On Jan 12, 2006, at 3:51 pm, Brenda Young wrote:

> OK, you young'un's, LOL, listen up.  :)  As I said in my previous  
> post, some of this comes with age, but believe me when I tell you  
> that if you stick to your guns and go about living your life as you  
> believe you should, people will eventually come to respect you for  
> that.  For some people it may take years, yes, but I've had people  
> begrudgingly compliment me for doing what I believe in.  Go and eat  
> out with these people, talk about your "weird" beliefs (but also  
> know when enough is enough and when to shut up:).

Brenda,

I say less and less these days, at least to people I know won't  
listen.  I'm torn really.  Part of me doesn't like seeing people  
suffer miserable ill health for no reason whatsoever.  Another part  
of me thinks that if people are going to be ignorant and obnoxious  
they deserve what they get.

I'm well beyond people questioning my beliefs about food.  I haven't  
found one person yet who can either give me a fact that seriously  
undermines the basic principles of paleo, or ask an important  
question that leaves me either baffled or questioning my beliefs.   
Likewise, I don't know anyone who puts forward a convincing argument  
for a non-paleo scheme (usually the closest I come is to think that  
yes, this other diet is an improvement but only because it is closer  
to paleo in one way or another).


> Be proud of what you know and are.  The reason these people make  
> fun of us is because they are insecure about THEIR beliefs, and  
> because we aren't, it threatens them in some subtle way.  This is  
> not a cliche, it's the truth.

I agree entirely.  I've found that if you want to make a man insecure  
you get better results questioning his diet than his sexuality!  I  
swear the world has gone completely mad...  (I daren't question any  
women on their diet... I value my life too much)


> If they knew exactly what they believed for themselves, they would  
> feel no need to pick on someone else.  Again, be proud that you  
> guys know more at your age than most people do at twice MY age, lol.

I spoke to Ray Audette a good while ago and he signed off the last  
thing he said "keep hunting and gathering knowledge".  I think that  
sums up the attitude you have to take.  A couple of times I thought  
to myself, maybe I know everything I need now and I can leave this  
list... but looking back that was crazy.  I'll never run out of  
things to learn.  The thing is, almost none of it now is about what I  
should eat, or how I should cook it etc, it's about what I  
*shouldn't* eat and *why*.  The reason is, most of my time is spent  
bringing down the dogma surrounding bad diets.  I knew saturated fats  
must be healthy long before I read The Cholesterol Myths, based on  
the health of the Innuit.  But I still read it because people want so- 
called "scientific proof" for everything.  In fact, I've seen people  
witness paleo as an effective means of weight loss and STILL dismiss  
it as witchcraft.


Ashley