In a way you are right, and I think it is a matter of choice.

I know I didn't notice food sensitivities before, if you exclude me being morbidly obese, obsessed with food, constantly overeating, and having chronic pain in my joints - triggered by an accident two years ago, and so bad lately that I was on crutches some days again.

Completely went clean with 5 weeks of HCG, followed by paleo. After two (!) weeks, I was pain-free, for the first time in 2 years. It became clear that inflammation immediately went down, and I am leptin-sensitive again... no cravings, not even thinking about food. Haven't had a bout of depression since starting, either.

In return, I now get massive cramps when I eat eggs - I can handle small amounts, but a breakfast omelette is out. Can handle dairy, but straight yogurt seems to be too much. Macadamia the same.

Of course I was sensitive before... only the symptoms were completely shrouded in all those little pains and aches that I considered "normal" at my weight.

Honestly, would I rather eat eggs or be pain-free? No contest.

This is insane. A Paleo Diet is not making people worse. Now, lets say you were so metabolically wrecked, chronically inflamed and had such poor digestion that before Paleo or after starting Paleo, dairy didn't cause "problems." For many, it's not that those weren't problem foods, they just were mixed in amongst many other problem (even more problematic) foods it was very difficult to detect intolerance. That, in a nutshell, is an abstract summary of what leaky gut and chronic inflammation is all about.

Get that stuff to subside with the removal of grains, beans, and other non-Paleo foods, but continue to consume dairy products, nightshades, eggs, fruit, etc...and it's not necessarily that those things develop into problems, they just become magnified. That's why "Paleo" is such a slippery slope depending on how you define it. Someone's Paleo Diet might include eggs. Someone else might be ruined by a Paleo Diet with eggs. That doesn't make the actual concept of Paleo inapplicable to the latter, it just means they need to constantly be defining it.

If something is making you "worse", change it or eliminate it. If you can identify it as being worse, that's 90% of the battle. If each person is constantly in-tune with their body, what works for them based on how they are living, the problem is solved. Paleo is just a baseline template or starting place for those coming from a complete train wreck scene.

It's not necessarily better or worse, it may simply be different. Just because you react to something now and you didn't before does not mean that you are worse off. Maybe it was having harmful effects before but creating no conscious reaction. I think you may be drawing conclusions where there's not enough information to reliably do so.

For me, it seems like I react more easily to things. But then I think about it a little more and remember that the shitty feeling I get now wasn't absent before, but it was just so much more prevalent that it didn't stand out as much.

My opinion on your question is that if you think that being on a paleo diet is going to be all good for you in every aspect of your life, you're wrong. It's a dietary choice that will have effects, good and bad. The aim is to focus on the effects that matter the most to you. Some people just care about food tasting good or being cheap or being convenient. For them, eating shit works because it fits into what matters to them. Nothing that changes in your life is ever completely good or completely bad. It may take time for the negatives to surface, but there is always at least some good and some bad. So maybe you need more realistic expectations. Or maybe you just need to figure out what matters most and see how to fix that. Nobody ever went through life with perfect health, energy, poops, sleep, skin, etc. the entire time.

What I'm not seeing here is a very real discussion about how our gut flora shifts in response to what we eat.

I seem to remember Robb Wolf recommending to a soldier deploying overseas to gently reintroduce certain foods to regain some tolerance to them. With that logic, then yes, it appears that Paleo can make some foods more problematic than before.

For my part, I am suddenly developing sensitivity to caffeine and now, as in this week, trouble with getting to sleep after dark chocolate. This is not a welcome development.

I've also noticed mega phlegm after dairy. I'm hoping this is in conjunction with some seasonal allergies and that I can occasionally have a bit here and there in the future without drowning in my own mucus. But who knows.

I'm not sure why everyone jumped all over this question. I think we should all be cautious about our sacred tasty cows.

Maybe it's not so much an intolerance, as it is a recognized sensitivity to which you'd previously been unaware of. When all you eat on SAD is inflammatory foods, what's a little extra added to the mix? IMO, Paleo brings you to your baseline, and when you add certain foods to it, they can trigger reactions that seem out of the ordinary. I used to get post-nasal drip and was constantly clearing my throat. I didn't know what was causing it. Until I started eating Paleo and it went away on its own. All I can deduce is that the low-level inflammation caused by my diet was causing the irritation.

Things I've learned about myself after going Paleo (which I didn't realize before):

• I notice a marked reaction to sugary stuff like fruits and fruit drinks. If I eat bananas for a couple of days, I start breaking out in canker sores and acne. I'm not allergic or intolerant to fruit, I just notice a definite uptick in inflammation.

• Starches such as potatoes and white rice aid my digestion and help maintain my weight. Both non-Paleo foods.

• Eating nuts of any kind makes it painful to pass a BM. To hell with what they say about nuts and insoluble fiber, it hurts! So now nuts, once a happy snack food, are avoided. Again, not intolerant, but I notice a drastic change in my baseline digestive health :(

• I seem to do okay with some dairy. Too much of it and I get constipated. I stick with butter for cooking and adding to tubers and squashes.

If by paleo you mean matching our diets to your genetic structure with a careful eye towards the damage that the standard American diet has done to us, then I have to say that I cannot believe that paleo is making us worse.

If by paleo you mean blinding following what someone else has said paleo is, then it is very likely that the paleo stereotype has been bad for you and may be bad for other people.

Bruno please consider that you may still, have a less than optimal GI tract. I suspect you have leaky gut. You can get tested for it and then treat it, or just treat it.

What worked for me in addition to a very clean diet was PermaVite by Allergy Research Group. Along with a hefty dose of probiotics (and I do mean hefty- in my case 450bill twice per day for 2 weeks than once a day using VSL3 then maintaining on Klaire labs) Additionally during this time I used another ARG product called Tricycline to kill materialism that was there and also taking HCL/Betaine with meals for protein digestion. Worked like a charm.

You can get a comprehensive GI stool test by Genova if you want.
Most folks who ate SAD and who have been on various medication in their lifetime, notably antibiotics have issues.

Your gut should be healthy enough to drink OJ if you want - not that you should. I would never drink OJ but if I wanted I could and it wouldn't cause me any issues...

Edited for clarification: I just want to repeat that this was what worked for me (as is clearly stated above). I am not attempting to diagnose or sell anything, rather am simply sharing some specific things that have helped me and my loved ones..., hoping to get Bruno thinking and investigating. Many ways to heal a gut. Some are quicker than others in my experience.

What's apparent to me is that paleo diet adherents are more likely the sickest, most screwed up people. They're dependent on it to function normally. Normal folks (which I do consider myself) don't get much immediate benefit from a paleo diet.

The problem with the folks depend on the paleo diet is that I'm pretty sure they've completely totaled their guts: permanently leaky. They're not going to improve and it makes sense that the severity and breadth of their sensitivities only increases over time.

In what world is orange juice a paleo food? I know dairy is debatable. What dairy did you consume? I've been allergic to dairy since I was 18, and now I can tolerate small amounts, where I could not before. So paleo is definitely not make me worse. I've never cared all that much for orange juice, it has a tendency to close my throat, but it did that long before I'd heard of paleo.

Are you talking about commercially produced orange juice? Because there's no way that's a paleo food. Do you know how they make it always taste the same? If you're juicing your own, it's never going to taste the same two days in a row. I can't imagine the blood sugar spike it would cause, and that alone could make you feel sick. Eating paleo regulates your blood sugar in a more even way, to ask your body to handle the spike is a heavy burden to the system.

My understanding of paleo is that for one, it's radically different than they way most ate previous to eating paleo. My understanding was not 'this is a way to heal so you can go back to eating all the stuff you ate before.' For another, paleo is a highly individualized and personalized diet. Each one has to determine what works for themselves. And the axiom that goes along with that is: If it hurts, don't do it.

I have a friend who is really struggling on paleo. She ate relatively well before (debatable here, I know), but lots of greens and fish, some meat and whole grains, some tofu, very little sugar. She cut the tofu and grains and added more safe starches and she has developed reflux. It continued for several weeks so she did some research and decided to go VLC and eliminate dairy and caffeine. It's been 3 weeks and no improvement. She says everything she eats makes her burpy and acidy. An endoscopy showed inflammation of the lower esophagus and lots of redness in her stomach (Dr. said it was not typical). Anyway, she's not giving up, but I sure do feel badly for her. So yes, right now her diet is making her worse. I hope it will eventually make her better, but it does worry me. Thought this was worth sharing - anyone who has had a similar experience, please chime in!