Month: November 2021

David Csonka of Naturally Engineered recently released the results of the Paleo Community Survey. The results were pretty interesting to peruse, although I didn’t see any shockers.

I was a bit surprised by the number of paleo-eaters who place importance on eating locally-sourced foods. I regard locavorism as focusing on an inessential — and potentially a waste of one’s limited resources. (It’s also dangerous, in that locally-based food economies incur far greater risks of famine.) The proper focus, I think, should be on finding the best-quality foods within the constraints of one’s available resources — meaning time, energy, and money. That may mean buying at a local farmer’s market — or at a large grocery store.

In other words, the fact that some food is produced locally doesn’t add any extra value in and of itself. Sure, local foods may be fresher, tastier, and/or cheaper. In that case, they’re worth …

Ari on the OEvolve list asked:

Paleo people themselves had ancestors. If our goal is to eat like the Paleos ate, should Paleos have eaten as their ancestors ate (for optimal health)? Moreover, how do we know that any particular food that a Paleo person ate was optimal for that person’s biology? Maybe the Paleo diet was partly or largely non-optimal.

Let’s pose the question in an even broader way: How do we know that the Paleolithic era (roughly 2.5 Ma to 100 ka) should be the template for our diet when our ancestors have evolved for 3.8 billion years since the first life on earth? Why can’t we just eat like the first cell?

I think that the general answer to this is that it was during the Paleolithic era that Homo Sapiens’ most significant distinguishing traits (large brain + consciousness + upright posture) evolved. It was during the …

Nell Stephenson, paleo expert and regular contributor to our own Paleo Rodeo, has a fancy new website: Paleoista.

For those of you who don’t (yet) know her, Nell is the author of The Paleo Diet Cookbook (with Dr. Loren Cordain), and her blog is always good for nuts-and-bolts advice on eating paleo, particularly for athletes.

The new web site is connected with her upcoming book: Paleoista, Get Lean, Gain Energy and Feel Fabulous with the Diet you were Born to Eat. That’s due out in May 2012, but you can pre-order it now. You can find out more about the book here. Nell also offers nutritional counseling and plans.

I love to see the paleo experts upping their game! The basics of paleo seem easy, but the practice is often complex and difficult, and people can have problems that they need help to solve. I’ve certainly benefited from …