On 2 May 00, at 14:12, Valerie Goldstein wrote:

> I went to Amazon.com and read the reveiws of Neanderthin b/c I'm trying to
> decide if I want to buy it.  There were 13 reviews.  12 were 5 stars, and 1
> was 2 stars.  Has anyone read the 2 star review?  I'm not sure what to
> think about it.

I'm new to this stuff, so I can't confirm or deny the criticism about acetyl-
Coa......

However, the way I look at this....  It's one of the first of its kind.  To my
knowledge, there's only one other book written for the layman that
encourages and spells out a prehistoric eating pattern.

I always prefer to read several books on the same topic to get different
ways of explaining things and different viewpoints.  Ray's is from the view of
a motivated patient learning how to control his particular diseases.  Protein
Power Lifeplan's chapters on the topic are from the view of doctors treating
patients, as is Dr. Citron's book (I haven't read that one).

Archaeology is always discovering new aspects of our ancestor's lives, so
we can never claim that the Final Book Has Been Written.

And somehow, I doubt that the author would claim that either.

But we shouldn't wait until we have all the answers before we even try to
write anything about it.  Cuz we'll never get to that point.

None of this diet stuff is "written in stone" yet, IMO (har har har  I'll bet too
many people make those kinds of puns on this list, but I just couldn't resist
it).

Finally, IMO, if someone throws away an entire book because of an error in
it, or one small disagreement, then they're missing the forest for the trees.
I would think that if the critic really did want to encourage the world to adopt
a paleo diet, then he'd find a way to reach one of the only author's
espousing it, and make suggestions for the 2nd edition.  Or maybe he
should write his own--perfect--one.

My philosophy with ALL things medical: no matter who is saying what,
don't assume we have all the answers, nor that any particular "fact" is
100% complete and true (except that we're all going to die of something
someday--and who knows, we may even find a way around mortality
someday) because someone will find a way to refute some aspect of it
some day.

Ultimately, we have to read the arguments, weigh them in our own minds,
and make our own decisions to the best of our ability.

That's just my take on this.

Personally, I recommend reading it.  I liked it and wasn't concerned with
whether Ray had dotted all his i's or crossed all his t's.  Future editions can
refine it and other authors & researchers can add and adjust it as time goes
on.  I can look up his references and decide for myself whether the studies
he cites are valid or not. I can test it on my own body for 6 months,
determine whether my health has improved or declined, and decide then
what the next step should be (I'm 38, still young enough, IMO, to
experiment at bit).