eat meat.

Bacon Rocks

That Fruit Loops, Wheaties, and the like are not food. For no species, actually...

There's such a range of what's paleo...it's rather mind boggling. I think one of the most common grounds is "unprocessed". Stay as unprocessed in your food choices as you can. Of course then there is bacon...I think most agree on bacon :)

1. No grains.

2. No industrial seed oils.

3. Pastured and/or grass finished when possible.

I'm not so sure about the two things you came up with. I'm ok with PUFAs, at least in a somewhat decent O3:O6 ratio coming from whole foods not from refined processed oils. I'm actually ok with gluten right now, I think most people with healthy digestive systems should be able to consume it without issue.

It would be hard to get people to agree to absolutes. I think talking of minimizing exposure to problematic things probably could get widespread support amongst the different paleo brands; minimizing: refined oils, refined sugar, processed foods, legumes, grains, gluten, etc... Minimizing could mean reducing to zero, or it could be an occasional dose once in a while.

Seed oils, gluten, sun and the necessity of animal products.

I think that in addition to Gluten/PUFAs are bad, that most Paleo-ites will agree that it boils down to do your research but at the end of the day, you have to do what works for you and helps you achieve your specific goals-- health, energy, weight loss, etc.

There's almost never going to be a consensus on any topic related to diet (even within a group of people that have agreed that SAD is crap) -- because there's almost always contradictory evidence/studies/personal experience. One day, far in the future, we might know the exact diet that's optimal for each individual.. but until then, we have to digest (no pun intended) the data that we find and trust and apply it to our own lives, in the manner we find works best for us.

I believe that everyone agrees to disagree as long as what works for you is what makes you happy and healthy!

I think we all agree that "food" invented since industrialization and especially since recent technological innovations isn't, for the most part, fit for human consumption. I'm talking about highly processed foods, like Fruit Loops and Wheaties (as ulcova mentioned).

As for the rest? I've seen a lot of argument about how toxic gluten is lately. Many of us eat dairy products. Many of us allow some grain in our diets (white rice, occasional corn, etc). Some of us eat "traditionally prepared" legumes. There's a lot of variation :)

Eat real food that this planet gave us.

We all agree that Paleo Hacks is AWESOME

We are complicated creatures.

We walk toward our graves, each step closer to our demise.

We know that we know nothing beyond the things that we can sense through our fingers, eyes, ears, heart, mind, tongue, nose.

We feel love. We can't explain it.

We structure our lives around the experience and avoidance of pain.

We come to "paleo," whatever that means, because we are broken, wanting, needing answers, looking for harmony. And our search finds us rejecting the labels and ingredients that we've made ourselves in favor of the taste and depth of the natural world.

Industrial seed oils are bad. I think that is what separates "ancestral" from some other whole-food approaches.

I think we all agree that:

• Dietary saturated fat and cholesterol are not dangerous
• Dietary fiber is not necessary for healthy digestion/elimination

We all probably spend too much time altogether thinking about food and what we eat. Speaking of too much time on food, I should get to bed...

Does everyone agree on coconut oil?

I agree that we all will never be able to agree - which is itself paleo ;)

Paleo is about freedom not restriction.

Generally good: but with individual variation

1) grass-fed pastured animal foods

2) wild seafood

3) local, non-sprayed (with pesticides) produce

4) fermented/cultured vegetables and fermented pastured grass-fed dairy (if tolerated)

5) bone broths from pastured animals and wild seafood

Generally poorer quality (less nutrient dense foods) frowned upon except perhaps rice, green beans, and green peas:

1) grains - esp. gluten

2) legumes

3) industrial seed oils

4) peanuts

5) dried fruit, fruit juices, pasteurized products

6) beer or any fermented beverage made with gluten

varies on individual:

1) dairy (esp. raw grass-fed) - depends on casein/lactose sensitivity

2) coconut (ex. coconut milk, oil, butter, etc.)

3) tree nuts (ex: nut butters or nut milks like almond milk or almond butter)

4) nightshades (eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes)

5) caffeine - tea, coffee, dark chocolate etc.

6) wine, NorCal margaritas, etc.

7) starches - yams, sweet potatoes, plantains, tubers, yucca, tapioca, etc.

I think I see a lot of consistencies in the paleo ideas of what foods are good and which aren't, and it seems that with many versions of what paleo is, they can be divided into weight-loss paleo and paleo with safe starches included.

There are the items which you're first told to avoid, then told is okay or okay if your body doesn't have a bad reaction to it. But if one avoids the always-avoid-this advice and the this-is-always-okay advice, I think there is a lot of consistency. I don't think I have ever heard anyone in the paleosphere advocate any of the following:

• gluten is an essential nutrient
• consume unlimited amounts of omega-6 fatty acids
• refined carbohydrates are good for you

So if you say that cutting grains and foods based on refined carbohydrates/processed foods and adjust you omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid balance, and in stead substitute meats/eggs, vegetables(/fruits), then you probably would be doing a bad thing.

Something I believe is more unique to the paleo idea has to do with the ideas behind it. It can seem like conventional wisdom is based on the idea of paleolithic human life as one with insufficient food supply, and agriculture and civilisation as progress, also nutrition-wise. In a paleo way of thinking, a food item having been part of a stone age diet is a selling point. In the newspaper I have seen articles on paleo in here in Denmark, the stone age way of eating* is judged by use of todays conventional wisdom (sat. fat is bad, fibers are good...). I would think that people with an inclination towards paleo, would turn it upside down and rather assess the modern nutritional advice by ideas of pre-agriculture diets (using principles of biological evolution) and of hunter-gatherer diets.

*I'm not writing paleo diet, since I'm not sure now which paleo version the article talked about.

There is no such thing as too much fat in your diet or in your life. I made a hat out of lard and I wear it to work.

Offal is definitely not waste material.

Meat. Everyone agrees on this, and it sets paleo apart as a high protein diet.

Motion. Hunt and gather behavior is a metabolic effect quite different from Neolithic sedentism.

Everything in Moderation