Lynnet wrote:
> The whole trick is that each person has to find the diet that works best 
for him
or her. I used to be a diet bigot with whatever I was doing at the time: no 
more.  If it
works for you, fine!  I humbly hope to find something that works for me long 
term.

I think you are exactly right here.  The truth is that we each have different 
bodies and our needs are not all the same.  I was on a mailing list for the 
Specific Carbohydrate Diet for a while.  This diet, which is meant to treat 
inflammatory bowel disease, happens to be very similar to the paleo diet.  It 
excludes all grains, starchy vegetables, and lactose.  The proponents of this 
diet insisted that this way of eating was what everyone with IBD needed to 
do, and they were (are) very bombastic about it.  When people would try this 
way of eating and remain symptomatic, they would take a "blame the victim" 
attitude and tell the poor sufferer that he or she simply wasn't following 
the diet correctly and was eating "illegal" food.  When I got well without 
following instructions to the letter, I was met with insults and disbelief.  
Some even speculated that I didn't really have ulcerative colitus.  (Trust 
me, I do.)

What I'm trying to do now is learn to listen to my body and let it tell me 
what it wants and needs.  In the end, none of us have "The Answer" with 
regard to nutrition--partially because it's too big a question, and partly 
because there is so much individual variation.  But there is magic in our 
biology, which will tell us EXACTLY what to eat if only we can learn to 
listen without prejudice.  That's how the paleolithic people did it!!

I am finding that when I eat what my body says it wants, I eat a paleo diet.  
The one thing I eat regularly that some say is not paleo is vinegar--balsamic 
and cider vinegar.  Since I use no salt either in cooking or at the table, 
this makes a big difference in taste.  Bizarrely (to me), I'm finding that 
when I let myself eat whatever I want (that includes chocolate, homemade 
cakes and cookies,etc), I find that I don't have as much of a taste for these 
things.  I'm noticing that I don't feel as well after eating them, and I'm 
not as satisfied.  This makes me want them less.  But if I tell myself I 
CANNOT have them, then I crave them.  Tell me I can't have a brownie, and 
I'll eat an entire plate of them.  Tell me I can have as many brownies as my 
heart desires, and (after eating a few and noticing that I don't feel as 
well) I'm happy with a chicken leg instead.

I think it's really important to approach the paleo diet (or any diet) as a 
CHOICE you are making because it improves how you feel.  It can't feel like 
something imposed from the outside.  If people come to this diet with the 
idea that they will have to "deny" themselves a myriad of delicious treats, 
then they will not be able to stick with it.  A good way to ease into this 
diet (for any newcomers who may be lurking) is to simply monitor how you FEEL 
eating different foods.  We tend to eat so unconsciously that we don't always 
notice.

     - Sheryl