Todd wrote:

<< Personally, I cannot discern any difference in how I feel as a
 result of most moderate deviations from paleo.  I don't suffer if
 I eat the croutons on a restaurant salad, or if I consume some
 beans, or whatever.  I don't know of any food that makes me feel
 bad in moderate amounts.  I have found that more than a little
 pasta causes discomfort, but that's about it.  Based on my
 personal experience, as long as I keep carbs low, it doesn't
 matter to the way I feel whether the foods are paleo or not.  If
 I lose control of carbs, I will soon begin to feel the
 consequences, though. >>

Yeah, Todd, I know what you're saying. The obvious problem with this paleo
approach is that it is too rigid. It's not that beans, or wheat, or dairy,
etc., are necessarily bad and unhealthy in themselves, it is what has been
done to them that makes them harmful. It comes down to "quality" of food in
my experience. The reason I can eat rich french pastries (occasionally!) is
that they are high fat, so satiating, are elegantly presented, are made on
the premises by a real Frenchman, use high quality ingredients, and are quite
expensive. All these things contribute. Since the French have a heart attack
rate one-third of the US, then what they eat is likely to be less harmful
than what Americans eat.

The essential difference is the industrialization of the food supply, which
is much more pronounced in this country (US). The French still have family
farms, albeit heavily subsidized, so you have a much better idea of who
actually produced the food. It is not produced by some huge faceless
conglomerate thousands of miles away, and heavily processed.

I regularly eat in an organic restaurant, and I can taste the difference.
Sure I eat the beans. I don't eat the wheat tortillas, though, or the
potatoes, or pasta, since these starches have a very noticeable effect. One
way to learn about this is to actually go to these countries where they have
relatively low rates of these industrial diseses (heart attack, cancer and
diabetes), that is mainly Portugal, Spain, southern France, Italy, Greece,
Turkey, and see what and how they eat. You'll find, for example, that
Italians do not eat much pasta, and they do not drink much latte or
"frappaccino".

Charles
San Diego, CA