On Sun, 22 Jun 1997, Grant Magnuson wrote:

> One of the major aspects of NeanderThin, I feel, is avoiding stress -- sure
> there are rules and forbidden this and forbidden that, but the "tone" of
> the book is gentle, not meant to be a scientific document subject to
> magnifying glass scrutiny, but meant to relax, to bring a basic & friendly
> insight and understanding of who we are, where we came from and gently
> point us in a direction we can safely and naturally trot.

When I was Zoning, I recall a situation when I was in a part of
the city not close to any food shops, and it was time for my
"zone snack," ideally to comprise about 9 grams of carbohydrate,
7 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fat.  Well, there was just
nothing like that around.  I began to have this feeling of
anxiety and frustration, as if something Very Bad were about to
happen and I could not prevent it.  Finally, reality kicked in
and I thought to myself: I am a grown man and here I am worrying
about not getting the right snack.  I bought a bag of nuts from a
vendor (too high in fat to be zoneful), enjoyed them and felt
just fine.

A while back, Ward Nicholson made a good point about settling for
90% rather than obsessing about that last 10%.  90% compliance
with NeanderThin is not that difficult.  The last 10% can be very
hard indeed.

It's pretty easy just to skip the grains, the spuds, the dairy,
and that's about 85% right there.  The vegetable oils are a bit
harder to avoid when you are not cooking your own food, but for
most of us that is a small percentage of the time.  The various
additives are tougher, and this is where I tend to relax my
standards.  If I want some salsa on my omelette, then dammit I'll
have some and I'm not going to sweat the small amount of vinegar
in it.  I don't believe that the pinch of dextrose in some
processed meats is going to throw my metabolism into a power
dive.  Yes, it's good to avoid such things, but not at the cost
of becoming phobic about my food.

And when the salad arrives and I find that someone has shredded
some cheese into it, I just eat it.  If I feel uncomfortable
later, then I've learned something.

Todd Moody
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