Long before "NeanderThin" I often spoke to people about Paleolithic
Nutrition.  Many people could grasp the principles behind these ideas but
few would actually adopt it as a way of life.  I often wonder what
percentage of people who read the book actually go on the diet.  I
suspect very few.

Other low-carb books share this problem.  On the various low-carb lists
one can find numerous posts about popularizing low-carb and how much peer
pressure people feel to abandon their diets by well meaning friends.
This in spite of the fact that low-carb books have been among the
best selling books since the mid 1850s (Mike Eades collects diet books
and has hundreds).  Check out the amazon.com listings for any of the
popular low-carb authors of today and you'll see how amazingly popular
they are. Many of these authors (not me) are millionares.   When you read
some of their (few) negative reviews among those extolling the amazing
health benifits they have enjoyed, you will also begin to see some of the
reasons why people find this way of eating hard to maintain in polite
society.  Low-carb may work and be scientificy sound, but it is not
politically correct!

This cultural bias against this way of eating has it's origins in
building blocks of civilization.  Among these building blocks are
religion and philosophy.  By artifacts we have dug up and dated we know
that religion preceeded civilization by several 10s of thousands of years
to a time when people first began hunting with dogs.  The hunting weapons
used to hunt with dogs are different than those used without and along
with these new weapons are found the first signs of religion.  These
totemic religions are still practiced by several kinds of
hunter-gatherers.  These religions involve animals with which
hunter-gatherers are dependent. Some of the religious artifacts in daily
use in Australia have been carbon dated to be over 35,000 years old.
When man entered into new symbiotic relationships with plants during the
Neolithic Revolution (10,000 years ago) different forms of religions
arose.  These followed the introductions of new crop species and each
method of agriculture spawned its own forms of religion.  The geographic
distribution of the worlds religions still follow the patterns of these
crop species.  Through the centuries, technological advancements in
agricultural intensification including industrialization have
necessitated altering the beliefs to fit the new requirements of the
crops as this allowed them to expand their biological and geographical
limits.

Think of it this way.  You've just come to the earth for the first time
from some planet many light years away.  As you park your vehicle in a
low orbit, you scan the surface with your field-glasses.  Your first
impression would be that the earth is ruled by a few plant species (all
forbidden fruits)and that the two legged creatures (us) are their slaves.
As anthrpologists view all civilization as agricultural intensification,
in that respect you would correct (thus explaining the crop circles
heh,heh).  Agrarian religion is the plant's book of rules.  How to live
your life in such a way as to insure that the crops come up every year.
Sometimes this involves sacrifice (sometimes your life) and great
devotion to overcome your hunter-gatherer instincts.  Phlilosophers in
seeking to find the good life also do so in response to the problems
inherent in these symbiotic relationships with crops.

Just as consumption of buffalo threatened the ability of missionarys to
civilize the Plains Indians, eating a palolithic or low-carb diet seems
barbaric to many cultures.  Although I have been accused of being a pagan
missionary, I am not advocating anyone throw off their chains and follow
me.  All I ask is that you look up just enough to see the light and stop
killing yourselves and others over these matters.  You may be considered
un-cultured, un-Kosher, un-touchable or un-hip but you will be healthy
and a lot less likely to become a sucicide bomber.

Ray Audette (An equal opportunity offender)
Author "NeanderThin:A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition"
http://www.sofdesign.com/neander