On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, John C. Pavao wrote:

> Bringing
> non-paleo issues to this list only muddies the waters and gets discussion
> going in the wrong directions.  It confuses the new people, especially the
> ones who haven't yet had a chance to read Neanderthin.

First, according to its charter this list is not about
NeanderThin; it is about paleolithic eating.  NeanderThin is just
one set of opinions about paleolithic eating.

Second, while Metamucil is not itself a paleo-food, it is an open
question whether some such fiber supplement should be part of a
paleolithic diet, as part of a medicinal regimen.  Dogs eat grass
for "medicinal" reasons in some circumstances; I see no reason to
suppose that ancient humans might not have made medicinal use of
things such as seed husks.

Third, there are some important and unresolved issues about
whether using a paleolithic diet is *sufficient* to restore
health that has been damaged perhaps by many years of dietary
abuse.  This is a *support* issue, and this is a support list.
Furthermore, there are some rather misleading statements in
NeanderThin itself about restoring health by restoring dietary
"initial conditions."  They are misleading because they imply
that chaos theory shows that restoring a system to initial
conditions will restore its initial state, but chaos theory shows
no such thing.  It is quite conceivable that a modern-day
paleolithic diet needs to be supported by additional measures.

Todd Moody
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