On Dec 19, 2005, at 10:33 pm, Robert Kesterson wrote:
> I suppose if I resort to larger quantities of food, I don't.  It's
> less of a problem with lots of nuts and fruits, but the prevailing
> paleo wisdom seems to be that those should be limited and not make
> up too much of the diet.

I feel a bit that way about fruit and nuts too.  But I try to eat
seasonally, so I'm eating more nuts over winter, and less fruit
(mainly just apples, which you can still get UK grown if you like
"cooking" apples).  Either way though, they are more paleo than oats
and paleo!  So if you need to eat fruit and nuts, I'd go for them
first personally.

Can you not just increase your meat intake?  I've taken to eating a
lot of mince meat lately.  A 400g pack plus the fat I fry it in, plus
some veg, probably comes to around 1800Cal.  Then on top of that I
might have some fruit and sometimes some nuts.  That's usually a
day's food for me, and I can prepare and eat it in around an hour.  I
find that very eating a high fat content (60%+ by calories) lets me
run for longer between meals.  Protein + carbs (ie fruit in my case)
is a lot less satisfying for me.


> I do a lot of other work besides the workouts.  I have something of
> a reputation for doing things by hand that most people would use a
> tractor or bulldozer for.  (I think the technical term for it is
> "insanity".)  Granted, these are not tasks that the typical hunter-
> gatherer would have engaged in, but then neither is using a
> computer or driving a car, both tasks I undertake frequently.

Personally I think what you're doing *is* paleo.  If a caveman needed
a boulder moving he had to do it himself.  If the only fruit was on
the top of a tree, he had to climb it himself (or herself...).  Etc
etc...  What's not paleo to my eyes is doing one set of weights so
you can bench press a hippo but can't hold two bags of sugar at arms
length for more than 5 seconds.


> It does mention those.  I didn't mean my list to be exclusive.  But
> then the book also mentions using various sports drinks and energy
> drinks and other such concoctions, which seems completely
> counterintuitive in context of the diet.

Without wanting to seem overly critical of Cordain, his definition of
paleolithic nutrition is a little, well... neolithic by many people's
standards.  He seems to take the view (this is just my
interpretation!) that if something can be scientifically shown to be
used by the body like a food from the paleolithic era, or has not
been shown to cause health problems, then it is acceptable on a paleo
diet.  This is very dangerous thinking!  It has been scientifically
"shown" that saturated fat causes heart disease, and by modern
thinking it is downright obvious to modern scientists that
pasteurised milk is a nutritious and healthy drink for children.

For a long time I ate what was basically a modern diet with paleo
foods.  Eg pork chops with many unseasonal vegetables, followed by a
handful of nuts, several pieces of fruit, maybe some dried fruit and
a few hard boiled eggs.  Now I eat largely meat and whatever
vegetables are in season.  IE, rather than thinking "what can I
convince myself is paleo", I think "what *is* paleo and how can I eat
more of it?"

Sorry if this seems a roundabout rambling way of getting to an
unrelated point, but it took me almost 2 years after I started eating
paleo to start thinking paleo, and it feels a lot more natural now.
No energy drinks for me!!!


> Wow.  I'd starve.  I eat several pounds of food a day (just to keep
> my weight stable takes about 3000 calories/day).  I can't imagine
> doing it all in one sitting.

You mentioned that you want longevity benefits from paleo.  Google
for "intermittent fasting" and you will see the benefits that eating
less often can have.  When I am fitter, I plan to reduce my eating to
4 or 5 days a week too (probably not for a year or so though).

I'm puzzled why you lose weight.  Is this fat or muscle?  I'm 183cm,
about 75kg and 23 years old (not sure I caught your age).  So I'm
quite a bit shorted and lighter than you, but I can survive on
1500-2000Cal daily.  You don't have worn out adrenal glands do you?
(usually indicated by fatigue, dark rings under your eyes, poor
control of body temperature, excessive sweating, craving for salt/
sugar among many other things)  I only ask because it's a very common
metabolic problem that changes your whole body shape and makes weight
gain very difficult.  (Thyroid problems are the other common issue
although the two often come together.)


Ashley