Hello,

New member here, and I suppose I will introduce myself a bit.

I'm a recovered vegetarian.  I lived in Japan for a while and avoiding
seafood was too hard; it was a slippery slope to eating birds and mammals,
and I have since then been essentially on a "Dr Weil" diet.  In other words,
I try to eat healthy with a focus on diverse vegetables, international
ingredients and techniques, lots of olive oil and salmon.  I do occasionally
fire up the grill for a bison burger.  I was highly allergic to milk as a
child, and cannot eat ice cream etc without some dire consequences.  Cheese
(the more salty and aged, the better) is however no problem, and as I
essentially had it for the first time in my 20s, I made the mistake of
making up for lost time by kindof going overboard both in frequency of
sampling it and $$ spent on boutique cheeses.  I'm in my early 30s now, and
about 20 or 30lbs overweight, which I blame mostly on an office job and the
fact that I do not enjoy walking or biking in my suburban sprawl
neighborhood.  Plans to leave it are another story.

I was alerted to the "paleo diet" concept at first in the Dr Weil book
"Eating Well for Optimum Health", where he gives it half a page or so.  He
says essentially that it makes some since, but has too much fat, not enough
carbohydrates, and that paleolithic people had short lifespans.  Of course I
have seen all of these objections countered elsewhere.

Recently I started to see the "going Paleo" entries over at anthropik.com,
which I saw mentioned on this list as well.  It sounds intriguing for
several reasons, and I am seriously considering giving it a try.

I skimmed/read "Neaderthin" at a bookstore, and didn't feel it was worth
buying as more than a curiosity.  It seems to be held in rather low esteem.
I gave "The Paleo Diet" (Cordain) the same treatment, it looks pretty good.
The Foundation Diet sounds excellent, but I have not been able to find it
locally.  I am a little worried that its written by a psychiatrist, but at
the same time I realize the establishment of Nutrition is not always the
best source  of information.  As far as The Foundation Diet goes, I really
only have the endorsement from anthropik.

From my cursory knowledge, it seems Foundation Diet is much more Atkinsy
(pepperoni chips as snacks???) and the Paleo Diet book has a much higher
value placed on low calories and avoiding red meat to a degree.

So which guide (or others?) is suggested for a novice?  Or is the
information available on the net sufficient?

It seems that this list was once very high traffic and now has slowed.  Is
this something that people were heavily into as it gained fame and have now
moved onto other eating styles, or is there just not much to talk about
after a while?

I am pretty good about eating what I believe I need to, but one other
concern I have with this is that I cannot stand to eat eggs.  If need be, I
can try to intentionally learn to eat them.  I was able to do this with
tomatoes in my 20s, and am very glad I did.  I have not missed eggs in my
life, but they seem a nutritious and affordable paleo staple.

More than anything I am concernced about the social and cultural
challenges...  eating with friends and family.  My partner has absolutely no
interest in this, she laughed when I first mentioned the idea.  I believe
she would be supportive if I made my intentions clear, but its going to make
dining together a constant challenge.  Anyone else been through this?

Thanks for any input!

rob in Long Beach, CA