Rick Strong writes:

>Thanks,  Ward;  I have been waiting for the site to open in full and hope
>that the content can come close to your writings;  I have to say that your
>essays were critical as a takeoff point for my recognition  of the
>importance  of paleo concepts (along with Eaton's book and writings and the
>recent material by Art De Vany and Loren Cordain!

Thanks, Rick. As primary site editor, I go over everything with a
fine-tooth comb, as does co-editor Tom Billings. All articles except for
some of the dietary bios go through multiple interations of review,
fact-checking, and editing, as did my own interview essays that were
published a couple of years ago. (This is one of the main reasons the site
has taken so danged long to open, but we simply could not/did not want to
cut corners.) Hopefully you should find the other articles now on the site
of a similar caliber.

In terms of relevance to Paleodiet, I can highly recommend Tom Billings'
"Comparative Anatomy and Physiology Brought Up to Date," which contains
much more detailed research than my own essays contained (and is better in
my opinion because of that). Tom has access to the U of Cal at Berkeley
research library which is one of the best in the country if not in the
world, and spent well over a year researching and writing this paper. The
segments of most interest here would be Part 2 (Ape Diets), Part 4
(Encephalization and Diet during evolution), Parts 7A through 7I
(comparison of key nutrients in omnivorous vs. veg. diets, including a key
section on EFAs such as DHA and EPA), and 7K and 7L on insulin resistance,
including an assessment of a dubious alternative vegetarian theory on
insulin resistance attempting to link it to meat consumption.

Also of interest for those of you who repeatedly encounter others with
misconceptions about the character of animal foods in H/G or Paleo diets
should be Parts 8B through 8E ("Further Issues in the Debate over
Omnivorous vs. Vegetarian Diets," including the fallacy of equating all
omnivore diets with the standard Western diet, and a section on the Cornell
China study). Also there's a section near the end addressing common
vegetarian objections and misunderstandings about hunter-gatherers and
evolutionary research in Part 9D.

There are numerous other sections in this paper (approx. 50 HTML pages
total) with at least tangential bearing on Paleodiet as well that I think
you'd probably find very enjoyable. The detailed table of contents makes
everything very easy to see with a bird's-eye view so you can get to what
you want quickly. Thanks again for the compliments and do check the paper
out. It's a real treat.

--Ward Nicholson <[log in to unmask]>

P.S. I will not be able to post any more than this to the list for now. If
anyone has further questions, write privately. Thanks.