Todd Moody wrote:
This, of course, is the contention of Enig, Fallon and others
(notably Ronald Schmid, author of Traditional Foods are Your Best
Medicine.  See
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0892817356/o/qid=991685544/sr=8-1/ref
=aps_sr_b_1_1/102-5852629-7068123)
This seems to be an important rival to the paleodiet concept.

My reply:
Interestingly, Schmid's views have become more "paleo" over the years.  I
interviewed him about six months ago.  He says that he finds that many of
his patients just don't do well with beans and legumes.  He says the same
for nuts and seeds, which he thinks can cause a lot of allergy, skin, and
digestive problems.  He recommends less and less grain now, often adivising
his patients to avoid it altogether.  He now recommends less fish than in
his book, because of concerns about pollution of our oceans, and more red
meat (grass fed). He is still fond of pasture raised raw (unpasteurized)
milk, cream, and yogurt, if one can get them.  He lives in one of the two or
three states in the nation that allow the sale of raw milk.

Dr. Schmid often recommends a very low carb diet rich in meat, fowl, eggs,
fish, cod liver oil, butter, a large amount of leafy greens, particularly
raw salads (mostly raw veggies, some cooked), and little or no fruit.  What
I'm getting at is that his views have evolved quite a lot since the
publication of his book. His diet is much more along the low-carb or
ketogenic paleo lines, with dairy for those who can get truly pasture raised
and/or raw dairy foods for those who tolerate dairy consumption.  He admits
that some individuals cannot tolerate dairy products  (even organic or
biodynamically raised, and even if cultured into yogurt or kefir).

Overall, the type of diet he advises in his book and in his practice is very
different from the SAD or the typical "health food" diet of processed grain
and cereal products, beans, meat analogs, processed dairy foods, and
desserts.  He is also more into supplements these days.  He has a line of
supplements he created and a web site too. He believes that we need supps to
make up for the deficiencies in our modern foods/depleted soils, etc.
Although he is fairly strong in his admonition that people eat unrefined,
whole foods.

To Schmid, "traditional" refers to non-agricultural or pastoral people
living a simple life and eating very simple food--such as what was eaten by
the peoples Dr. Weston Price visited. Schmid believes that you should do as
little as possible to the food.  He is not into gourmet our haute cuisine.
Most of what people call "cooking" involves doing a lot to the food.  To
him, a great meal is a very rare steak, lightly grilled, and served with a
big salad with some raw apple cider vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and some
dulse seaweed tossed in.  As mentioned, he is a fan of plain, whole raw milk
and raw cream (unadulterated).  To him "traditional" fare is fairly
primitive.

In contrast Sally Fallon considers "traditional" to be something altogether
different.  You could say that she views traditional in a more modern light.
Her style is very gourmet with heavy reliance on cream, butter, and
wine-based sauces, pickles, cakes, pies, pastries, etc.  Her recipes are
more fussy and involved.  She has said in print that she looked at cookbooks
from the 1800s (you know, the ones with cakes, pies, and pastires that
included a lot of flour, butter or lard, etc) to get an idea of how people
were eating.  Fallon's book has more than 70 recipes that call for Sucanat
(another name for sugar, although she claims that it is very nutritious!).
she provides in her book many cakes, pies, cookies, pastires, etc.  Although
she is a proponent of Dr. Weston Price's work, the healthy people Price
studied did not use sugar or make sugary desserts or cook gourmet French
food.   So, her book s a bit of departure from Price's findings.

So, my point is that traditional can mean very different things to different
people.

Cheers,
Rachel