>We should always remember that we are
>experimenting with *approximate interpretations* of hypothetical
>paleolithic diets.  There is a lot we don't know about what real
>paleolithic people ate, and may never know.  Ditto for their
>health.  Moreover, the foods we can get are in many cases
>substantially different from the foods that we think they ate.

I would second this.  I would also say that that we are individuals with
certain resources and options available to us, as were Paleo peoples.
And, too, human ways of eating are matters of culture learned from
others, as well.    Inevitably, actual Paleo diets reflected culture and
availability.  If you construct an "ideal" set of generalizations to
define a Paleo diet, and compare that with what any particular Paleo era
individual did on a day to day basis, how perfect would the
correspondance be?  Necessarily more perfect than what any of us achieve
on a given day?   Who knows?

So, we are trying to take some generalizations of what we know, or think
we know, about how Paleolithic peoples lived, and use that knowledge to
make a ways of eating and/or ways of life that are better for us than
what our commercialized culture wants to feed us.  To me, the value of
the list is in helping to do this -- helping to take the valuable
generalizations and use them to get to do-able and tolerable (given our
culture and resources) specifics.  That's what I value the list  for,
anyhow.

It is hard, sometimes, to do this in this culture.  Not eating much that
you didn't prepare  yourself is alot of work.  If that was most of the
work you did in the day, it would be no big deal. But, that isn't the
world we live in (most of us, anyhow).  If you're hungry, that darned
taco on that darned billboard might start to look pretty darned good, in
spite of everything you know to the contrary.  Obviously, tacos are
clearly over the line.  However, there can reasonably be some pull and
tug about what other specifics fit the generalization, or don't, and how
well.

After a day in which I muddle through with the dominant culture, maybe
trying to figure out how to decline something I can't have both
graciously enough and yet quietly enough, maybe going to the store and
finding that a food product that I liked and  that used to be OK now has
corn syrup added, maybe feeling hurt when I find out that my co-workers
didn't invite me to a celebration because they feel uncomfortable eating
cake and ice cream in front of me, maybe going hungry because I forgot to
bring stuff and all there are is vending machines, I can come home "tune
in" to this alternately facinating and frustrating list,  and hear from
others who are trying to achieve somewhat the same way of eating and
perhaps living as I am.

I do think there has been lots of stuff I considered goofy and off-topic
lately (but then I assume not all my posts hit the mark for everybody
else, either).  I like the idea of the four post per day maximum. I do
think outright flames are unacceptable.  I do think the list-Dad is doing
the right thing to caution us. (But, think I would also ask him not to
clamp down too hard.)  My  vote is for a mostly on-topic  list with a
somewhat liberal reading of the guidelines.

Ciao (that's Paleo chow,  please).