What *is* the connection between Paleo and Crossfit? Does one recommend the other?

I think there are just a lot of people who are into both. If you hang with one community, you're likely to hear a lot about the other. And most of the CrossFit people I know think sugar is the devil, so Paleo/Primal makes them happy.

I don't question the health effects of eating Paleo, I'm sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. But I feel at liberty to snigger at the way they sell themselves on the concept.

Like, it could be the second coming of nutritional Jesus

"This is my body, take it and eat; for I am low GI and heart-friendly."

No one's really arguing about meat, eggs, and vegetables (though some people eschew root vegetables), though, which makes Paleo essentially Atkins.

Yeah. There isn't a Paleo argument against root vegetables, because H&Gs would totally have eaten root vegetables, unless Paleos are claiming that domesticated vegetables are Right Out, in which case, good luck with your foraging in public parks, dude.

The Atkins argument against root vegetables is that they're usually full of carbs. Tasty, tasty carbohydrates. NOM.

I'm not really on board with Paleo being into eggs, though, since an easy supply of eggs is a result of domesticated fowl, and they wouldn't have been available year-round in quantity in the real Paleolithic.

If it was really paleo, wouldn't these people also be getting a lot of exercise trying to hunt and gather their food?

Well, yeah. And that too. Although some research has indicated that in the kind of environment real H&Gs lived in, one would only have had to spend a couple of hours/day looking for food, on average. Like a 20-hour work week, basically. I guess you spend the rest of the time tattooing your neighbor's back, and picking lice, and carving flutes out of antelope bones, and making Clovis points.

All the people I know who preach Paleo (there might be more following it, they're just not talky) teach Crossfit. So I was wondering if it was in the documentation or something.

Spock isn't green in The Cage. I know his blood is supposed to be green, but they never played that through, IIRC.

Why not root vegetables, though, Zen?

Two schools of thought, as I understand it. One says our primal ancestors would not have digging in the ground to find food and thus wouldn't have eaten roots. (Speaking as an anthropologist, I say bullshit.) The other says our primal ancestors might have eaten root vegetables, but the blood sugar/insulin hit is bad for us. (I disagree. The insulin hit isn't that bad because of the fiber in the vegetable. Most hunter-gatherer societies eat starchy root vegetables if they have access to them. And some of them get fat, too, especially the women. I think most of us have an idealized notion of how much exercise the average hunter-gatherer gets on a daily basis.)

Google seems to agree with me.

eta: Link doesn't work. I googled "is spock's skin green".

Or maybe yellow?

'The Original Series' is famous for its garish costumes and sets. The purity and almost surreal vibrancy of colors in the new transfer far exceed that of earlier DVD releases. The yellowish tinge of Leonard Nimoy's makeup in the early episodes is much more obvious here than it's ever been before. (The thinking at the time was that Spock's green blood would leave his skin with a jaundiced look, an effect that was toned down as the series progressed).

[link]

For the people who know about Paleo:

from my understanding as human beings we are considerably different from humans who lived in 1900, much less those who lived literally hand to mouth thousands of years ago. Why should we advocate the same approximate diet if our bodies differ so much?

Google seems to agree with me.

I don't understand.

the blood sugar/insulin hit is bad for us. (I disagree. The insulin hit isn't that bad because of the fiber in the vegetable.

But you don't get insulin from food -- your pancreas manufactures it to use glucose properly.

Root vegetables may be full of carbs, but they're still healthier than a donut, you know?

But that's me -- I can't imagine giving up anything I like, so.