Do some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons? - PaleoHacks.com most recent 30 from http://paleohacks.com2013-05-18T09:29:02Zhttp://paleohacks.com/feeds/question/148898http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdfhttp://paleohacks.com/questions/148898/do-some-people-eat-paleo-for-ideological-reasonsDo some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons?Dr. Mitchell J Morris PhD2012-09-12T18:26:00Z2012-09-12T21:54:46Z
<p>Here is an interesting brain dropping. There are a lot of people who go vegan / vegetarian / raw for ideological reasons.</p>
<p>Are there people who go Paleo for ideological reasons as apposed to weight loss or optimal health reasons? if so, what are there ideological arguments?</p>
http://paleohacks.com/questions/148898/do-some-people-eat-paleo-for-ideological-reasons/148904#148904Answer by August for Do some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons?August2012-09-12T18:39:37Z2012-09-12T18:39:37Z<p>I haven't seen it. I went paleo because I was trying to lose weight. I was doing the Shangri-La diet and being low-carb. Paleo meshed with it pretty well, and when I dropped grains, legumes, and dairy (except for the fat) things got even better. Wheat, it turns out, is addictive, which makes long term weight loss success a problem. I also suspect peanut butter can really screw people up long term- it is one of the things low carbers will turn to, but few low carbers manage to keep the weight off long term (much like all other dieters). So, I think paleo supplies some missing information- take these foods out, and you get fewer cravings.</p>
<p>Then, of course, I got interested in a whole range of topics like artificial light at night, so now I'd really like to have more control over my environment. Perhaps a few ideological arguments could start to poke out here and there, but it seems liberty minded folks are the sorts who adopt paleo, rather than the other way round. We've got to be able to accept the possibility that our dear leaders could be wrong just to get into paleo... </p>
http://paleohacks.com/questions/148898/do-some-people-eat-paleo-for-ideological-reasons/148922#148922Answer by CD for Do some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons?CD2012-09-12T19:11:54Z2012-09-12T19:11:54Z<p>I didn't go to Paleo for ideological reasons, but I stay because I am a "True believer". I truly believe that our bodies respond better to a primal/paleo approach. I truly believe that through elimination, and then self experiementation we can control how our bodies react to food. I truly believe that this IS the solution to the obesity epidemic we have in the developing world. I truly believe that processed foods are THE most significant driver of poor health. I truly believe that we must challenge all classical diet axiom.</p>
<p>Did I turn to paleo for ideological reasons? No I wanted to look good naked.</p>
<p>But I have developed beliefs. </p>
<p>Luckily the paleo community is more open to adaptation, and those beliefs are subject to continued growth. Whereas many ideological beliefs are immovable (for better or worse) (and thus people fight wars over them).</p>
http://paleohacks.com/questions/148898/do-some-people-eat-paleo-for-ideological-reasons/148934#148934Answer by Renee for Do some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons?Renee2012-09-12T19:48:07Z2012-09-12T19:48:07Z<p>My reasons are partly ideological. I think our best chance for our health and the health of the planet is getting back to "nature" as much as possible - in the way we eat, move, sleep, what products we use to clean ourselves, our homes, etc. So yeah, Paleo aligns with that goal. I went Paleo specifically for my IBS, but prior to that I was eating organic, composting, not shopping at Walmart, meditating etc. So to me it's all part of the same approach. Stripping away the corporate, commercial crap to find what's truly nourishing, healthy and sustainable. </p>
<p>I still wear makeup and heels, though. So maybe I'm just a hypocrite. </p>
http://paleohacks.com/questions/148898/do-some-people-eat-paleo-for-ideological-reasons/148951#148951Answer by VB for Do some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons?VB2012-09-12T20:52:23Z2012-09-12T21:13:09Z<p>I believe that each living organism has evolved to eat a specific type of food (like Darwin's finches).</p>
<p>There are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. People are omnivores. Their digestive tracts are well adapted to foods that can be naturally obtained from various habitats: forest, grasslands, wetlands, etc. Among some of naturally available foods are other animals, fowl, eggs, fish, fruit, berries, nuts, seeds and edible parts of plants (roots, leaves and stalks).</p>
<p>Our digestive systems are adapted to eating both raw and cooked foods.</p>
<p>People are ill-adapted to eating processed foods or foods with chemical additives and preservatives, as well as foods that cannot be naturally found in the environment, as well as foods that cannot be obtained by hunting and gathering.</p>
<p>Early agriculture fits in this picture, although it is important to point out that neolithic foods have lesser nutritional value than paleolithic foods. Therefore, agriculturalists pay the price for a steady food supply by suffering from one or more kinds of nutritional deficiencies.</p>
<p>As humans actively transform their environment, they modify the sources and types of food they eat as well. The process of industrialization affected the way humans learned to obtain and process food. The ramifications of creating a multi-billion food industry are general decline in health, rise of obesity and chronic diseases.</p>
<p>Therefore, Paleo is the only logical and scientifically proven diet that allows humans to eat foods they evolved to eat. Paleo diet stems from our biology, not economy or ethics. So this is my philosophy/ideology on eating Paleo. </p>
http://paleohacks.com/questions/148898/do-some-people-eat-paleo-for-ideological-reasons/148954#148954Answer by Alexander for Do some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons?Alexander2012-09-12T21:33:36Z2012-09-12T21:42:21Z<p>What convinced me immediatly about paleo was the 'philosophy' i percieved to be behind it. You could argue thats ideology.
For long i've held to anarchist-primitivist ideals and a regressionist view of history. IE civilization is the root of most bad things while the 'natural state of man' meant eglitarianism, enough food, natural spirituality (shamanism) and the complete non-existence of dogmatic status-quo reinforcing religions that monotheism represents.
I mainly 'gathered' this from reading Rosseau, Terence McKenna, Mircea Eliade and the anthropologist Jeremy Narby. Stumpling upon Cordain's site and reading about 'eating like our ancestors' i figured that food was a huge and important part of life and adopting the diet we are made to eat was essential.
Rousseau, especially, was a huge influence. That man is, imo, the greatest philosopher this world has seen since Plato. Sadly his ideas are almost ignored in comparison to other enlightenment philosophers. </p>
http://paleohacks.com/questions/148898/do-some-people-eat-paleo-for-ideological-reasons/148959#148959Answer by Dragonfly for Do some people eat Paleo for ideological reasons?Dragonfly2012-09-12T21:54:46Z2012-09-12T21:54:46Z<p>For sure! I vote with my dollars because I believe in supporting local, humane animal husbandry/dairy/egg production and wild-caught seafood. I believe that permaculture-inspired, animal-based agriculture/harvesting is the wave of the future. </p>