Hello all!  I am a new member of the list and wanted to share with you a little
of my dietary/health experiences.

Before beginning my paleo diet, modelled on Ray Audette's ideas, I had awful,
awful allergies, frequent sinus infections (one a month), sore and painful
joints, frequent painful stomach distension from gas, and low energy.  I was
working out three times a week, but the actual workouts seemed to sap so much of
my energy that I often wondered whether being fit was worth the effort.  (I'd
have to sneak out to my car every day at lunchtime for an nap on workout days,
or I wouldn't be able to make it to five o'clock).

Three years ago, a I took a trip to Yellowstone National Park with a buddy who
brought along a stash of homemade pemmican and strange yet incredibly attractive
ideas about diet.  I bought Neanderthin and the rest is history.  My allergies
are GONE.  Utterly, completely gone.  Same with joint pain.  And what was most
exciting to me is that I regained an energy level that made me feel like I was
sixteen years old again (I am now thirty five).  And even though I didn't look
especially fat three years ago, I have lost between fifteen and twenty pounds.

I read with interest to the conversation on rice because folks on this list seem
to be pretty open minded to dietary alternatives.  I am very much an
experimenter -- I started this thing in the first place out of an intense
curiosity, and despite the fact that anyone I shared my plans with said that I
had to be crazy!  I have found that, for me, eating grains of ANY kind cause me
to get sick.  Actually, what happens is that I just feel ill after eating them
the first couple of times.  Then I start to gain weight like there's no
tomorrow.

Oh, and let me share this with you.  I am the father of three boys, the youngest
of which is now five months old.  His mother is also on the program.  And since
the baby is breastfeeding, he's eating paleo too.  Remembering that I have two
older sons to compare him to, I have never seen such a happy and healthy child
as my youngest son.  The only time we've ever seen him unhappy -- other than
when his brothers beat up on him -- is when we fed him rice cereal.  The doctor
told us that the baby was old enough to start supplements to breast milk and
recommended the rice.  He was gassy, cranky and a real horse's patoot!

Anyways, that's enough about me.  Hope to hear from you.

Jim Swayze