> -----Original Message-----
> > Date:    Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:52:49 -0500
> > From:    =?windows-1252?Q?Philip?= <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Re: Cooking Fats - was Re: Christmas Pudding
> 
> *** And, even though the topic has come up before, people 
> change their minds 
> and ways of doing things with experience and new information. 
> For example, I 
> used to be more hard-core "Paleo", but it seemed as if I was 
> trying to 
> back-engineer the diet using modern analogs and technologies. 
> So, eating 
> unprocessed foods became more important to me than eating 
> strictly "Paleo" 
> as described by certain advocates of the diet. 

Interesting, my personal experience has been more in the other direction.
For example, even though Cordain, Audette and others tend to caution against
eating Paleo foods in too modern a form, such as cookies made from
"Paleolithic" ingredients or fruit juice instead of whole fruit, this
doesn't seem to affect me nearly as badly as eating neolithic foods in
modestly processed form. So, for example, I don't do well when I eat organic
whole grain hot cereal or whole milk, but "Paleo" cookies or muffins (made
with flax seed or nuts instead of grain) and fruit juice don't seem to
bother me. I know that not all people have that experience, of course.

Even though an 
> energy bar 
> might have the same nutrient profile as a proper Paleo meal, 
> it is not the 
> same to me. 

There are not too many retail energy bars that have strictly "Paleo"
ingredients--I think I've heard of one or two and haven't actually seen them
for sale in any stores in my area. Also, it seems to me that a real Paleo
purist would eat pemmican rather than an energy bar, even a home-made bar,
wouldn't they? So I don't see opposition to energy bars as being non-Paleo.
On the contrary, I see that as fitting in well with a strict Paleo approach.


I changed my no-dairy policy to no overprocessed 
> dairy and now 
> drink raw milk from grass-fed goats. Maybe drinking goat milk 
> only goes back 
> 10,000 years or so, but canola oil only goes back 20 years or 
> so. If, to be 
> Paleo, canola oil is ok and dairy is not, I'm satisfied to 
> semi-Paleo (which 
> is much easier, I think, than being semi-vegetarian, or 
> semi-pregnant).
> 
> --Carrie
>

Actually, no one has really defended canola oil here lately, so not all
Paleo dieters believe that canola is Paleo. Ray Audette of NeanderThin,
which I believe was the main influence on the founders of this forum,
certainly does not advocate it. So I wouldn't make a judgement on what it is
to be Paleo on the basis of canola oil alone. I think the essence of the
Paleo diet is eating mainly from the food categories that were consumed in
significant quantities during the Paleolithic era (spanning the period from
around 100,000 to 10,000 years ago)--meats and seafood, vegetables, fruits,
nuts, seeds, teas, herbs and spices--and avoiding the neolithic agrarian
foods--grains, dairy and legumes. One could choose to avoid canola oil
without violating that basic principle. There are disagreements on the finer
details. For example, Cordain thinks honey is bad and Audette does not. Only
one of them can be right. I agree with Audette. Does that mean I should say
I don't agree with the basic theory of Paleolithic nutrition because I
disagree with Cordain about honey? No. It means people will work out the
details as additional research is done and as they discuss their
differences. There will never be complete agreement, and that's fine.

Personally, I don't think any diet guru is right about everything. So if I
were to throw out their work on the basis of a single error, I guess I would
have to throw it all out.