Jim Swayze wrote:
> The bottom line is that if we stick to our native and natural diets,
> there's no need for drugs, however beneficial we might feel they are
> or perhaps want them to be.
>
I would hazard to guess that paleo man used hallucinogenic drugs when he
could get them, loved food that gave him positive energy both physically
and intellectually, and generally used his food as drugs when it made
sense to him. I don't think that drugs, items that do more for you than
simply supply enough protein/fat/carbs to maintain your life, are
something that was introduced in the neolithic. I'm not inclined to
close my eyes to the benefits that modern discoveries provide and WILL
be taking advantage of them when I find the current evidence and
reasoning compelling.
Regardless of what paleo man did, I use shoes, drive, wear glasses, have
a watch, use air-conditioning in sumer and heating in the winter, drink
purified water, get blood lab work and make adjustments to diet and
supplements accordingly, find ant-aging/longevity studies interesting
and work to take advantage of any benefits to be therefrom derived, use
modern entertainment, go bike riding, eat paleo foods that come from far
outside what is my natural foraging zone, don't live in a close social
group where not conforming to group norms will get me ostracized, don't
have easy access to the hallucinogenic drugs my ancestors used (have
never had the opportunity to try them), use artificial lighting,
socialize over the internet (not always face to face), don't walk miles
and hours a day foraging, am not inclined to eat animal organs, cook
most meat completely except beef which I like rare, live outside my
natural habitat closer to the equator, and generally live a longer, more
productive, more satisfying, more intellectually stimulating life than
my ancestors.
The only thing I want from paleo is the health benefits that can be
derived therefrom and only if they cannot better be obtained elsewhere.
Supplements/drugs offer advantageous above and beyond diet alone, so I'm
not going to take, shall we say, a fundamentalist religious position on
paleo which would exclude any sort of benefits to be derived from
anything non-paleo.
Steve
|