[Ron] Hi Jim, here are my responses: 

[Jim]  There is so much room within which one can operate while still being
paleo, that I still don't get the "one size fits all" concern.  But there's
base paleo, a realm within which *everyone* can operate healthily. 

[Ron] For most Europeans, perhaps.

[Jim]  And then there are borderline foods, such as new world foods- or even
those right over the border into non-paleo land such as coffee or dairy or
chocolate- which you consume at your own risk.
[Ron] Aren't there some people for whom dairy is safe and valuable? Were
coffee and cocoa beans  grown and consumed long enough for some people in
that region to fully adapt to consuming them?
 
[Jim]  It seems to me a very strong argument can be made that concentrated
sources of sugar, whether starch or honey or fruit, were not a dietary
staple for humans over the long course of our history. 
[Ron] I would agree that is probably true for most humans. 
 

[Jim]  Low glycemic fruits?  Sure, in season.  So, I avoid most fruit.
Berries in season.  The odd pear here and there.  Not much else.
[Ron] What about people who evolved in tropical sites where fruit and
berries were available for as much as half of the year? Wouldn't they be
better adapted to eating it? And how would you expect northern natives to
fare on fruits and berries that are in season in Texas? 

[Jim]  Vegetables.  I sometimes will crave green and leafy vegetables and
will eat my fill.  Otherwise, I have very little interest, whether old world
or new.

[Jim]  Potatoes never.  Not only are they nearly 100% carbohydrate, but they
are poisonous.  Not even remotely arguably paleo, in my opinion.

[Ron] They can become poisonous from exposure to sunlight, but I don't know
which natives cultivated them and whether they did so for long enough to
adapt to eating them. Do you? 

[Jim]  True wild game (i.e. not that deer that consumes corn from the
feeder) is preferable to grass fed is preferable to organic is preferable to
store bought meat.  There is just so much grassfed meat available now - even
in my local standard grocery store - that I am now consuming it 80% of the
time.   Eggs have improved too.

[Ron] The archaeological evidence suggests that we fed off the fat stores of
large herbivores until we killed most of them off. The Inuit continued to
live off of the fats of whales and other sea mammals. Would they fare better
on grain fattened saturated fats or are the lean meats better for them? I
suspect that the former would be preferable, but I don't see any reliable
way of telling.   

[Jim]  I've never had fat from wild game.  It's always so lean.  My main
source of fat is from grass fed beef and lamb.  And, while of a lesser
quality, from uncured bacon grease.


[Ron] You say that there is lots of room within paleo for these variations,
and I agree with that, except that every paleo book I've read uses the
patina of Paleo to sell some pet ideas within Paleo. These ideas may be
helpful to them, personally, but don't necessarily offer benefit, and may
even cause harm, for some people with non-European or marginal European
evolutionary pasts. 

best wishes, 
Ron