I have been reading conflicting information about dairy, sweeteners, etc.

No dairy, grains, sugars (real or fake), processed foods (including vegetable oils), legumes, starches (like potatoes) or alcohol.

Hope this helps. I'm pretty close to this but I still eat butter and use Stevia sometimes.
Some people eat dairy and they call it Primal instead of Paleo (I think lacto-paleo is also accurate).

"Strict" paleo in the modern world finds a runny range of definitions, mostly suited to the emotion of those espousing it. If you take a look around here you'll see that most folks eat what pleases them, despite the label. Therefore, I am suggestion that there is no "strict" about it. Rather, it may be more beneficial to think in terms of approximations. Imagine what you'd be eating if you lived in a primitive tribe 20,000 years ago (meat, leaves, some tubers, some sour fruit and nuts) and then decide how close you are willing to approximate that. Oh, and don't be so befuddled with "recipes." Good luck!

Strict paleo would also eliminate the so-called "nightshade" family of vegetables - tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers (hot/sweet/green).

Serious question: if you're going to eat like your ancestors, wouldn't it depend upon where your ancestors were located, which hemisphere? Actually, another question: which ancestors? From 200 years ago, 10,000 years ago, any specific time in between?

I have had a DNA test & I know where my ancestors came from. & I do best eating the way that they did, no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no white potatoes, no artificial sugars etc. My people the Saami people of Northern Norway reindeer herders ate reindeer meat, fish, other wild game, berries, and other greens & local fruits - not much since they were in the arctic, but berry picking is a big deal in the arctic. I just got back from Northwest Territories - Canadian arctic berry picking & I ate lots of reindeer meat while there. The best meat in the world, free range organic with no pollution. I also drank water from a flowing spring for several weeks!!!! We boated out to the middle of the creek where the water was running & dipped in the buckets & that is what we drank - no boiling!!!! We also caught fresh fish & canned fish in jars in a canner. I ate stir fried fish eggs with chunks of fish & the chopped up fish stomach. I do not like cavier but I loved the cooked fish eggs, they were sorta starchy & almost nutty tasting.

oh & I would say that you need to eat the way your ancestors ate about 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, before agriculture. I am very lucky to know exactly where I came from & that they lived there for 15,000 years very isolated. They were also a very peaceful people & the women were always equal to the men. The women hunted & would lead the family groups. They also owned their own reindeer, so when they were old enough to marry they had their own herd & choose who they wanted!!

Dairy and sweeteners are not strict paleo. Potatoes, grains and processed foods are not paleo.
I don't know of anybody that uses dairy and sweeteners and then refers to their diet as "strict paleo" but maybe somebody does?
There are an awful lot of bandwaggon jumpers around now though who don't want to be very strict with their diet and I have no problem with that but a lot of them do seem very intent on changing the definition of paleo.

gfpaperdol, I think it's great that you know so much about your ancestors, and the food you were eating on your trip to the Canadian artic sounds wonderful! I'm not at all sure about my ancestry. I had an Irish mother and English father, but their ancestors could have originated anywhere. I decided to invent an ancestry that used to eat like this....

Plenty of fatty meat, fish, poultry, eggs
Plenty of green and colorful vegetables
Limited access to fruit, mostly berries
Limited access to coffee, tea, butter, cheese and cream
No access to grains or starchy tubers
No access to sugar
Occasional access to fermented fruit (which I like to call wine)
Occasional access to cocoa (which I like to call 90% chocolate)


I also don't know in what era these mythical ancestors existed, but since I discovered their w.o.e. 18 months ago it has improved my health and weight more than I ever dreamed possible. I choose to call it Primal, although obviously other people may have very different ideas of what Primal means to them.

Depends on where you came from for sure.

Sour fruits were not the only ones; that is a paleo myth.

Dates (those little sweet bombs) are prehistoric.
Yes there are modified ones, like the medjools, but most others available have been around forever.

There's also a lot of tropical fruit that is wild and sweet from long, long ago.

Be careful. Paleo enthusiasts are an intellectualizing bunch.

This reminds me of a very beautiful, slim, Navajo woman I met in Arizona. She and her husband had been born and raised on the reservation, eating a diet that had some SAD elements but mostly traditional Navajo food. They eventually left the reservation and ate nothing but the SAD. Her husband loved hamburgers, french fries, sodas, etc. and they both gained a tremendous amount of weight. At age 50 he had a severe heart attack. After that scare they both went back to traditional Navajo food with no SAD elements. By the time I met this lady she was in her 60s, slim and extremely healthy (we met on a hike in the desert). She said her husband lost all the extra weight and is also healthy and thriving.

I believe (and others more knowledgable than I will correct me if necessary) that corn, beans, and potatoes figure prominantly in the traditional American Indian cuisine of the Southwest, all of which are harmful for me but clearly not for this couple, presumably because it was indeed the food of their ancestors.

I'm of Irish, Scot, French and German ancestry (possibly a bit English too). Per the history I've read before agriculture really took hold my ancestors ate meat, milk, and cheese, berries and greens when they were available. I've never had issues with potatoes and other root veggies although I really don't eat them now probably because my ancestors also did well with them.