Karl Mac Mc Kinnon wrote:
>         Now, some of us may have heard about NeanderThin from a friend,
> which means we've got smart (or lucky) freinds.  But anyone on
> NeanderThin, probably the only diet that works, has got to have it
> together to understand the principle behind it.

1. Clearly people have succeeded on other diets. First of all, if they
have an 89% failure rate, that means 11% have succeeded. Second, how do
you know that NeanderThin works? Probably only through your personal
experience and hearing of the experiences of a circle of acquaintances,
both IRL and on the net. What is the total number of successful
NeanderThinners you've encountered? 40? 50? Maybe 200, but still a
smallish sample, and again, totally self-selected.
  Yes, I know, you don't care about the statistics, because you KNOW
it works for you. But take any diet program on the planet, and I can
find you a person who believes in it with exactly the same conviction
that you have.

2. Do you have to understand it to be successful on it? Surely someone
could have just picked up the book, been swept away by the prose, and
tried it, without critically analyzing the arguments.

> Ray Audette writes for a
> high-school level audience, so you don't have to be educated.  But you do
> have to have an insight into your own body in order to say, "Yeah, I'll
> do this."  That's being clever, cunning, or wise.

What does it mean to "have an insight into your own body"? As my example
above illustrates, I don't think you have to be particularly clever just
to buy into a book's premise. How about another counter-example: a
person
who tries just about every diet out there - Atkins, Zone, Ornish,
whatever,
and THEN tries NeanderThin. There's no clever insight here, it's just
the
next diet on the list. Then it happens to work, presumably.


>         People who understand the concept behind NeanderThin and agree
> with it, and then say "But I could never give up my icecream!" or
> something like that, are fools.  They live with contant alergenic effects
> of an embattled immune system while we have quick rates of healing and
> very minor illness.  We need less sleep and have more energy while
> awake.  In short, we are transformed from Man into Caveman.

Ok, you've gone from saying that NeanderThin works to saying that ONLY
NeanderThin works. This is just wrong... there are all kinds of
exceedingly healthy people out there who have never heard of paleolithic
eating, and who certainly don't practice it.


Toby