Cordain is only one example of personal bias getting very much in the way of sound experimental design, David. Have you ever investigated the way he actually came up with the data to support his hypothesis that traditional living Inuit suffer high rates of osteoporosis and fractures. On close examination, it's hardly rigorous. As Bear points out, researchers fall into the same traps of professional pride affecting their objectivity as any human being. They usually just manage to dress it up better. I once heard an interview with Cordain during which the very well informed science journo posed a question which drew his (Cordain's) attention to an aspect of ALL historical anti sat fat research involving the lack of controls for carb intake. He paused, reflected for a moment and then admitted that the role of carb intake, not sat fat, as THE causative factor in the development of CVD, in almost breathtakingly complex jargon, ' warranted further research'. I wanted to scream, but in the same moment I realized that the scientific community actually applauds such ass covering dressed up as professional caution.

Btw. you referred to 'a few' cultures who contradicted this meat diet/skeletal calcium leaching myth as somehow being on a credibility par with some spaced out fruitarian claiming he'd been on a diet of nothing but bananas for decades in perfect health. Also you seem to be intimating that the accumulated pile of flawed (believe me, Cordain's Inuit osteoporosis research is a joke) high vegetation intake paleo diet research somehow is more convincing than contrary reports of how healthy the Inuit actually were, or even individual experiences like the Bears over many decades.

David, basically it comes down to this. Either the Bear is lying (or at best misreporting his diet or his health), or 'paleo' researchers like Cordain need to get more accurate data and stop misinterpreting it, and you need to be a little more critical of 'scientific research'. I know who I find more credible.

But I'd like to refine the Bear's perspective on the dietary typing of homo sapiens a bit. I think we are certainly opportunistic omnivores, but optimal carnivores. Trust humans to work out a way of hedging their bets so they don't need to be obligate anything.