If the U.S. went Paleo, IMO, I don't think it would be without a fight from
the big dairy companies, the agricultural companies, etc. I believe you
would begin to see the political action groups in D.C. threatening to pull
donations and lobbyists scurrying around trying to fix the "problem". I
think you would also see lots of news reports about the dangers of such a
diet, whether real dangers existed or not, people who half followed such a
diet and then became severely ill, etc. Unfortunately it seems that he who
has the most money, sets the governments' policies here in the states.
Since discovering the Paleo diet, I now laugh when I watch the news reports
that lament the declining physical state of the U.S. population. The
reporters will make statements like, "Despite following low-fat diets and an
increase in exercise, Americans are still getting fatter." All we need to do
is get away from the low-fat diets, kick processed foods to the curb, and we
would be well on our way to improved health. Again, IMO, the government
don't want you to know that, they would loose too much money if they
offended the big business men. I do see a positive light in all of this.
With the availability of the Internet, and the rate at which information is
becoming available via the net, people will begin to question all of these
things. In the past, we kind of had to take their (government) word for it,
those days are gone thanks to technology.
As far as mainstream media is concerned, I doubt you will see many of the
popular magazines, touting the benefits of a paleo diet any time soon. The
fad is still low-fat, high carb diets, almost every bodybuilding publication
emphasizes the need for carbs (the bad kind) for muscular growth, and
maximum training performance. They fail to mention the need for steroids in
order to gain the freaky size the muscle magazines display. The media will
continue to be the lap-dogs for the government, the Internet is currently
the only source I'm aware of, at least in the States, where you can find
both sides of a story. Having been a weightlifter for over half of my life,
I've read the gamut of diet and health books available. They all tend to
repeat one another and most often the advice or routines are completely
absurd for normal, non-drug using athletes. That's a different topic for a
different list, however I do own a copy of Lyle McDonald's book - The
Ketogenic Diet - an excellent book, one of the best I've read. Lyle and I
communicate every now and then, he even signed my copy of his book. The next
book that I am going to purchase is the NeanderThin book, is it available in
bookstores or over the net only? It's actually Lyle's book that started to
make me think about current diet trends, I had really never thought much
about diet until then. I lifted and I ate, as long as I didn't get fat, I
wasn't concerned about my diet too much. Then Lyle's book made me think,
then a Dr. Dave Lewandowski, has pointed me in the Paleo-diet direction.
I've read some of the information at the paleo-diet website and look forward
to receiving the future Paleofood  Digests. This diet, along with proper
exercise makes perfectly logical sense. Sorry for the long-windedness, I
tend to ramble at times.

Chuck