Hi all:

I’ve been a lurker on this list for a while now.  I switched to the Paleo
Diet after a few months of Atkins.  In seven months I’ve lost 46 lbs.  I
feel great.  No problems.  It works!

My kids are calmer and more centered when they eat Paleo.  I was appalled
when my son brought home the “food pyramid” from school.  It was printed by
the American Dairy Council.  Guess what they offer to drink in the
cafeteria?  Whole, skim, and chocolate milk.  No juice and no bottled
water.  Just milk.  He takes his own lunch to school: a banana, beef jerky
and bottled water.

I’d like to add my comments about CBS’s 48 Hours. show with Ray Audette.

It looked to me like Ray was the only person on the show who was having fun
and enjoying himself.  Just about everyone else on the show was grim and
unhappy.  In contrast there was skinny Ray tramping around with his hawk,
happily eating ribs, bacon, and big thick steaks.   His delivery was
cheerful and matter of fact, not gloom and doom.  I think he was enjoying
the attention.

But Ray can’t have his pound of bacon without a very sober Dr. Ornish
threatening death. (or even worse--impotence!)  If our man won’t feel
guilty about it someone else is more than happy to do it for him.

In the popular psyche of this country there is a sick need to balance
pleasure with guilt. You’re not supposed to have a good time without paying
the price.  It ties in with the Protestant work ethic.  It must have been
the early agriculturists that came up with the idea that human life on
earth is supposed to be a struggle.  That pain and suffering are
man’s lot in life.  That your reward will come in heaven--but only if you
work hard and follow the rules.  Rules laid down by a higher authority.  A
very Neolithic authority.  I guess that’s how they got them to work all day
long in the fields when they could have been hunting or fishing.  I don’t
think Paleolithic hunter gatherers would have been hobbled by this guilt
trip.

Take care,

Bob Hodgen