me thinks that hunter/gathers had to fast many times a year, and they had the easiest/best life of all.
Much worse is to stuff your face with buttered bread in order to fatten you up so your kin needs to buy a larger casket and make the funeral directors more money!
Comment by Rick Larson — 1 March 2006 @ 12:21 AM
Fasting is generally not good. Eating civilized is even worse. Just because a flesh wound is better than an amputation doesn’t mean a flesh wound is good.
Foragers pretty much never go hungry. If foragers are going hungry, then there’s probably no multicellular life left on the planet. Going hungry is something farmers do, not foragers.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 1 March 2006 @ 12:27 AM
For fun, I juice-fasted for 10 days (using that lemon juice/cayenne/water/maple syrup stuff). This was all after dropping the wheat & dairy. I found very little problems with energy or my body, which led me to the same conclusion — fasting is sometimes just fine.
Best
Bill Maxwell
Comment by Bill Maxwell — 1 March 2006 @ 12:32 AM
Ok, we have very different definions of fasting then. For me a fast is what the word means in the dictionary. Nothing, no food or drink at all, period. If you were drinking a nutrient-rich shake I wouldn’t consider it fasting. Try nothing at all for a couple days, that’s what I’m talking about.
Comment by Benjamin Shender — 1 March 2006 @ 1:06 AM
Way to go, I’m on Paelo most of the time for about 1 year. I do have best energy levels for all my time.
Strange is that I used to eat porridge and vegetable all my life (32). But I tried and I never look back. I feel much much better now.
Comment by Petr R. — 1 March 2006 @ 3:47 AM
What about squash? Is it paleo? because I use it to thicken stews. re: “The two acceptable paleo methods of thickening a stew are sassafras and putting so much food in that the water barely has room.”
Comment by ChandraShakti — 1 March 2006 @ 5:07 AM
I’m on Paleo after vegan diet. Now I feel great about myself. I was all slim , but after Paleo I lost some weight too. But then, some weight added to my muscle weigh. I am gaining some body built. And I feel much energic than before. And also more relax. I got anxiety, and after Paleo I observed that I feel great about myself (both physical and emotional), decrease in depression. So, yet, there is no anxiety attacks.
And, it affected even my dreams.
Also, I observed some changes about my cronic sinusitis. It ’s going well. Especially grains, and patato (carbonhidrats) affect mucus bad. When you stop eating them, and add onion,garlic etc. in diet, it is good for mucus.
> Foragers pretty much never go hungry. If foragers are going
> hungry, then there’s probably no multicellular life left on the
> planet. Going hungry is something farmers do, not foragers.
And, yes. Jason right. I feel nearlly no hungry in Paleo. But before, I was hungry much. It is beacuse of blood insulin value. When we taking high Glukos (carbonhidrats), the blood insulin value increasing much. but in time cuz of Glukos we took, insulin value decrease much and we feel hunger much. There is a big waving and differences in those values. But in Paleo , there is little waving. So you can’t feel hungry as bread eaters. (sorry for my english, i hope i could explain.)
Comment by Elfun — 1 March 2006 @ 5:12 AM
I’m really interested in seeing how this turns out.
I’m vegan, but I’m also studying evolution, so I do have an interest in the paleo diet.
When we say that no grains are in the paleo diet, is that basically gluten?
I might look into giving up bread because I am overdependant on it.
Comment by Floyd Soul — 1 March 2006 @ 6:17 AM
Are we allowed parsnip? Seriously, I think I could kick the potato habit right now if parsnips were allowed. They’re the greatest veg on the planet. You can mash ‘em, boil ‘em, roast ‘em, slice ‘em thin and fry ‘em in oil - and yet they’re basically big white carrots with attitude.
Cabbage, also, is your friend. Don’t just boil it - stir fry it or shred it into American slaw. (Or maybe that’s just my own Eastern European peasant origins coming out ;-D) And bacon with your cabbage makes a meal fit for a king.
Spinach is a funny one. Repellent on its own, it has an uncanny ability to complement anything with meat or eggs in it.
I did reduced carb for a while. The hardest thing to give up - seriously, the absolute hardest - was toast. It’s like a drug. When I feel weak I still binge on the stuff. What is that all about?
Comment by speedbird — 1 March 2006 @ 7:14 AM
What about all the lactose tolerant people in Northern and Western Europe. Obviously we haven’t had as long to adapt to modern foods, but I still think you are underestimating the capacity for adaptation. Not to say that eating like our ancestors won’t have some obvious benefits, but I’m just not fond of absolutism. Overall, I think that our attitude towards food is far more important that what we actually eat. To illustrate, I remember reading about a survey of centenarians that concluded that attitude was far more important than lifestyle in determining longevity. In other words, I think the paleo-attitude is the most important factor here (not to say that a paleo diet isn’t far healthier than the alternatives, but if it is stressing you out than the costs are probably outweighing the gains)
Comment by limukala — 1 March 2006 @ 7:59 AM
Just to add a little, I think the paleo-lifestyle is probably nearly essential to the paleo-attitude I was speaking of, and at least as important to health. I don’t think it would do much good to switch to the diet of our foraging ancestors and then sit at a desk all day.
Also, about the stew, okra makes a great thickener (all that delicious slime).
Comment by limukala — 1 March 2006 @ 8:04 AM
Sorry for the spamming here, but I would also like to add/elaborate that I think instinctive eating (once the body is freed of addiction to processed foods and the like) is probably the only diet that could be universally applied to great benefit. After all, once one develops the sensitivity to hear what it is saying (as opposed to what the mind desires) than who is really better suited to give dietary advice than one’s own body?
Comment by limukala — 1 March 2006 @ 8:11 AM
“Fasting is generally not good. Eating civilized is even worse. Just because a flesh wound is better than an amputation doesn’t mean a flesh wound is good.”
You can find fasting throughout nature. It is one of the oldest and most natural healing mechanisms. Nearly every animal participates in some kind of fast when they become sick, apart from modern man. It is a perfectly natural way to take the strain off of your digestive system, to allow your body to go to work on whatever nasties are running around in your body. Participating in fasting when you are generally healthy has equally positive effects, because it cleanses us of the industrial poisons in the food we eat, air we breathe, and water we drink. You need to keep that colon healthy!
Fasting should never be done without water, that’s one of the first rules of fasting. It might be helpful to provide a definition of fasting from a book I have on it (so we’re not all barking up different trees) - “Fasting is the intentional abstinence from food for a productive purpose.”
Anyway, back to the topic at hand! I’m currently a vegan and have never felt healthier and more full of energy. After giving up dairy and meat, I fell straight into my ideal weight, my skin cleared up, and my body became unblocked from all that nasty dairy mucus. At the same time I also gave up all Western medicine, and I haven’t touched a pill in over a year. I’ve never felt better.
I’ve always been interested (and slightly skeptical - “where the diet humans evolved with is predominantly meat.2″ - this disagrees with nearly everything I’ve read about the human digestive tract being perfectly suited for digesting vegetation, not meat. I’ll read into your source) of the Paleo diet because my health is near optimum at the moment. But I’ve always wanted to give it a try. Good luck Jason, and keep us updated!
Comment by Dan — 1 March 2006 @ 9:20 AM
“I would also like to add/elaborate that I think instinctive eating (once the body is freed of addiction to processed foods and the like) is probably the only diet that could be universally applied to great benefit. After all, once one develops the sensitivity to hear what it is saying (as opposed to what the mind desires) than who is really better suited to give dietary advice than one’s own body?”
Couldn’t agree more. It’s also ingrained in Eastern wisdom that if you are enjoying what you are eating, your body will “accept” it easier. A well enjoyed candy bar will sometimes go down better than a raw salad that you really didn’t want.
Comment by Dan — 1 March 2006 @ 9:36 AM
“I did reduced carb for a while. The hardest thing to give up - seriously, the absolute hardest - was toast. It’s like a drug. When I feel weak I still binge on the stuff. What is that all about?”
Wanna have a go at this one, Bill? You know far more on the subject than I.
- Chuck
Comment by Chuck — 1 March 2006 @ 9:41 AM
Hey –
Very cool, Jason. Good luck with it.
I have been doing a modified paleo since the first week in January — very little grains and beans, lots of vegies, meat eggs and fruit.
I also started doing a food sensitivity test a couple weeks ago… so far I have ‘tested’ corn masa (tortillas) and brown rice, but I have another ten weeks (at least) before I get through the entire cycle. As I get results on that I’ll be posting…
Also, remember my suggestion on buying whole organic chickens. Roast it and then make broth with the bones and scraps… or just boil the whole damn thing with vegies and you will end up with at least three meals out of it (assuming you both are eating it). One of the most cost effective paleo choices you can find
I’m gonna be interested to compare your food specific food choices with the plan I’m on. So often when I look at ‘paleo eating plans’ I am totally turned off by the derth of fresh vegies, so it will be interesting to see where you go with it… are you working with a doctor on this, or is it all you?
Janene
Comment by Janene — 1 March 2006 @ 9:48 AM
Wow! I find it so funny that my visits here always seem to coincide with topics and thoughts occuring in my own life.
Coincidentally, I’m of 100% Polish peasant stock and have pretty much the same build. Alas, much of my weigh gain was because of 1) my slacker nature resulting in little physical activity, 2) my choice of career putting me in your standard desk chair in front of a computer most of the day, 3) repeating the sitting in front of a computer at home in the evening, and 4) consuming far more calories than a sedentary lifestyle allows for.
While I’ve more or less been “big” since my teen years, and have had to deal with the psychological issues of that, nothing seemed to work in terms of diet change because I wasn’t also changing my lifestyle (3 out of 4 of the things I mentioned above.)
I knew I had finally gone to total hell and by May 9, 2005 I peaked and hit 315lbs. Much like you mention, my weight distribution made people think I was really no more than 250lbs or so based on my body shape. (I think people typically create illusions about what others weigh in some form of internalized “political correctness” because we don’t want to tell our friends how fat they really are.)
I decided to change everything about my life.
I’m now down to 230 with 200 as my ultimate goal. I plateaued at 240 for several months as my body tried to adjust to a rather calorie-restricted diet but I’m finally moving down the scale again. Quite frankly, after being plateaued for so long I’d be totally happy being stuck at 220 if I get there.
Now while I know my current diet (mostly extremely low fat and heavily vegetable-based) isn’t sustainable for the long term, I had to do something drastic to get the weight off and get my body onto a totally different metabolic state. I also go to the gym daily at 5am and try to get at a minimum 50 minutes of cardio in.
The biggest thing I’ve tried to do eliminate the easiest of the processed food items from my typical eating. I threw out everything made with high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup in general, and any form of trans fat. I also try to restrict this when eating out as much as possible.
I’m glad you wrote about the Paleo Diet/Foundation Diets. As I approach the weight loss goal I need to find something to become a general guideline to my maintenance from here on out. These are definitely things I need to explore further and I’m happy I have some starting points to go from now.
However, from my personal experience, while I don’t recommend fasting as a daily thing, I definitely have benefitted from fasting for twice a year 7-14 day fasts.
I’ll admit, I’ve done the Master Cleanse fast now several times (the one Bill Maxwell mentions above) and after modifying it for personal taste, it has given me wonderful starting off points after my body and metabolism have stablized. In fact, it is my modified version of this cleansing fast that finally has gotten me below the 240 plateau. I was leary about anything that I could find no empirical data or studies on but I came across enough examples that lead me to believe there was no danger in this fast. Since I typically consume a lot of water and fiber (in a given day) I’ve never experienced a lot of the complaints people regarding this fast too.
Really though, I think the best benefit is from the calorie restriction and that your body does shunt out and eliminate a lot of “crap” that is stored in the tissues. The benefits of fasting probably wouldn’t be much if a person already maintained a consistent overall better diet.
I eagerly await further updates on your progress as I investigate how well this will work for me.
Oh… Speedbird… cabbage is indeed our friend. But I have to admit that I think it is probably our collective Eastern European cultural baggage that is at work here. I currently can’t imagine removing cabbage from my typical diet as I’ve always identified it with my “Polish-ness”. And my ethnicity has become very important in my adult life.
Comment by Naladahc — 1 March 2006 @ 9:52 AM
Hey –
Sorry, forgot something
Just last night I read an old Discover article on ‘Far Northern Diets’ specifically Inuit and related groups. Once again, there was a lot of info on Omega 3 vs Omega 6 in the diet and the importance of increasing the Omega 3 ratio (wild game and cold water fish/mammals as compared with ‘modern’ vegetable fats that are high in Omega 6)
Also, something I hadn’t seen before — or at least not in such a way as to make sense: colloquially known as ‘rabbit starvation’, they talked about the natural ‘protien ceiling’ of roughly 35 - 40% of your calories coming from protien. In effect, the explanation was that there is a limit to how much protien our livers can handle, so when eating an Atkin’s or paleo type diet, fats become increasingly important as a calorie source. The suggestion was that when eating a high meat diet, something like 2/3 of your calories should come from fat, not protien…
Janene
Comment by Janene — 1 March 2006 @ 11:07 AM
Jason–
I’ve been lurking on this site for awhile. Wanted to give a shout out of encouragement and a piece of info to share with you.
I went from 297 pounds in January of 2003 to a “crackish” 177 in August of that same year. I date my abstinence from sugar and flour to March 9, 2003 and have been abstient therefrom since. I did not do this alone.
I am a firm believer that compulsive eating a la Supersize Me is a physical, mental and spiritual affliction. When I started using a detox food plan, it didn’t take at first, and I was filled with spite. (You might want to warn your loved ones about this. It does pass, but there’s a bit of a hump.) I needed to use a 12-Step Program to get me through this (not Overeaters Anonymous, but one that’s a bit less permissive and a lot more structured).
I don’t know what tribespeople here think of 12-Step Groups, but they help me to erode the civilization-building blocks of isolation and despair. I have flirted with the notion that civilization and addiction might be the same thing, though today I think really the domesticated herd might feel the need to have individual addictions as their crutches to get through the soul-crushing nature of the species-wide disease that is Empire. They seem to reinforce each other, at the very least, in their perceived need for their various definitions of “fixes” be they food, booze, drugs, toxic belief, what have you.
That isn’t to say I don’t hear people stuck in civilization groping in the Dickian dark. It’s not up to me to drag them into awareness of these things, but much of my understanding of how addiction and civilization work together informs a lot of my perceptions of what others share in the safety of “the rooms.” I’ve even referred to my various fellowships as “my tribe” even though a lot of the people are into the tchotchkes of this dying culture.
Interestingly, in the time I started to “get my brains back” I started to really get into meditation and a lot of this interest in Quinn, Zerzan, Jensen, etc. started concurrently with this turn toward the spiritual. I consider all that a side benefit to having gotten abstinent.
I could go on. But think I’ll stop. In any case, good luck with it.
Comment by cinnumeg — 1 March 2006 @ 11:52 AM
I’ve been 100% Paleo for almost 5 months now and see no reason to return to the Standard American Diet. A few recommendations I would make to Jason are,
1) Have lots of fruit around at all times, particularly any types that you like alot regardless of the cost.
2) If you are going out always take a snack. I have grown to love walnuts and they are approved, easy to carry and relatively cheap if bought in bulk.
3) Make your own mayonnaise using flax seed oil and
Canola. Flax seed oil is expensive but I feel it is worth it and making mayo is easy. Being of Eastern European blood myself, I am sure you will enjoy a good coleslaw that is easy to make and very satisfying.
4) Never buy any processed foods as you lose control of imputs. Like above, try to start making your own condiments, sauces, and dressings from scratch.
5) Try bison. This meat is generally grass fed and not too expensive. It might take a bit of searching but I am sure it is available in your area (Pits, PA?)
as I have no trouble getting it here in Toronto. Grass
fed beef is also very good and I found a big difference when switching to it but this is also expensive and surprisingly, more difficult to find than bison.
6) Don’t get too hung up on organic vedgies. I believe these increase cost too much for the return. Better to put that money into more or better meat.
7) Be prepared to spend money. Being Paleo is definately more expensive. This should be expected as the agricultural revolution promised only cheaper more abundant food and not better or even food of equal quality. In fact it is clear that throughout history aristocrats maintained a Paleo diet rich in wild meats, which they often hunted themselves on private reserves, while everyone else ate the foods of slavery. This is one of the aspects of modern society I don’t understand as it appears to me that the rich now largely eat the same crap as everyone else.
Stay with it, this is real.
Mark
Comment by Mark — 1 March 2006 @ 12:11 PM
Squash is paleo, I just didn’t know it would thicken a stew.
Okra? Yuck. Not a huge fan of cabbage either. I’m Russian with some Hungarian and Turkish thrown in.
Lactose tolerance doesn’t mean that milk is good. It simply means you can drink it. With processing we can eat grains, that doesn’t change the fact that you shouldn’t. Ingesting the breast milk from another species is generally not a good idea, besides being really kinky.
The human digestive system is that of a omnivore. Not that of herbivore. Our intestines are too short. We eat infrequently. Our teeth are designed to shred meat and crush plant matter. Etc. I have, as of yet, found no study that claims otherwise that I haven’t been forced to consider specious.
The paleodiet will help your general over-all level of health even without exercise. Which is not to say that exercise won’t help. Indeed, probably the best thing to do would be to simulate the workout of a paleolithic person. Lost of aerobic exercise followed by a relatively short, but intense, application of force. Like that done while hunting. You track, you follow, you stalk, you kill, you drag back.
Grains have addictive properties. And by leaving some in you maintain your body’s dependance. And so you crave. If you don’t, any craving is really your body asking for more calories. Have an orange.
Comment by Benjamin Shender — 1 March 2006 @ 12:44 PM
canola oil is paleo?
I don’t think so. For one thing, unmodified rapeseed is toxic and the modified form (canola) is simply less so. It strips the body of vitamin E and the superlong chain fatty acids are indigestible and horrible for your gi system. It was originally only used as an industrial lubricant, until the canadian government decided to mount a massive PR campaign and paint it as a “health food”.
Also, with the omega3/6 fatty acids, remember, its all about balance. You can easily go too far in the other direction too.
Here is a great page on the health properties of various fats
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html
And okra has a long, well-loved history as a stew thickener. Perhaps it would make more sense if I called it by its creole name, gumbo.
“Lost of aerobic exercise followed by a relatively short, but intense, application of force. Like that done while hunting. You track, you follow, you stalk, you kill, you drag back”
I think your leaving out the women.
Comment by limukala — 1 March 2006 @ 1:03 PM
Also, unless you are descended from the Inuit, I seriously doubt that a all or mostly meat diet is really all that great for you. For one thing, some of the longest lived people on the planet are Sardinians, whose diet is based on grain and includes large quantities of dairy products (notably sheep cheese, pecorino). I doubt you’ll find many people who live longer (I know there are many ancient peoples who claim to have elders 150+ years old, but from the evidence you yourself cited 50 seems more normal for foragers studied (at dickson mounds more like 27-28).
Consider this quote too:
“Beyond the usual association with heart attack, stroke, osteoporosis, colon cancers and other degenerative diseases, animal-based diets foster the growth of pathogenic organisms in the intestine, which can injure the intestinal wall and lead to the “leaky gut syndrome” - a condition of increased intestinal permeability which allows injurious fragments of antigenic food proteins and bacterial breakdown products to leak into the bloodstream (1). These foreign, inflammation-inciting substances can, in turn, exacerbate rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases in tissues throughout the body (2). The bacteria in the colons of people who consume vegan diets are far less likely to cause these kinds of diseases (3).
Repeatedly packing the colon full of meat residue from a high protein diet has been shown to be highly correlated with cancer of the colon - among the leading killers of industrial nations (4). In fact, animal protein seems to be “high octane fuel” for the growth of many kinds of cancers (5). I fear that the apparent improvement experienced by many people who use the “zone” rationale to become big-time carnivores will ultimately be at the cost of damaged vital organs and more lethal and degenerative diseases.”
Here are the studies cited:
(1) a) Galland, L. Intestinal Dysbiosis and the Causes of Disease. Journal of Advancement in Medicine - Vol.6, No.2, Summer, 1993.
b) Inman, R. Antigens, the Gastrointestinal Tract, and Arthritis. Rheumatic Disease Clinics of North America - Vol. 17, No. 2, May 1991.
c) Katz, K. Intestinal mucosal permeability and rheumatological diseases. Bailliere’s Clinical Rheumatology - Vol. 3, No. 2, August, 1989.
(2) a) Kjeldsen-Kragh, J. Controlled trial of fasting and one-year vegetarian diet in rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet, 1991; 338:899-902.
b) Mielants, et al. Intestinal Mucosal Permeability in Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases. II. Role of Disease. (J. Rheumatol. 1991; 18:394-100)
(3) a) Peltonen, R., et al. Changes of Faecal Flora in Rheumatoid Arthritis During Fasting and One-Year Vegetarian Diet. British Journal of Rheumatology 1994; 33:638-643.
b) Ling, W. Shifting from a Conventional Diet to an Uncooked Vegan Diet Reversibly Alters Fecal Hydrolytic Activities in Humans. Journal of Nutrition, 122: 924- 930,1992.
(4) a) Bidoli, E. et al (1992), Food consumption and cancer of the colon and rectum in North-Eastern Italy, International Jnl of Cancer v.50 p.223-229.
b) Rao, A V. & Janezic, S A. (1992), The role of dietary phyosterols in colon carcinogenesis, Nutrition & Cancer v.18 (1) p.43-52.
c) Willett, W C. et al (1990), Relation of meat, fat and fibre intake to the risk of colon cancer in a prospective study among women, New England Jnl of Medicine v.323 (24) p.1664-1672.
(5) a) Mills, P. K. (1988), Animal product consumption and subsequent fatal breast cancer risk among Seventh-Day Adventists, American Jnl of Epidemiology v.127 (3) p.440-453.
b) Fraser, G. E. et al (1991), Diet and lung cancer in California Seventh-Day Adventists, American Jnl of Epidemiology v.133 (7) p.683-693.
I still maintain that you guys aren’t giving evolution its due credit. 10,000 years is quite a long time to evolve if there are significant pressures, such as a new food source. Of course this will be imperfect, but I don’t see any reason to stop eating cheese (especially non-cow cheese) since my european heritage gives me lactose tolerance.
“Ingesting the breast milk from another species is generally not a good idea, besides being really kinky.”
That sounds like a moralistic argument to me, rather than one based on observation or sound science. Even the WAP foundation seems pretty stoked on butter.
Comment by limukala — 1 March 2006 @ 1:40 PM
Would you drink the breast milk of a pig, no seriously! They are a domesticated animal in the same sense that a cow or a goat is a domesticated animal.
It would seem to me that milk genetically designed to be good for a baby cow will probably be better for a baby cow. Same with pigs, though drinking their breast milk makes more sense, after all, we are more closely related to them than we are with cows.
Comment by Miranda Belcher — 1 March 2006 @ 2:06 PM
Hey –
Yeah, on the mayonaisse tip, I’d suggest olive or sunflower oil…
On the anti-meat studies… I would suggest, when looking at those sorts of studies (or ANY diet studies) that great attention be paid to the TOTAL dietary framework they are looking at. Huge quantities of lean, farm raised meat, sans large volumes of raw greenery will certainly clog up your colon. But that is NOT what paleo suggests.
Even the Inuit DID eat high fiber greens — both the pre-digested grasses in the guts of thier prey AND short season fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer. They also favored fish as a staple and fish has a very different structure when it comes to digestion. (Check me on this, Jason, but is itn’t it true that ALL Far North (Far South) cultures relied heavily on seafood?)
Aslo, over on IshCon Rory just asked about coffee and paleo… seeing as how it came up here as well, does anyone know WHY coffee is nixed on the paleo diet?
Janene
Comment by Janene — 1 March 2006 @ 2:11 PM
Hey, Jason, the caption on your photo is broken. Check out what it says.
Comment by _Gi — 1 March 2006 @ 2:56 PM
I’m not surprised to see how many responses Jason’s post has generated quickly. Food issues really seem to get us all going! I’m just back from 3 weeks of teaching permaculture in Belize, at a remote site in the south among Maya agroforesters: superb horticulturalists. Their cash crop is cacao (organic, sold to Green and Black’s) with a little coffee. The beauty there is that these plants require shade, so they’ve got some of the most complex agroforestry systems going I’ve ever seen. An overstory of nitrogen-fixing and timber trees among coconuts and other useful palms, an understory of bananas, cinnamon, allspice, dye trees like annatto, and citrus, with cacao and coffee throughout. Chickens and ducks, and a small field for corn and amaranth greens. Their diet was, I believe, once fairly paleo, except that tortillas and beans have become too much of a staple. These are beautiful horticultural systems, supplemented with a little hunting and fishing.
I’ve been doing essentially the paleo diet for several years, since I found that grains sap my energy and dairy makes my nose run. The inspiration for me was D’Adamo’s Eat Right 4 Your Type, which, although the science isn’t as firm as I’d like it to be, seems very plausible in its thesis that the most common blood group, O, evolved long before grains became part of our diet. Some people do better on grains, and they are usually the A and B blood groups, which seem to have arisen post-agriculture. I’m O, and meat and veggies works best for me.
A Paleo diet starts out being expensive, but greens are really easy to grow. Mustards, arugula, kale, cabbage, some lettuces, and a bunch of perennial greens are very hardy and can make it through winters above 10 degrees F, or even colder with plastic covering. I grow a ton of them year round in a small urban lot. I don’t know what Anthropik’s living situation is, but if you’ve got a yard, grow greens (I think the only health food is food that you harvest yourself, anyway). Besides, it’s a very useful survival skill (seed saving is another I’d add to the list).
Also check out “Lost Crops of the Incas,� which offers many tubers and greens that fit a paleo diet and can be grown in the US. Tubers like oca, mashua, and yacon I’ve grown for years, and they contain carbohydrates that are not converted directly to sugar, so they avoid some of the problems of grains.
I generally stay clear of carno vs. veggie discussions, but I’ll toss in that there are no indigenous vegetarian cultures. The closest would be religious groups like the Jains, but they are all very post-agriculture. And yes, our guts are far too short to process fiber effectively. We’re omnivores. I also wonder how much of the harm from meat comes from its being raised so poisonously and our sedentary lives. But I’ll bow to anyone’s dietary preferences as long as they are choosing food consciously.
One of the big issues in the post-collapse transition will be getting protein. Until the human population drops drastically, everyone with a gun is going to be out there shooting any mammal bigger than a mouse, so I’d expect a shortage of meat at first (all my country neighbors were decent hunters). I’m thinking the interim solution is home-raised chickens, ducks, and rabbits. The first two, particularly, I’ve seen live well off of table scraps and rinds, with a little supplementary food specifically for them. (That’s the hard part, sacrificing food-growing area for meat animals, but they can also eat pods from nitrogen-fixing shrubs that are necessary for soil fertility.) Poultry and rabbits need little space, don’t need stout fences, and are easily trainable. And birds give eggs, feathers, and manure. So they integrate well into human systems, eating a lot of the by-products of our diet. A lot of cities allow up to 3 hens (no roosters), which is enough for eggs but not for meat, but if you’re nice to your neighbors (give them eggs) they won’t turn you in when you raise more than 3. My neighbors have 12.
For exercise, I’d recommend http://goanimal.com which uses animal behavior as a model for human health, exercise, and nutrition. It seems right up Anthropik’s alley, related to what Benjamin wrote about getting exercise modeled after a Paleolithic person’s.
And thanks for the photo, Jason—always good to have a face (and soon-to-slim body!) to attach to the intelligent wordage. Good luck on the paleo feeding.
Toby
Comment by Toby Hemenway — 1 March 2006 @ 2:59 PM
On a quick meat note, guinea pigs. They’re eaten as a source of meat in the Andes and while most U.S. Civ people might wonder at you buying ducks and rabbits, few are even going to twitch when you buy some ‘furry pets.’
Just another tricky way to beat those people trying to clear out the stores come collapse.
Best
Bill Maxwell
(oh… and more on grains later.)
Comment by Bill Maxwell — 1 March 2006 @ 4:05 PM
What about store owners? Don’t they know that the guinea pigs can be a source of guinea bacon?
Comment by _Gi — 1 March 2006 @ 4:12 PM
Does anyone know if Quinn has a position on diet? I think of adopting a Paleo diet as a first concrete step to a new Great Remembering which might reverse what he posits to be the Great Forgetting. Also adherence to this diet calls into question the stance of many great leaders on food. One that comes to mind is Jesus Christ who spent alot of political capital challenging Jewish dietary law. Why did he not point out that grain might not be the best food for us and that it was at the root of our opression? As the Son of God you would imagine that this would not be a stretch. From a Paleo position I am lead to question his position particularly the association of His body with bread. This stuff is poison. How can I take seriously someone who is offering me a substance little better than spun sugar and claiming that this will lead to eternal life?
Mark
Comment by Mark — 1 March 2006 @ 4:58 PM
I never said there was anything wrong with the paleo diet, I was just pointing out that like anything, it does no good to go too far in either direction (excessive meat consumption). Obviously the roughage is very a very important part of the equation.
As far as Inuit go, I believe there is significant regional variation with their diet too. The Inuit of Northern Greenland, for instance, traditionally rely primarily on sea-mammmal meat (narwhal in the summer, walrus in the winter, seal oil for energy). Seafood, for sure, but I imagine digestion is more like redmeat (at least from my limited sampling of seal meat). Doesn’t seem to be much roughage there, since they are consuming mostly predators, the guts would just have more meat. I would wager that, like my ancestors, they have developed some genetic predisposition to their particular food choices.
“Would you drink the breast milk of a pig, no seriously! They are a domesticated animal in the same sense that a cow or a goat is a domesticated animal.
It would seem to me that milk genetically designed to be good for a baby cow will probably be better for a baby cow. Same with pigs, though drinking their breast milk makes more sense, after all, we are more closely related to them than we are with cows.”
My point exactly, this is a quasi-religious argument, and does not rely on observation. Ever heard of symbiosis or evolution? I would wager that if a gene for lactose tolerance has developed, that is a good sign that other factors allowing for the healthy consumption of milk products has developed. Some people are really disgusted by the thought of drinking another animals milk. Great, don’t. It doesn’t make it unhealthy though. Fermented dairy products are great for you, and I have no problem with butter, and it has been used far longer by many more cultures than sunflower or flax-seed oil. Granted, unfermented milk probably isn’t the healthiest.
If milk is so unhealthy you are going to have to explain why the one of the longest lived people in the world eat plenty of cheese (sardinians). Since my S. Italian stock is similar, I doubt my body will have any lasting ill effects. Of course, once again balance and moderation is the key.
Personally, I plan on raising mostly donkeys for milk since they aren’t yet covered by the NAIA and their milk is very similar to human breast milk.
Also, if we are to follow the blood type diet Mr. Hemenway mentioned (which I have strong doubts about for many reasons) my type B blood is supposedly the only one that can tolerate dairy. Hurray for me.
Comment by limukala — 1 March 2006 @ 5:09 PM
There really is life eternal - you know, after the bread eventually kills you. Meantime, while you’re still “alive” waiting for you turn at eternity, we’ll have you build some pyramids for us…
Comment by JCamasto — 1 March 2006 @ 5:19 PM
Thanks, everybody! So far, so good on day #1. I’ll post an update early Saturday morning, along with the first iteration of the Excel spreadsheet. It’s good to hear that my exploits will offer some inspiration–that was my hope. And with luck, you’ll be able to learn from my mistakes, too. Open source diet plan!
Well, I was really referring to food availability, but you’re right.
Adaptation is a powerful thing, but you’re underestimating just how much of a radical change is being asked of our bodies. Lactose tolerance is when you can drink milk without immediately getting sick. Instead, you’re able to pass through most of it. The rest poisons you, such that continuing to drink milk will make you more and more sickly over time. In the end, it can probably kill you. Don’t mistake the term “lactose tolerance” to mean that these are people who are well adapted to drinking cow’s milk. The only animals who can drink cow’s milk regularly and not suffer serious health concerns from it are baby cows.
I don’t know if it’s more important, but