HunterMan
Sat, Nov-03-07, 05:22
Welcome one welcome all, its finally here the magna opus of his great threads and the conclusion to his experience gained while paleo dieting, and now without further ado...
Hunterman's Reflections On The True Essence Of The Paleo Diet
Hello all my good friends, I greet you and welcome you to my final thread containing my thoughts about what paleo really is about, but what no one is writing about in any books, lets begin shall we.
I feel people are missing the real point when it comes to eating like a paleolithic personality, people are focusing on what, when where and how people ate along time ago but they always forget to ask the most important question, one which has the most practical significance to us living people here and now. The real question that should be asked is, Why they ate the way they did. We are eating because we want to have good health like our ancestors, right? That is Why we eat this way. But what about our ancestors, what made them eat the way they did for thousands of generations without ever knowing what their ancestors ate? There were no scientific studies, no peer reviewed journals, no examination of human poo, no bone isotope readings, no nothing. So how did a bunch of cave people know what to eat in a way that ensured optimal physical and mental development for thousands of years without ever making a mistake (well almost never). Maybe they passed down the knowledge orally from parents to children, but then who found out that stuff in the first place? Humans have migrated over immense tracts of land and went to places where different animals and plants lived so how did they originally find out what would and would not keep them healthy. This my friends, is how they did it for a time immemorial and what we must continue to do even now. Our paleolithic fore bearers could have only used one method and gone by one result to decide what to eat and what not to eat. The ancients would be their own scientists and decide the truth for them selves, they wouldn't wait around for the enigmatic Cordian to come around and shave the fat off their meat and replace it with a nice jug of canola and flax seed oil, they wouldn't go hunting with the pale and emaciated Ray Audette while he used his sissy falcon to do the hunting for him, they wouldn't sit around Bear and only limit their diet to steaks and coffee while there were so many other things just as good, as some of you may feel the need to mindlessly guard to ways of a particular man, both me and the paleo people would not, why, because what I and them have in common is the desire to go by one rule considering dietary habits, we only go by WHAT WORKS. So how did Paleo people decide what to eat? They ate it themselves, they noted its effects, if it made them stronger, smarter, healthier or alleviated some malady, it was used. If something made them sick, weak, sore or brought up negative side effects it would either be modified to neutralize those effects or would not be consumed, proof of this is the boundless knowledge traditional people possessed of the natural world, certain foods were harvested to give health and development (Animal fats, Organs and Meat) and thousands of vegetables, fruits and herbs were collected to cure medical problems, many food were processed in certain ways to maximize their benefits and to reduce their side effects (brewing teas instead of eating herbs raw, boiling bone for soups instead of eating raw bones and in some cases applying various processes to make grains, seeds and legumes more digestible such as pounding, soaking, cooking etc). The only way these people could have chose the selections and how to prepared them properly was by all done by TRIAL and ERROR.
So to be true to the Paleo Diet you shouldn't necessarily strive to eat WHAT our ancestors ate, but you should strive to eat because of WHY they ate, they never ate just to simply maintain life and barely survive, but they ate to thrive and become strong, intelligent, capable, calm and free from as many ailments as possible, human life is not just about surviving like an animal, humans have to be happy an learn things and build upon life and make the time you have worth something.
That aside you must be asking, as a matter of practicality what should I do now? The answer is simple, put your self in the shoes of a lone cro-magnum baby who was born middle aged, you were also frozen in ice in the Appalachian mountains but global warming has thawed down the icy prison and you emerge, you find your self in a strange new continent called 'Nowadays' all the foods are like nothing you've ever seen and you don't know what to eat to become the best you can be. (Some of you might consider what I refer to as eating by instinct, or what you think your body feels like eating, Well no, I don't propose eating by instinct, that is what savage animals do, the human being must eat by intellect, he sees and observes without bias what works and what doesn't and open mindedly experiments and contemplates on the effects of such substances, he tries a variety of ways to prepare them to make them better to his taste, digestion and to see if any side effects could be minimized or neutralized through cooking or other forms of pre-eating preparation, then and only then after thinking and analyzing does he decide either to adopt or discard the organic matter before him known as 'food')
Back to the story. You are walking down the street where large man made caves (apartment building) that house this continents inhabitants, apparently they live in smaller and more diminutive cockroach infested caves then you did. Anyway you spot a tribe who only eat vegetables and gather in something called a 'Vegan Temple'. There you see a number of anemic ghostlike skeletons who obviously aren't living their lives properly, you decide to grab a handful of vegetables and fruits and continue to look for a more healthy tribe, you throw away the uncooked spinach because it tastes like bitter garbage along with most of the other vegetables, the fruits are either too sour or sweet to be eaten alone so you start to move post haste to find something else. You come across a cave where the inhabitants eat only strange foods, neither fruit nor vegetable, neither meat nor fat, neither water nor soup, they eat rolls of white powder (white bread) and white crystals (sugar) supplemented with various drinks, bars and whatnot (Pepsi, chocolate and lays), they are all morbidly obese and lying on the floor panting for breath while suffering from early onset Coronary Thrombosis, a condition that you can't comprehend, you flee immediately. Next while starving on the street close to death and sad because of the state of disgust you witnessed due to humanity's horrible decline, you hear foot steps and look up, a strange man approaches you, he is clad in fine garments, he stretches out his hand and says 'good day my bully fellow, I am a philanthropist who goes by the name of Dr. Weston Price and I would like to inquire about your fine facial features', you explain how you came from a block of ice after being frozen in it for about 10,000 years ago. After getting his cavity examination tools out of your mouth he offers to bring you to his personal museum where he keeps specimens of live healthy peoples who are only fed their traditional foods, you agree and hope to get some fine grub. 'Hello everyone' says Dr. Price ' I have an new specimen, I mean friend I would like to Introduce' he leads you down where you see a stupendous Swiss man eating cheese and rye bread, a magnificent Masai eating meat,milk and blood, some hardy Scotsmen eating haggis and oats, a jolly Inuit family eating raw fish, an army of Australian aborigines eating a very wide variety of meats, fruits, sweets (honey), vegetables and herbs, there are many more people eating various and very different foods. Dr. Price leads you to a case of human sculls and goes on to tell that some were of your own ancient tribe, exhibiting freedom from dental carries and well formed faces, he also shows that his current specimens, even though eating very different diets, they all exhibit the same physical development and freedom from chronic disease that afflicts many in his time, you eat voraciously of your traditional food compiled by the good doctor which includes but is not limited to, game, organs, corn and some maple syrup fruit acorn cake for desert, then he puts you to bead behind a glass case along with all the others and says good night and turns of the lights, you go to bed sleep and sound, good night dear caveman.
Back to reality. While the groups studied by Dr. Price weren't paleo, they were indeed just as healthy and robust, most knowledge about the hunter-gatherers health and freedom from disease comes from Dr. Prices studies, which is frequently borrowed only to be twisted to the point of view of someone who comes to the wrong conclusions. We think Paleo people were healthy, why? because their bones seem to be strong an well developed, singes of disease do not appear on them frequently, so we assume they were healthy. The traditional groups studied by Price also show strong well formed bones and were observed to be free of disease, therefore if a so called Paleo person was to encounter those people he would most likely would eat the way they do because of the results is has on those people, like him they are strong, healthy and happy. Some even eat grains and legumes prepared in certain ways to neutralize their negative side effects. Remember what they ate doesn't matter, what mattered were the RESULTS they gave.
A modern person could either follow the fanatic opinion of someone and apply the paleo diet incorrectly without ever discovering the true essence of the diet, you will always be a monkey (you) trying to copy a Man (a healthy Paleo person). Or, you could be smart and you yourself could become a Paleolithic Person through thinking and experimenting and discovering for yourself what works and what doesn't, and not by letting some weakling fool in a lab coat tell you what to do. A fool always wants to be, a smart successful person always is. Our ancestors didn't follow what their ancestors ate, because they didn't have the same plants and animals their ancestors ate after they migrated to new lands, through trial and error they found what works for them and they became healthy, if you try through trial and error there will be no difference between you and them, you will be truly following their way of eating and you will be healthier and happier for it. A paleo person would always change their diet as the seasons changed and as they traveled to new lands, they ate nothing specific, they just ate what worked, if you do the same then congratulations you are following the real paleo diet, you are focusing on the idea and rational behind paleo peoples food choices (choosing to eat by results), and not on the impractical pedantic results of that thinking (the actual food they ate), use your minds and follow their ideas of why they ate not necessarily what they ate, because what they ate is simply a result of their mindset, it is their ideas not their food that made them healthy, their ideas were to eat what worked and modify and improve or discard what didn't.
My dear people, I'm not saying all studies and research is worthless, but what I'm saying is different things work for different people, and just because someone doesn't eat the exact food that a cavemen ate, it doesn't make the food unhealthy or non paleo, by thinking and eating what works and not eating what doesn't work is what makes food healthy and paleo, our ancestors would eat anything they found that helped them become better, so if you eat anything that makes you better then your eating exactly as paleo should be. I can't emphasize thinking and doing what works any further, it is what guided paleo peoples choices regarding food. Paleo is a mindset not a diet, I guides what you eat by their results, and doesn't dictate WHAT to eat for those results.
Yes it just so happens that what cavemen ate are healthy for most, but that doesn't mean you cant eat other things and be healthy, Scotsmen and Alpiners ate grains and were healthy, many traditional groups utilized dairy products and legumes and were as healthy and disease free as cave men, some people drink alcohol and smoke like a chimney but live disease free up to their 90s. Meat and animal products are universally good in the vast, vast majority of people, many tolerate grains, legumes and dairy if prepared properly, in which case they become healthier and stronger. But some get very sick if they take grains, legumes and milk, the key is to find out what works for you and continuously experiment and improve upon it. Remember Dr. Price amongst others found that even though people ate distinct and diverse foods, if prepared properly, they were all as healthy as paleoman before them.
A general rule, animal products are essential for optimal health, eating nutrient dense foods helps maintain health and eating nutrient deficient foods destroys health, excess of anything is bad. The rest is highly variable from person to person.
Conclusion
The Real Paleolithic way of eating is based on thinking and experimenting, not a diet consisting of, or excluding specific foods.
Eat what works for you.
Modify what doesn't work to neutralize its side effects.
Don't eat what makes you sick.
Studies and research are good guidelines but never apply to each and every person.
Good luck on you unique way of eating, Have a good life everyone, and I mean YOU in particular :)
Hunterman's Reflections On The True Essence Of The Paleo Diet
Hello all my good friends, I greet you and welcome you to my final thread containing my thoughts about what paleo really is about, but what no one is writing about in any books, lets begin shall we.
I feel people are missing the real point when it comes to eating like a paleolithic personality, people are focusing on what, when where and how people ate along time ago but they always forget to ask the most important question, one which has the most practical significance to us living people here and now. The real question that should be asked is, Why they ate the way they did. We are eating because we want to have good health like our ancestors, right? That is Why we eat this way. But what about our ancestors, what made them eat the way they did for thousands of generations without ever knowing what their ancestors ate? There were no scientific studies, no peer reviewed journals, no examination of human poo, no bone isotope readings, no nothing. So how did a bunch of cave people know what to eat in a way that ensured optimal physical and mental development for thousands of years without ever making a mistake (well almost never). Maybe they passed down the knowledge orally from parents to children, but then who found out that stuff in the first place? Humans have migrated over immense tracts of land and went to places where different animals and plants lived so how did they originally find out what would and would not keep them healthy. This my friends, is how they did it for a time immemorial and what we must continue to do even now. Our paleolithic fore bearers could have only used one method and gone by one result to decide what to eat and what not to eat. The ancients would be their own scientists and decide the truth for them selves, they wouldn't wait around for the enigmatic Cordian to come around and shave the fat off their meat and replace it with a nice jug of canola and flax seed oil, they wouldn't go hunting with the pale and emaciated Ray Audette while he used his sissy falcon to do the hunting for him, they wouldn't sit around Bear and only limit their diet to steaks and coffee while there were so many other things just as good, as some of you may feel the need to mindlessly guard to ways of a particular man, both me and the paleo people would not, why, because what I and them have in common is the desire to go by one rule considering dietary habits, we only go by WHAT WORKS. So how did Paleo people decide what to eat? They ate it themselves, they noted its effects, if it made them stronger, smarter, healthier or alleviated some malady, it was used. If something made them sick, weak, sore or brought up negative side effects it would either be modified to neutralize those effects or would not be consumed, proof of this is the boundless knowledge traditional people possessed of the natural world, certain foods were harvested to give health and development (Animal fats, Organs and Meat) and thousands of vegetables, fruits and herbs were collected to cure medical problems, many food were processed in certain ways to maximize their benefits and to reduce their side effects (brewing teas instead of eating herbs raw, boiling bone for soups instead of eating raw bones and in some cases applying various processes to make grains, seeds and legumes more digestible such as pounding, soaking, cooking etc). The only way these people could have chose the selections and how to prepared them properly was by all done by TRIAL and ERROR.
So to be true to the Paleo Diet you shouldn't necessarily strive to eat WHAT our ancestors ate, but you should strive to eat because of WHY they ate, they never ate just to simply maintain life and barely survive, but they ate to thrive and become strong, intelligent, capable, calm and free from as many ailments as possible, human life is not just about surviving like an animal, humans have to be happy an learn things and build upon life and make the time you have worth something.
That aside you must be asking, as a matter of practicality what should I do now? The answer is simple, put your self in the shoes of a lone cro-magnum baby who was born middle aged, you were also frozen in ice in the Appalachian mountains but global warming has thawed down the icy prison and you emerge, you find your self in a strange new continent called 'Nowadays' all the foods are like nothing you've ever seen and you don't know what to eat to become the best you can be. (Some of you might consider what I refer to as eating by instinct, or what you think your body feels like eating, Well no, I don't propose eating by instinct, that is what savage animals do, the human being must eat by intellect, he sees and observes without bias what works and what doesn't and open mindedly experiments and contemplates on the effects of such substances, he tries a variety of ways to prepare them to make them better to his taste, digestion and to see if any side effects could be minimized or neutralized through cooking or other forms of pre-eating preparation, then and only then after thinking and analyzing does he decide either to adopt or discard the organic matter before him known as 'food')
Back to the story. You are walking down the street where large man made caves (apartment building) that house this continents inhabitants, apparently they live in smaller and more diminutive cockroach infested caves then you did. Anyway you spot a tribe who only eat vegetables and gather in something called a 'Vegan Temple'. There you see a number of anemic ghostlike skeletons who obviously aren't living their lives properly, you decide to grab a handful of vegetables and fruits and continue to look for a more healthy tribe, you throw away the uncooked spinach because it tastes like bitter garbage along with most of the other vegetables, the fruits are either too sour or sweet to be eaten alone so you start to move post haste to find something else. You come across a cave where the inhabitants eat only strange foods, neither fruit nor vegetable, neither meat nor fat, neither water nor soup, they eat rolls of white powder (white bread) and white crystals (sugar) supplemented with various drinks, bars and whatnot (Pepsi, chocolate and lays), they are all morbidly obese and lying on the floor panting for breath while suffering from early onset Coronary Thrombosis, a condition that you can't comprehend, you flee immediately. Next while starving on the street close to death and sad because of the state of disgust you witnessed due to humanity's horrible decline, you hear foot steps and look up, a strange man approaches you, he is clad in fine garments, he stretches out his hand and says 'good day my bully fellow, I am a philanthropist who goes by the name of Dr. Weston Price and I would like to inquire about your fine facial features', you explain how you came from a block of ice after being frozen in it for about 10,000 years ago. After getting his cavity examination tools out of your mouth he offers to bring you to his personal museum where he keeps specimens of live healthy peoples who are only fed their traditional foods, you agree and hope to get some fine grub. 'Hello everyone' says Dr. Price ' I have an new specimen, I mean friend I would like to Introduce' he leads you down where you see a stupendous Swiss man eating cheese and rye bread, a magnificent Masai eating meat,milk and blood, some hardy Scotsmen eating haggis and oats, a jolly Inuit family eating raw fish, an army of Australian aborigines eating a very wide variety of meats, fruits, sweets (honey), vegetables and herbs, there are many more people eating various and very different foods. Dr. Price leads you to a case of human sculls and goes on to tell that some were of your own ancient tribe, exhibiting freedom from dental carries and well formed faces, he also shows that his current specimens, even though eating very different diets, they all exhibit the same physical development and freedom from chronic disease that afflicts many in his time, you eat voraciously of your traditional food compiled by the good doctor which includes but is not limited to, game, organs, corn and some maple syrup fruit acorn cake for desert, then he puts you to bead behind a glass case along with all the others and says good night and turns of the lights, you go to bed sleep and sound, good night dear caveman.
Back to reality. While the groups studied by Dr. Price weren't paleo, they were indeed just as healthy and robust, most knowledge about the hunter-gatherers health and freedom from disease comes from Dr. Prices studies, which is frequently borrowed only to be twisted to the point of view of someone who comes to the wrong conclusions. We think Paleo people were healthy, why? because their bones seem to be strong an well developed, singes of disease do not appear on them frequently, so we assume they were healthy. The traditional groups studied by Price also show strong well formed bones and were observed to be free of disease, therefore if a so called Paleo person was to encounter those people he would most likely would eat the way they do because of the results is has on those people, like him they are strong, healthy and happy. Some even eat grains and legumes prepared in certain ways to neutralize their negative side effects. Remember what they ate doesn't matter, what mattered were the RESULTS they gave.
A modern person could either follow the fanatic opinion of someone and apply the paleo diet incorrectly without ever discovering the true essence of the diet, you will always be a monkey (you) trying to copy a Man (a healthy Paleo person). Or, you could be smart and you yourself could become a Paleolithic Person through thinking and experimenting and discovering for yourself what works and what doesn't, and not by letting some weakling fool in a lab coat tell you what to do. A fool always wants to be, a smart successful person always is. Our ancestors didn't follow what their ancestors ate, because they didn't have the same plants and animals their ancestors ate after they migrated to new lands, through trial and error they found what works for them and they became healthy, if you try through trial and error there will be no difference between you and them, you will be truly following their way of eating and you will be healthier and happier for it. A paleo person would always change their diet as the seasons changed and as they traveled to new lands, they ate nothing specific, they just ate what worked, if you do the same then congratulations you are following the real paleo diet, you are focusing on the idea and rational behind paleo peoples food choices (choosing to eat by results), and not on the impractical pedantic results of that thinking (the actual food they ate), use your minds and follow their ideas of why they ate not necessarily what they ate, because what they ate is simply a result of their mindset, it is their ideas not their food that made them healthy, their ideas were to eat what worked and modify and improve or discard what didn't.
My dear people, I'm not saying all studies and research is worthless, but what I'm saying is different things work for different people, and just because someone doesn't eat the exact food that a cavemen ate, it doesn't make the food unhealthy or non paleo, by thinking and eating what works and not eating what doesn't work is what makes food healthy and paleo, our ancestors would eat anything they found that helped them become better, so if you eat anything that makes you better then your eating exactly as paleo should be. I can't emphasize thinking and doing what works any further, it is what guided paleo peoples choices regarding food. Paleo is a mindset not a diet, I guides what you eat by their results, and doesn't dictate WHAT to eat for those results.
Yes it just so happens that what cavemen ate are healthy for most, but that doesn't mean you cant eat other things and be healthy, Scotsmen and Alpiners ate grains and were healthy, many traditional groups utilized dairy products and legumes and were as healthy and disease free as cave men, some people drink alcohol and smoke like a chimney but live disease free up to their 90s. Meat and animal products are universally good in the vast, vast majority of people, many tolerate grains, legumes and dairy if prepared properly, in which case they become healthier and stronger. But some get very sick if they take grains, legumes and milk, the key is to find out what works for you and continuously experiment and improve upon it. Remember Dr. Price amongst others found that even though people ate distinct and diverse foods, if prepared properly, they were all as healthy as paleoman before them.
A general rule, animal products are essential for optimal health, eating nutrient dense foods helps maintain health and eating nutrient deficient foods destroys health, excess of anything is bad. The rest is highly variable from person to person.
Conclusion
The Real Paleolithic way of eating is based on thinking and experimenting, not a diet consisting of, or excluding specific foods.
Eat what works for you.
Modify what doesn't work to neutralize its side effects.
Don't eat what makes you sick.
Studies and research are good guidelines but never apply to each and every person.
Good luck on you unique way of eating, Have a good life everyone, and I mean YOU in particular :)