Like me (and Harris and Richard and Carbsane and lots of us), he doesn't always play nice, but I think his influence is really really important in encouraging scientific rigor and curiosity. I wish he'd write a book. We know paleo can work, science can help us figure out why and knowing why can help us target variations of the diet to individuals. I firmly believe that a successful diet involves acknowledging the normal distribution and trying to "pin the tail on the donkey" to find your place there (or your range dependent on other variables) through self-experimentation and other tools. It's clear he does that in his own life, so he's talking the talk and walking the walk. There needs to be a book on how to do that. I also like that he says we mostly aren't "adapted" to things, rather than that we aren't "designed."

I do differ in opinion in that I tend to think that the sci evidence shows a lot of issues with grains aren't issues with proteins, but issues with carbohydrate malabsorption. But I'm open to both ideas being right.

I also hope Carmody will present at AHS! SHe is great (a student of Richard Wrangham).

Sort of funny how he took the time to trash talk Andrew Badenoch over a months old debate stemming from AHS 2011.

You'd think highschool level antics would be beneath somebody with a doctorate from Harvard, hahah

If nothing else, Paleo is an excellent source of entertaining drama -

• Robb Wolf vs. Crossfit, Inc.
• Taubes vs. Guyenet
• Lalonde vs. Badenoch
• Anything involving Kruse

If you've seen Mat's AHS11 presentation or watched his interview with EvolutionTVOL, there's not much new in this one. His basic issues with paleo claims:

• Just because our genes are identical to paleolithic man’s does not mean our diet should be identical. How those genes have been expressed (epigenetics) are considerably different today and that makes a difference.

• Lack of grains/dairy and freedom from diseases of civilization is an observation … correlation is not causality.

• Just because a food wasn’t available before the agricultural age doesn’t mean we’re not able to tolerate that food. Rather “there’s been insufficient time and insufficient evolutionary pressure for complete adaptation to seed consumption to arise in homo sapiens and as a result, individuals that tolerate grains and legumes should be considered the minority, not the majority.”

One new bit of info in this presentation was Mat's diet. His old diet used to consist of a large Japanese yam for breakfast, meat and veggies (some starchy) for lunch, and a can of sardines after workout. (Wow.)

He changed his diet after he started suffering from low blood sugar before lunch. (Also wow.) His new diet is 2 hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, meat and veggies (some starchy) for lunch, and a sweet potato after workout. The deal with the carbs-only dinner is similar to Paul Jaminet's neo-Agutak meal. Providing calories but not protein promotes autophagy.

On the weekend, he eats a pound of bacon or sausage for breakfast with 4 duck eggs with a snack late in the day if necessary. This monster protein/fat load helps (according to Mat) avoid metabolism slow-downs from what is essentially caloric restriction during the week.

Not the approach I would have guessed!

Matt's views tweak the Why but not the What. Basically, he reaches the same destination but follows a different path--a more rigorously logical one.

I like his warnings about invalid assumptions and he should be encouraged to blow that horn every time someone interprets science in that manner.

IMO, he's a good man to have around and I'm glad he's in the community.

I love what he has to say, and am a big fan... but the whole bell curve thing makes me go hmmm.. I thought this after AHS as well. His whole point is to be scientific and research based, but this bell curve simply seems like his hunch.

And btw, his new meal pattern looks a bit like voldemort's leptin reset.

I have not listened to much of Matt and thus loved this presentation. He seems to be really on top of things. He comes across as a genius for sure and is someone I will continue to learn from.

His weekend breakfasts that include a pound of bacon or sausage are killer.

Great info on fruit. I like what he eats as well.

I really like Matt and I think he came across better here than anywhere I've seen, though his style has never bothered me.

I hadn't heard his take on phytates before. It is a little at odds with Stephan Guyenet's (who goes to some trouble to avoid it). I would love to hear more about this.

Another nail in the coffin of high-heat cooking? I can add Matt to the list of those who avoid it which includes Stephan Guyenet and Chris Masterjohn.

Matt's own diet is interesting too. It would seem it is low-reward and low-calorie (weekdays anyway).

Also, another win for potatoes! I am now even less worried about alkaloids.