Basically, I think humans will eat, drink, smoke, and fuck anything. It may or may not be good for us. The sole fact that our distant ancestors probably did or did not do it is not reason enough for us to do or not do it.

Oh, indeed. I mean, there are certainly some things which are better for us than others--or at least can be eaten safely in larger quantities. But moderation in all things! There's probably no food that is good for all humans, in all circumstances.

I'm pretty happy that I have the option to eat things other than stored root vegetables through the winter. I mean, speaking as someone with a lot of British/Irish/German heritage.

Yeah. I'm basically only Irish in genetic background, so I assume it would have been potatoes and grains and greens and mutton for the last couple thousand years. Winter would have been pretty dull. And smoky.

There's probably no food that is good for all humans, in all circumstances.

Probably not, but if someone would like to test this theory with chocolate, I will volunteer for the human trials.

mumbles I don't like pasta. I like the stuff that goes on pasta, like meat sauce and cheese.

I wish that I could shove delicious baked goods in my facehole all day long, but I will be miserable (and get even fatter) if I do.

I actually really like and feel great on the Paleo diet, despite the lack of delicious baked goods. I honestly think a lot of people would do really well on it if they tried it, but I can't extrapolate my experience to anyone else. I can't say, "You! Stop eating grain! Bad for human!" Like, my BFF will cutchoo if you try to take bread away from her. She does best on a vegetable-and-grain-based diet with little meat, which is the opposite of me.

I need to find some ancestors who ate mostly spicy foods with lots of cilantro, is what I'm saying.

I wish I could beam some cilantro your way. I let all the sprouts from last years plants grow all over the garden and I am overrun with cilantro. I picked a huge bunch yesterday that I will freeze, but I have a tonne more out there and it's all going to go to seed at once.

I actually really like and feel great on the Paleo diet, despite the lack of delicious baked goods.

I don't eat Paleo, but I did cut back on pasta, rice, and bread several years ago (there was a point in my life when I was eating pasta with olive oil & parmesan four nights/week), and it was good for me.

Given she's lost like 100 pounds (and become insanely fit doing CrossFit) since she went Paleo 2 years ago, I'm not inclined to argue with her.

Huge weight loss is not an automatic indication of a healthy diet. I'm not saying that Paleo is unhealthy or healthy, but the correlation is definitely not causation.

I am currently trying to work with the Local Eating Challenge this month, giving thanks to the gods that I live in Louisiana, with its locally sourced fish, many vegetables, fruits, rice, wheat, dairies, and small animal farms. Also have some local sugar, not sure if that comes from local sugarcane or what. Also beer (kind of- the finished product is local, but probably not the barley, yeast, and hops), wine, and rum.

Huge weight loss is not an automatic indication of a healthy diet.

For example: [link]

Huge weight loss is not an automatic indication of a healthy diet. I'm not saying that Paleo is unhealthy or healthy, but the correlation is definitely not causation.

No, it isn't. But I'm not generalizing, I'm talking about this girl, who I know quite well. When I met her, 8 years ago, she weighed over 300 pounds with a host of health problems including high blood pressure that needed medication, at age 22. She is now a size 10, very fit and strong, taking no medications, has two healthy kids, and is without doubt healthier than she was before. Weight Watchers and conventional diets didn't help her health. Paleo and CrossFit did. I can't say how that would work for anyone else (I tried CrossFit; it's not for me) but at least in A.'s case, her health improved with her weight loss, and her weight loss happened in the last two years with Paleo and CrossFit. I saw how she was on Weight Watchers; there's no comparison. She was miserable and tired and sick. It wasn't just "eating less and losing some weight", it was eating in this particular way that helped her.

(I kind of think people should eat whatever they want and people who don't want to eat that way should mind their own damn business. If the Paleo diet makes you happy, go for it. If living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches makes you happy, eat that instead. Nobody with enough privilege to choose a diet that has a name is going to die of malnutrition.)