Secola Nieft wrote:

>IMO the real value of these nutritional mailing lists is in the mixing of
>different ideas. Todd Moody is my hero here. He has given variations of
>Neanderthin a go, admitted he had some problems with it and continued his
>research. He shares with the list extremely reasonable and useful
>information, much of which is challenging to Neanderthin purists. If it
>seems than others are "barging in" on the list with foreign ideas,
>well...sheesh, we're all big boys and girls, no? There seems little reason
>to get defensive about it. Unless, of course, your Neanderthin diet has
>become the moral equivilant of what you complain about in vegan pretensions
>(or raw pretentions, or whatever). If that is the case, then no posters to
>this list could question the utility of any Neanderthin supposition and the
>Neanderthin purists end up being as silly as the vegan purist--that is,
>putting ideology over experience, closing one's mind, existing in an
>intellectual rut.

I agree with the above post completely. I have been committed to a
paleo-diet for almost a year now.  For me reading the book Neanderthin was
merely the first step in arriving at this new lifestyle.  I have "read,"
"researched," "questioned," "debated," "experimented" and "evaluated"
before deciding that this diet was right for me.  This seems like it would
be the natural process for most people considering a major lifestyle
change, and this list seems like the best forum for that process to be
carried out.  How many of us simply pick up a book, read it and do what
we're told. In addition, I think that there must be many people on this
list that are in varying states of health or disease which would dictate
some variances in the way they approach the diet (for instance the need to
take supplements if one is deficient in a particular nutrient).  I for one
will miss John's post, and hope that he can be persuaded to change his mind
about leaving the list, but I think that a certain amount of leniency
concerning the content of the posts here must be tolerated. Putting up with
some farout and off topic posts will unfortunately be the consequences of
not becoming too regimented. I have always believed that the exchange of
ideas is a "good" thing and helps one make the most informed choices.



Binnie Betten
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