Jim Swayze wrote:

>This may not be your point, Todd, but these people Price studied remained "robustly healthy" eating "post-paleo foods" only in comparison to those on a Standard American Diet.  Their health certainly didn't *improve* by adding non-paleo foods in adulthood.
>
>
I have no idea whether this is so.  There are simply too many
variables.  Price described the isolated Scottish islanders who ate
little but seafood and oats, which grow wild on the islands.  He admired
their robust health.  Oats are supposedly non-paleo, or so we say on
this list.  Do we know that they would have been healthier if they
skipped the oats?  I don't think we know that.  Do we know that they
were less healthy than most hunter-gatherers?  I don't think we know that.

>I don't get you lately, Todd.  Are you on Amadeus' payroll and getting paid for every conversion from paleo?  Does your theorizing demand Cartesian certainty or else you're not on board the paleo bandwagon?
>
I think the latter sums it up, Jim.  I've lost the faith.  My theorizing
doesn't demand Cartesian certainty, but it does require that my
decisions rest on principles that I can regard as sound.  Look at the
following list of "rules" ...

1.  Eat only what is edible raw.
2.  Eat no grains.
3.  Eat no dairy products.
4.  Eat only what is obtainable by means of Stone Age technology.
5.  Eat no legumes.
6.  Eat no tubers.
7.  Eat no New World foods.
8.  Eat only foods that were *staples* of the diet of paleolithic people.

I could extend the list, but there's no need to.  Not everyone who
considers him/herself a paleodiet follower accepts all eight of these
rules (e.g., Audette doesn't accept 7), but that's a minor point.  Are
these rules, and the principles on which they rest, internally
consistent?  They are not.  And that, frankly, bothers me.  On the other
hand, I'm satisfied that for many people, 99% of the health benefits of
"paleo" are attainable by 2 measures: (1) reduction of carbohydrate
intake; (b) eating whole foods as much as possible, whether or not those
foods satisfy some or all of the above rules.

Todd Moody
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