Absolutely, when a health professional asks about my diet, I generally say I eat mainly natural unprocessed food - and get the response that the diet is great. The few times I've slipped and said paleo, I get confused looks and mumblings about it being a fad diet.

The way I see it is that I'm not trying to replicate a way of living. A paleo dude wouldn't be refusing sweet fruit or honey, whereas I do. I would say my diet is inspired by evidence of the health status of paleo and modern hunter gatherer groups and is more about what they didn't eat (processed crap) than arguing about whether individual items are paleo. If you're healthy and the food is edible in its natural and unprocessed form (with cooking if required), or could have minimal processing in a basic kitchen, then eat at will. If we're not healthy then food choices have to be curtailed a bit more.

Unfortunately while 'science' and 'nutrition education' is sponsored by large companies and lobbying groups that are dependant on people eating processed foods to ensure profits, it will be very difficult for the right information on nutrition to become mainstream. There is also a liability issue of many years of government recommendations that high carb, high grain was the right way to eat. I could imagine the correlations between lobbying, campaign contributions and opinions and votes making a viable class action suit. Unfortunately government, business and media are so intertwined that I consider all 'official' and media recommendations to be possibly tainted and therefore subject to question.

The internet is the greatest advance there has been to enable individual power and knowledge, at a time where corporations (allied with government) are seeking to strip individuals of power and knowledge in order to facilitate ever increasing profits.

Wow this turned into a rant - sorry about that. Better stop there.


Lee